DECEMBER 2015

Once again I've ignored the blog for too long.
A lot has changed in the last few months.
First my daughter decided to move in with me.  This seemed like a good idea because frankly I can't afford to travel and take care of the house.  So she will be paying rent and helping with taking care of the house and my dog when I am out of town.  Hopefully this will be beneficial for both of us.  She works a low paying job and has many health issues which uses a great deal of her income so she has not been able to afford a car.  The intentions are for her to pay me less rent than the apartment she was in so she can afford a car.
Second my store sales have dropped so much I may need to close the store.  When sales were bad in Sept I blamed it on not advertising in August.  Then when sales only picked up slightly in October I blamed it on being closed for one week so I could go on vacation.  But in November I barely made enough to pay the rent and utilities on this place.  Now I'm on week 2 for December and will be in real trouble if business doesn't pick up in the next 2 weeks.  Christmas time is always bad for business because people just don't spend their money on books for themselves.  They will come in and buy 1 or 2 books as gifts but not much else.  Even my gift certificate sales are down this year.  Last Christmas season I sold 15 gift certificates before Christmas.  So far I have not sold a single one this season.
Closing this place down would be a major pain.  There was once a time when you could mark the books down or sell to a reseller but there are so many bookstores out of business now the market is flooded with books that aren't wanted.
A large used bookstore chain out of Texas has 2 stores in my city, both are on the other side of town.  In September they held a huge 14 store sale at the fairgrounds where many people were able to stock up on books for their winter reading.  I am the only bookstore left on my side of town and it feels as though this company is not satisfied until they force all other bookstores to close.  The most frustrating part is the customers that don't understand they will have to drive across town to shop in the future.  Every few weeks someone will come into my store and tell me how glad they are that I'm on their side of town and then they leave without buying a thing.  How long do they think we can stay open without sales?
Okay, enough ranting for today.  Everyone have a wonderful Christmas!