State of the Store.

We're ahead of last year in the first five months by 20%. At this rate, this will be a record year. I don't know what to make of that. Especially with all the uncertainty on the national level.

Some of that is because I decided to go harder on making sure the store was inventoried to the very highest level possible. Some of that is the popularity of Pokemon. 

We've also tried hard to pay more attention to back issue comics, which really paid off this month. I've opened up the Dungeon room downstairs. It's not organized, but that's part of it's appeal. Instead of setting a price before the customers go downstairs, I tell them, "We'll negotiate at the cash register. I promise I'll try to be generous..."

Books continue to climb, though not quite at the rate they were for the first four years since Covid. Games and toys have more or less slowed down. I'm not trying terribly hard to goose them. I'm maintaining, at this point.

I believe I've made a lot of decisions that have turned out well. I went all in on Pokemon and Magic at a time when they seemed on the verge of becoming a fad. I'm willing to risk that it could all come to abrupt halt because I know that the product will still be viable years from now. Meanwhile, sales are rocketing. I've played this "shortage, FOMO" game before. Lots of experience and it's paying off. 

I've now got accounts with four out of the six most important publishers: the Big Five and Scholastic. I'm going to hook up with MacMillan as soon as I've figured out all the kinks with Simon and Shuster and Harper Collins. Their systems are somewhat antiquated, not entirely easy to deal with. But for the extra ten to fifteen percent discount, it's worth the effort. I think.

I'm trading ease and timeliness for discounts. But it will become easier over time, I assume. And since I'm now ordering a constant flow of books from different sources, I'm not sure the timeliness is quite as important, plus I can always order the "hot" current book from Ingram while waiting for it to arrive from the publisher. 

Instead of "practicing retirement," as Sabrina suggested, I seem to be fully engaged. 

I came home really tired last Sunday, and after resting awhile, I started ordering books. I realized that ordering books is relaxing for me. It's not a chore, I find it fun and interesting--and I can do so in a quiet, peaceful way. 

Everyone has work they like and work they don't like I guess. In helping Hannah with her store, I've realized that what works for me won't necessarily work for her and vice versa. Obvious, I suppose, but I do things that I absolutely KNOW work and I want to pass that along.

For instance, I figure that half the books we sell are books that are facing out: part of this is because the books are already hot and we want people to see them. But a large part of it is that seeing the cover is the trigger.

I asked Sabrina what percent of the books we sell are face out, and she said, "Maybe half...?" Which was the exact percentage I landed on. Hannah has decided she wants her books more orderly looking and who's to say she's wrong?

Anyway, feeling energized. I'd like to say I'm being cautious, but the very spurt we're getting right now can pay for whatever crash happens, so no reason not to keep being aggressive.  I'm 72 years old and I feel like I do this for another twenty years. But...time (and Sabrina and Linda) disagrees.