Another one bites the dust....and I make my case for our stores

[mcmarc]

Both of my stores had their best year ever last year... barely.  Because of this, and also because of the current economic climate and changes in our industry, this leaves me cautiously optimistic.

I can't help but believe that someone can still make it out there, especially with the Blockbusters shutting down this year.   They are really my only brick and mortar competition, and the less of them the better off I feel I will be.

I'm not blind.  I know that you need to evolve to survive.  Both of my stores buy, sell & trade and both sell rental copies off the shelf.  My main store is now pushing games all the way back to the Atari 2600 hard and heavy, and I am starting to see the results of that.  My downtown store is going to cater a little more the large amount of tourists the frequent that area.  I have often joked with the record stores around here that when the time comes we should combine.  Not a bad idea, but none of us need to do that yet.

As for inventory, there was a huge jump between vhs to dvd.  Dvd to blu-ray, not so much, and I don't see it taking over.  I stock them, especially the crazy ones, but I am not putting much faith into them.