Bookstore

[mallorys_camera]

In shock: Frank's counter-offer for the bookstore is pretty close to my offer. I'd lowballed him by more than 50% of his initial asking price. Damn. I may end up owning a bookstore.

Comments

Are you sure?

[shfantom.livejournal.com]

I guess the question soon comes to be...
Are you sure you want a book store?

Re: Are you sure?

[mallorys-camera.livejournal.com]

Friend, I am so not sure...

But you live in Monterey, right? There are no jobs in Monterey. And I gotta do something or it's the refrigerator box under the bridge.

Re: Are you sure?

[shfantom.livejournal.com]

Seems like a lot of work to make money. I live in the old Fort Ord. I've been here for about 5 years and have seen the job slowly go away. I feel bad for you and what your going through. At the same time I think that buying a book store is going to be a lot of work for a little payoff. I don't know the financial situation of the book store but I know that you'll be spending a lot of time there, and a lot of mental money there. By mental money I mean stress, exhaution. Just make sure your ready.

What kinds of work are you interested in? Maybe I know of something. I work in Ryan Ranch and am friends with a lot of the tenants.

Re: Are you sure?

[mallorys-camera.livejournal.com]

What do you do in Ryan Ranch?

A bookstore would be a lot of work. Books = low margin: typically you only net about 3% of gross sales because varible and overhead are so high. I am recrunching numbers today. Place also has a coffee bar (high margin) and I'm seriously thinking (don't laugh) of putting a hot sauce mini-store in there as well. Hot sauce is the new Big Collectible.

On the plus side: I love books, and I have the right sort of personality for this kind of venture being kind of a maddeningly extroverted showboater type. Think Morgan's with books! Place is being so mismanaged now that I could jack up sales by 20% with no effort at all, so if I can get the cash flow numbers to work on the store's current revenue flow, I'm looking at gravy.

On the minus side: no bank in its right mind is going to give me a loan to buy an independent bookstore so I'd be risking my own $$$. And it ties me to Monterey for the indefinite future. I'm very ambivalent about Monterey, but my oldest son is going to a great highschool here so I need to stay for at least two more years.

Kinds of work I'm interested in -- well I've done practically everything in my lifetime from health policy analysis for the State of California to entertainment editing and writing for People Magazine and Entertainment Weekly, to business development and marketing for Sillicon Valley corporations. In fact, you might say my resume is a little too eclectic.

What do you do? How did you end up in Monterey?

Re: Are you sure?

[shfantom.livejournal.com]

I'm an IT Project Manager. I work for Hayward Lumber in thier corp office. I've been here for about 3 years now.

I came to Monterey because my friends offered me a cheap place to stay on the coast. I've been 6 years. My roommate was in the first class at CSUMB. He's lived on campus ever since.

I wish I could go to Mendacino!!!!! I love it up there.

[wailaki.livejournal.com]

On behalf of the bookstore, it is one of those sacred kind of institutions that are in desperate need of preservation in this new century. There is such a need for them that you are really dealing with more that just a way to make a living. It is more like adoption. And the reward comes in other ways than $$$.

[mallorys-camera.livejournal.com]

Well, it happens I agree with you about the sacred trust aspects of bookstores. Still, ya gotta live so the revenue flow becomes important too.

Hey! I'm going up to Mendocino this weekend!

[wailaki.livejournal.com]

Maybe the Goddess of Languishing Bookstores will rain down her many blessing on your head if you become one of The Chosen. Or perhaps it will be the Patron Saint of Salsa Picante. Tell me how you find Mendocino when you get back. I lived there 35 years ago, and now I just see a parody of an artist's colony. kind of a theme park. Still, the Mendocino Art Center is still going strong.

Re:

[mallorys-camera.livejournal.com]

Not gonna be in Mendocino proper -- every year one of my closest friends hosts a big 72 hour party in the Woodlands camp deep in the firetrials. I get enough of the artist themepark thang when I go to Carmel. Thing I like best about the Mendocino area is that weird pygmy forest.

Re:

[wailaki.livejournal.com]

I lived right next to the Pygmy Forest, and used to go out and dig up gnarled little manzanitas & pines and sell them as bonsai! Someone told me that there is an exact duplicate of that forest, same acreage and everything, somewhere in Russia. One of those cosmic links I love. Have a great 72 hrs!