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Message: <blockquote data-quote="spacecrime.com" data-source="post: 990490" data-attributes="member: 753">You know, I'm actually going to agree with you on that one. I am now intrigued, because what you're saying makes literally no sense to me.Okay, let me try to parse this. Are you saying that I should be charging occasional customers a "membership fee" for the privilege of purchasing in my store? That when 10-year-old Johnny comes in and says "I'd like a pack of Magic" my response should be, "Okay, that'll be a $50 membership fee, plus $1.97 for the pack"?Because if that's what you're saying, I don't think Johnny's going to take that deal. He's only 7, but I think he's smarter than that.Conversely, if I offer not-regular customers a deal that supposedly saves them money, and my regular or super customer wants the same deal, I'm supposed to say, "No, Joe, you've been a great customer for five years, but this guy I've never seen before is going to get a deal that you want and can't have"? Because once again, I gotta say that I don't think Joe's going to go for that.Maybe you need to explain this to me again -- because if I'm understanding you correctly now, then your proposal is even worse than I thought.Of course not. Not all of the people in Northampton are my customers. (In fact, less than 1% of them are.) Not all of the gamers in the Pioneer Valley are my customers -- in fact, we probably get about 10% of the market. I don't make a sale to everyone who comes in the store, and I only get a fraction of my customers' dollars. None of this surprises or bothers me.Here's the thing you keep not getting. I don't have to make "everyone" pay up. I don't have to "make" anyone do anything at all. As long as a small part of my potential market values other considerations over price, my family can make a comfortable living by providing that part of the market with what it wants.When that changes... ...the market changes. As I said several posts ago, I think big changes are likely. There's a real chance the small local physical bookstore is going to be as obsolete as the local blacksmith. To be perfectly honest, I'm a lot more concerned about disintermediation through changing delivery systems than I am about price competition.(Which is why I've spent the last three years developing an alternative career as a writer. And why my current project -- which I am, once again, procrastinating on <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> --  is a PDF book. I watch trends too, compadre.) I'm terribly sorry. I keep forgetting that demolishing foolish theories with facts is rude. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />I certainly won't dispute that more price competition will make my job that much more difficult. However, it will be even harder to compete if I'm out of business because I discounted myself to death two years earlier. Finally moving away from deep discounting, are we? Good.Here is another hint. The book and game industry is littered with the corporate corpses of retailers who thought that was true. In eight years I've watched three stores in my area go out of business thinking that, and I don't think they're going to be the last. With the exception of very small, very carefully targeted courtesy discounts, niche businesses with high Costs of Goods Sold always give up more than they gain from the discount.Really? Show me some numbers. If you want to play with mine they're up-thread and I'll be happy to fill in gaps or answer questions about our current practices. Show me a scenario where a combination of "modest price cuts and good service" will make me more money than better service alone. I'll even make it interesting. If you can come up with a plan and sell me on it, I'll put it into place and cut you in for 10% of any increased profits that can be attributed to the plan over the next year. I'll tell you up front that I'm going to be a tough sell. You're going to need to show me the specifics of what the service improvements and discounts are, how they'll be publicized, how I'll pick up new customers from them, how I'll make more money from old customers, and how we can measure the plan's progress. I'll also want to see a serious increase in profit -- if it's less than ten grand, I'm not interested. But if you can do that, it'll certainly be worth it to me ... and I suspect $1000 or more and a consulting job on your resume might not be the worst thing in the world for you. Ball's in your court, baby. Can you play?cheers,</blockquote>

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