Retail is risk--there isn't anyway around that.

I busted the budget yesterday for the first time in a long time. Because I'm determined to get out of credit card debt by the first of next year, I've been pretty disciplined this year--until now. (Well, much of debt was incurred after our rather disastrous Snow-meggedon February.)

The culprit was toys. I generally order toys at a discount, because like posters and T-shirts, I just never know what will sell, so I might as well give myself an edge. But toys usually come in bulk--in cases--and so, as a line-item, are more expensive than usual. So it is easy to get carried away.

Oh, well. Christmas is coming. Also, some of the these new toys can take the place of some toys that are pretty tattered.

For years I wished I had a CFO, who could impose a budget that I was forced to follow. Of course, I knew that I'd probably badger and wheedle the poor CFO until I got what I wanted.

I've often wondered if my tendency to over-order, and then spend a good deal of time trying to dig myself out of the hole, hasn't been somewhat responsible for our survival. I've seen a lot of stores go down because they cut the budget too much. Retail is risk--there really isn't any way around that.

However, when I handed over the comic, graphic novel, and game orders to Sabrina, and gave her a budget, I found that it was more "out-of-sight/out-of-mind." That is, Sabrina has pretty much stuck to the budget I gave her, and the store hasn't suffered.

I'm still ordering books and toys, and most of the magic. So I'm still prone to over-ordering. Usually books (which also includes a fair portion of GN's.)

We just had a our best month ever on graphic novels, and within a hundred bucks of our best month ever on new books, so the store has beaten last year 7 out of the last 8 months. Meanwhile, in 2 out of the last 3 months, we've beaten last year in comics, so maybe that dropoff has finally leveled off.

Games and magic are down, and I'm pretty sure that is strictly because of the increased competition. Not only is there a fully devoted game store in town, and a fully devoted magic store, but the mainstream (Target, B & N, etc.) has fully embraced Euro-games, so we are no longer the only "game" in town.

We seem to have found a groove, though. Downtown is bustling and the store is jam-packed with goodies, both the stuff we have to pay full wholesale on, as well as stuff we got a deal on, and both categories are selling at a sufficient level to sustain the business.

It's rather nice. (Knock-wood.)