The expert on Steampunk.

I was watching a CNBC show about Costco, and in the interview with the C.E.O., he talks about how Sears and Montgomery Ward took their eyes off the volume discount idea, and tried to raise their margins, and it's nearly destroyed them.

And I just imagined a million potential small business owners getting the wrong idea.

Because, as a small specialty store, you simply can't do it that way.

Not that anyone will get the message.

I was talking to the owner of a small business here in town, who sells something that I can't believe a store can make a living off of -- but there are, in fact, two stores selling this odd thing.

Anyway, it's an extremely specialized product line.

He was telling me that he was trying to "beat Walmart" in his prices. I was sorta shocked.

"Look," I said. "People are going to come to you because you are the expert in what you sell. You have a unique selection and knowledge and service. You shouldn't be afraid to charge a little bit more for that."

"Oh, no," he said. "That wouldn't be fair."

"Well, at least charge the SAME as Walmart. You can't be faulted for that!"

"I'm making enough money on the prices I have. I'm happy with them."


So here's the thing. I guarantee you -- absolutely will bet you the farm -- that the day will come when someone will come along and think they are going to beat him by being even LOWER in prices.

The day will come when his margins will shrink even further -- Walmart will lower their prices, or the supplier will shave the discount, or...a million reasons. Make your store special in everyway you can. But don't make price the selling point.

An example:

So here I am in my store. I have two shelves of "Steampunk" books. I know Steampunk, I've read a lot of Steampunk. I went out of my way to track down a selection of Steampunk, and gave the category its own valuable space in my store.

And, yes, I charge retail. The price that is on the cover of the book.

Now it may will be, that Barnes and Noble has a good half of these books, though you'll probably have to have a good idea of what you are looking for, because they are likely mixed in with all the other speculative fiction. But, they are there. They might be cheaper.

Without a doubt, Amazon has all these books, and maybe more. And cheaper.

But, here in my store, I have them right in front of you, and a flesh and blood person is enthusiastically telling you about this great Steampunk novel he just read called, THE HALF-MADE WORLD, by Felix Gilman, and he's showing you the range of stuff, and talking about the connections between the Weird Western category and Steampunk, and isn't it cool that this category has emerged and where did it come from and who was the first person to write it, and does ANUBUS GATES, by Tim Power count as a Steampunk, and isn't it really just nostalgia for a time that never existed and.....

And really, if customers aren't willing to pay the cover price to a book now and then, when you are making such an effort and taking a risk --- is there anything more you can do?

More to the point, being cheaper isn't going to be the selling clincher, here, usually. And if it is, then you are going to be eternally vulnerable.

I'm pretty sure I'm the only store you can come into this town that has its own Steampunk section, where the owner has read a significant portion of them, and has specialized knowledge of them.

But I am not the only person who sells them, and if I was discounting them, I wouldn't be the only person discounting them.

As I always say, sell to the customers you can have, not to the customers you can't have.