The hallway behind the store is jammed with packing material and broken and unbroken boxes. We're reaching a peak moment, I guess. Even though I'm going in hours early to do the sorting and shelving, I'm still falling behind.

Turns out, when you sell as many books as we currently are, it adds a lot of work. Who could've guessed? Really. I just thought, "Oh yeah, we're selling more books," without ever considering the consequences. The danger is that we lose quality control. We're not there yet, mostly because I'm available to take up the slack. We're keeping up with the front of the store, which is the most important part.  

I'm going in early today just to deal with the hallway. I'll fill the back of my Rav and take it to the dump sometime over the next week.

The store was always intended to be profitable for one person at a time to be working the store. If this kept up all year, we'd definitely be looking at two full-time persons and one halftime person. But this only happens about four months out of the year so it makes no sense to add an employee who won't have enough to do during the other eight months. Also, I don't quite trust peak moments because I've experienced 50% declines in business at least three times over the last forty years. That cushion is necessary to survive.

But I do think that when I retire, Sabrina will probably have to move to a two full-time and one part-time employee model.

The other reason I have to go in early is that, during store hours there is never, ever any parking. It's hard to bring or take material out of the store if you're parking on the third floor of a parking garage a block away. 

Oh, and whenever anyone says, "Why don't you sell online? Why don't you go to shows? Why don't you add this service or product line?" I just spread my arms and say, "And when would I do that?"

Oh, first world problems! Too much success! Whatever will I do?