Jigsaw puzzles.

I've ordered 60 jigsaw puzzles to start with.

3/4th of them will go to Linda's store, and 1/4, mostly likely duplicates, will go into my store.

We're getting a roll-up mat for an ongoing puzzle (anyone welcome to contribute) to be displayed on Linda's table. We'll buy a piece of clear plastic to put on top when it isn't being worked on.

Why am I doing this?

I think I like the retro feel of it. Boardgames have proven to be really fun to carry, and who knew? I mean, you'd think electronic games would have completely doomed boardgames, right?

The same retro feel can be attributed to comics, of course. But also to books, and collector cards. All physical objects, none of them beep or flash or bit.

The second reason is that I can have a full product line for a relatively low investment. This is pretty rare in this day and age.

And third, the games are stack-able, and take up vertical rather than horizontal space. This is why I originally tried board games and why I continued to carry boxes of collector cards -- because they are stack-able.

I don't have trouble selling things. I don't have trouble affording them.

I have trouble finding space to show them. So product that is stack-able has an edge over other kinds of product I can carry.

I have to laugh at the suggestions I still get that I take up some horizontally challenging job like having "play space" or having a "coffee shop" or any other harebrained ideas that most bookstores seem to fall for.

It's all about the inventory, baby.