03-01-2015, 10:07 PM
I know the owner very well (he was one of the people that I consulted when I was thinking of opening Victory) and have a tremendous respect for his business acumen. Business is driven by numbers and his numbers were solid; as he put it, it was a "cold calculus" that drove him to plan to close rather than die the slow death of a thousand cuts that we have all seen bookstores, etc., do.
I was on the business side of books for a number of years, and have watched him grow his business, trying new product lines over the years (some worked, some didn't). He just came off of his best year. The truth about many small businesses is that the margins are not big, so when they learned that their payroll was going to increase a little over 30% in 3 years, he new that he couldn't raise his book prices to match; books have prices printed on them and the Amazon/Big Chains have convinced many customers that they should not pay full price for a book. Payroll is his second biggest expense, after rent.
Their decision to quit while they were on top financially was smart; Alan has been making smart business decisions for years. He initially rejected a membership solution as his is a for-profit business. When he had a big meeting of his customers to see if they had any ideas that he and his crew missed, the one thing that was pushed for was a membership scheme. The customers convinced him to offer as many perks as they could think of and then see who would bite. The response was fast and overwhelming. As any of us bibliophiles knows, a good bookstore creates a community. After making the pitch, he had all the memberships he needed in 48 hours. The community responded quickly and decisively.
Thinking about how many good reads have been recommended by the staff, how much "book gossip" and "small biz kvetching" I've had with Alan, Jude, etc., seen how well they treat authors and support writing and events, good chats with strangers and "book acquaintances", it was a no-brainer for me to cough up $100 for continued access to the community of nerds that feed my reading needs.
I was on the business side of books for a number of years, and have watched him grow his business, trying new product lines over the years (some worked, some didn't). He just came off of his best year. The truth about many small businesses is that the margins are not big, so when they learned that their payroll was going to increase a little over 30% in 3 years, he new that he couldn't raise his book prices to match; books have prices printed on them and the Amazon/Big Chains have convinced many customers that they should not pay full price for a book. Payroll is his second biggest expense, after rent.
Their decision to quit while they were on top financially was smart; Alan has been making smart business decisions for years. He initially rejected a membership solution as his is a for-profit business. When he had a big meeting of his customers to see if they had any ideas that he and his crew missed, the one thing that was pushed for was a membership scheme. The customers convinced him to offer as many perks as they could think of and then see who would bite. The response was fast and overwhelming. As any of us bibliophiles knows, a good bookstore creates a community. After making the pitch, he had all the memberships he needed in 48 hours. The community responded quickly and decisively.
Thinking about how many good reads have been recommended by the staff, how much "book gossip" and "small biz kvetching" I've had with Alan, Jude, etc., seen how well they treat authors and support writing and events, good chats with strangers and "book acquaintances", it was a no-brainer for me to cough up $100 for continued access to the community of nerds that feed my reading needs.
In the Tudor Period, Fencing Masters were classified in the Vagrancy Laws along with Actors, Gypsys, Vagabonds, Sturdy Rogues, and the owners of performing bears.