To continue my "insufficiently worried" post, I own a Pop Culture store at a time when Pop Culture seems to be becoming our economy. It's what the good ol' U.S.A. does really, really well. Hollywood, Silicon Valley, Las Vegas, Disneyland, you name it.
And as Pop Culture moves every so closely to being the whole enchilada. Well, I own a Pop Culture store. How can I complain about that?
If I own a Pop Culture store and I can't find things to sell people -- then I would be a complete failure as a merchandiser. I mean, look at all the wonderful stuff I can get!
I've never had so much access to cool material. It used to be a bit of struggle finding things I could: A.) Find at all. B.) Be given access to at a reasonable price, and C.) Could afford.
Now? My only problem is finding enough space to actually display it.
Let me give you some examples.
On next week's invoice I have some foam rubber Thor Hammers (Mjolnir's, eh) coming in. I plan to break one out and set it next the cash register and flatten annoying customers. I'm getting a Sonic Screwdriver in, in case anything needs fixing. I also have a pack of True Blood coming in. In the catalog on my desk, I'm being offered Soylent Green crackers. So some time soon, you'll be able to chow down on Soylent Green crackers and wash it down with some True Blood soda. (I wonder if the Soylent Green crackers are kosher?)
We live in an atemporal time. (Look it up: Atemporality.)
Everything cool is cool again. (Yes, I'm mystified by some of the blank looks I get, especially from younger people -- but there are enough, thankfully, enough who Get It.)
Everything pop culture is available -- from the fifties to the teens. Hell, I have art books about medieval times. It's all connected in this wonderful web of nerdishness.
Anything cool at some point in our history becomes cool again.
I mean, it's been a strange life experience to see everything I loved as a teenager in the sixties and seventies move front and center into the pop culture center ring. It's as if someone is checking off my own personal checklist, one by one. (In fact, it's weirdly egocentric as if the pop culture universe was designed just for me. Why, thank you.)
And at the time, I felt I was the ONLY ONE who loved this stuff as much as I did.
Very strange.
Sure, half my sales are comics and graphic novels, which I truly appreciate and am thankful for. And sure, digital will make inroads into books and comics -- but, those are people I can lose without worrying about, because they probably weren't really my kind of people in the first place.
I expect the vast majority of people to come in the door not to connect. But there are enough, thankfully, enough, and every day I'm being given the opportunity to connect with more people....
So whatever happens, I'm not worried about having viable product to sell. In fact, if you can't adjust to this atmosphere of pop culture dominance, you can't adjust to anything.
And as Pop Culture moves every so closely to being the whole enchilada. Well, I own a Pop Culture store. How can I complain about that?
If I own a Pop Culture store and I can't find things to sell people -- then I would be a complete failure as a merchandiser. I mean, look at all the wonderful stuff I can get!
I've never had so much access to cool material. It used to be a bit of struggle finding things I could: A.) Find at all. B.) Be given access to at a reasonable price, and C.) Could afford.
Now? My only problem is finding enough space to actually display it.
Let me give you some examples.
On next week's invoice I have some foam rubber Thor Hammers (Mjolnir's, eh) coming in. I plan to break one out and set it next the cash register and flatten annoying customers. I'm getting a Sonic Screwdriver in, in case anything needs fixing. I also have a pack of True Blood coming in. In the catalog on my desk, I'm being offered Soylent Green crackers. So some time soon, you'll be able to chow down on Soylent Green crackers and wash it down with some True Blood soda. (I wonder if the Soylent Green crackers are kosher?)
We live in an atemporal time. (Look it up: Atemporality.)
Everything cool is cool again. (Yes, I'm mystified by some of the blank looks I get, especially from younger people -- but there are enough, thankfully, enough who Get It.)
Everything pop culture is available -- from the fifties to the teens. Hell, I have art books about medieval times. It's all connected in this wonderful web of nerdishness.
Anything cool at some point in our history becomes cool again.
I mean, it's been a strange life experience to see everything I loved as a teenager in the sixties and seventies move front and center into the pop culture center ring. It's as if someone is checking off my own personal checklist, one by one. (In fact, it's weirdly egocentric as if the pop culture universe was designed just for me. Why, thank you.)
And at the time, I felt I was the ONLY ONE who loved this stuff as much as I did.
Very strange.
Sure, half my sales are comics and graphic novels, which I truly appreciate and am thankful for. And sure, digital will make inroads into books and comics -- but, those are people I can lose without worrying about, because they probably weren't really my kind of people in the first place.
I expect the vast majority of people to come in the door not to connect. But there are enough, thankfully, enough, and every day I'm being given the opportunity to connect with more people....
So whatever happens, I'm not worried about having viable product to sell. In fact, if you can't adjust to this atmosphere of pop culture dominance, you can't adjust to anything.