I just had a great conversation last night with a customer about what I can do to beef this pace up. He used to work in a store, so I wanted to pick him brain a bit. Things are going great, but they can always be better, right? Plus, I need to know what I am doing wrong.
Now, I know my weaknesses and strengths. But my biggest weakness is lack of motivation. Sure, sometimes I get a fire under my butt about something and I won't let it rest until it is done. But more often than not I find it hard to get going. My single biggest problem with the store is clutter. I hate it, but I tend not to do anything about it. Now if everything had its place, it would be much easier. But having no real back room (some shelves in the bathroom don't really count) is a big problem. I have no place to put stuff. So you'd think it would make me keep everything nice. No. It doesn't seem to work out that way.
Hello, my name is Colin and I'm a piler. My piles have piles. an when its comics, it is especially bad. Books pulled off the new shelves to make way for more new stuff. Make a pile. You want me to buy these books? OK. Then I put them on top of that pile. Books transferred in from another store also go on that pile.
But then, when I say "Enough!" an even worse thing happens. I take those books and I put them in a box, typically a short box. And then that box goes SOMEWHERE. In the bathroom, under table or even worse, TO THE BASEMENT. (We'll get to that later).
The goal of the boxing, is that I will address it later. but we all know, that's never going to happen. Out of sight, out of mind. And then someone will ask about one of those books. And I look a them. I know its in a box. Somewhere. Crap.
The basement is particularly bad. I spent 2 hours down there on Monday night, going through boxes just looking for a box of overstock that accidentally went down there. I only went though about 45 long boxes. And herein lies the problem. Of those 45 long boxes, I hope to never have to look at half of them again. Reign of the Supermen. Breaking of the Bat. X-Men 1-25. X-Tinction Agenda. IMAGE. I swear they are multiplying down there, because I could not have possible bought all of those in under 2 years.
The other problem with the basement is that it can only be reached from out side. I have to walk around to the back of the building and down a flight of stairs. not the best thing to do while open for business. "Here's that copy of Spawn 42, sir. I knew I had it somewhere. Wait, where did you go? Where did my good books go? Where's my computer?" You get the picture.
My other problem is lack of space to display the stuff. In the space I currently have for back issues, I could probably squeeze in another long box worth of stuff. So there is a perceived lack of urgency in sorting and pricing those 60 odd boxes in the basement. Oh, I would get started every once in a while. Several boxes down there are ready to go. but then I'd hit one of those Image boxes and it would stop me cold.
So, to get back to the point of this whole post, I keep looking around today and thinking, Man I should really straighten up. But I just don't have the motivation today.
So I am sorry if you come in and its messy. I will try to do better tomorrow.
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