What to do ...(Before)

Once upon a time, our store was full of videos. There were videos (and DVDs) along every wall, and on shelving units down the middle of the room.

As the video rental business has died, the movies have needed less and less room. No point to giving them the whole store, when they're bringing in so little... barely paying for themselves...costing us money....

Movie rentals are dead. They started dying when DVDs were released. Before that, if you wanted to watch a movie at home, you had little choice but to rent it... movies were released on VHS ...to video stores... months before they would be released for people to buy for home users.

They were expensive - many of them cost the video stores upwards of $80 & $100 per copy. But they were VHS - which meant they were relatively durable - and they could often, if need be, be repaired/spliced.

And people couldn't get those movies anywhere else - so they rented them. And they knew that video stores paid a lot for them and that if they destroyed them it could be expensive,

But then somebody decided to move towards what were called sell-throughs... those were videos that were released everywhere all at once. End users could just go into their local Wal-mart and buy them.

So we would have some movies that cost us $60+ for a copy and some that would cost $20 or thereabouts.

It didn't help the video business. Didn't kill it...but it didn't help us any.

But then some nimrod decided that DVD releases should go out to the market on the same day as the videos were released. And the advantage that video stores had promptly started to fly out the window.

A whole lot of other things have contributed to the death of the video store since... but none of it matters, really.

The truth is, that for a small market, or an independent store, the business is done. The saddest part, for me, really - is that it was actually video stores that finally killed it... no late fees - good campaign, that .... like it wasn't already difficult to convince people to bring them back. DUH!

We have never instituted such a policy - but our customers adopted the attitude that it was their right to just keep them and not pay late fees... Enough already.

Now it is time to decide what to do instead.

Our space is pretty small ... but we can fit a fair bit in none-the-less. The problem is deciding what to carry.

There is a grocery store right across the street from us, the liquour store is right beside us, and around behind there is a hardware store, and a variety store up the way a bit.

You would THINK that given that there are so few businesses here in town, we could find something that would work.

But so far, we haven't hit on the right focus.

We've tried a bunch of stuff...and they all sell ...but they are not enough to make opening the doors worth while.

Computer stuff was a pain in the butt - required too much of my time & energy. I never wanted to do retail; still don't. I don't mind researching ...and buying ... but hanging around there waiting for stOOpid people to come in and kvetch about having to pay more than they want to pay and ....and ... and...  I do not have that much tolerance. And besides, the store is hubby's gig. It needs to be something he can do - and more importantly something he wants to do.

Giftware has too much loss (you have to carry multiples so they can choose - and you end up with too much left over). The glassware is selling - slowly - but the only reason it's worth doing is because we've been given it for free.... and that too moves way too slowly to matter in such a small market.

Environmentally friendly cleaning products also sell - but they are relatively expensive - and again - it's a small market. I think that those will continue to grow though, as the citiots continue to move in.

The beer returns actually bring in a bit... especially in the summer - but they limit what else you can do... and they are not enough on their own.

 So - what goes with beer bottle returns? And used movies/glassware, etc? And the green cleaning products?

Where we are right now - especially since the 3 bdrm tenants are leaving at the end of the month - is deciding whether to even keep the joint.

The more hubby talks, the more it sounds like we are keeping it rather than selling. I'm not sure that that is the best idea - we were debt free ...and now we're carrying a rather large line of credit on the house we live in (needed it to pay the sisters off after Ma died)

We are not comfortable with that; neither of us is fond of paying interest on anything. Debt free was a most pleasant way to live.

Selling would wipe out the line of credit. Huge bonus, if you ask me - but if he doesn't want to do that, then we have GOT to make the store viable enough that we get that damn debt paid off.

So .... hubby is an environmental geek. He is into alternative energy and all that fun stuff. The tentative plan now is to become a GREEN  store .... Haven't yet decided on a name ... although thinking we might keep the Plus part of our name ... as in Green Plus ...or something like that.... Green Solutions Plus, maybe?

We would - for now - keep the bottle return.

And the used ~stuff~ (including movies - although we'd give all that a lot less space - and we would stop buying new movies to rent out  - just sell off all the old stock and when its gone, its gone)

The Environmentally friendly cleaning products would get more space; bringing in larger quantities of the full line.

Also, we've sourced a couple of other products lines. The one hubby is most excited about at this point, is a complete line of green lawn care products.... fertilizers, pest control solutions, etc., etc. 

Going to carry those, plus also do lawn care (all organic/environmentally friendly, of course) for those who don't care to do it themselves.

And he's looking at carrying some alternative energy products as well... although mostly that would be catalog sales - we are NOT coughing up for a full line of that stuff... just too darn expensive... but could carry a few samples and take orders... maybe.... that part is not as sorted yet....

First thing for ALL of it, of course, is to make a decision on stay or go. But really I think he's made that decision already....

So...this is sort of my BEFORE photo essay .... and I'm pretty sure there will be more to come as we completely redo the store.

Suey will be happy ...will probably end up having hours for her again...especially if (please God!) I get into grad school.

If you've got ideas re: other products we could consider carrying, I'd be happy to hear about them.