Date: Mon, 08 Oct 2007 01:22:59 -0400
From: Ted White <twhite8 at cox.net>
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Getting the book fix, was  Re: Gaylaxicon gets a hotel
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>

Mike B. wrote:

>  At 10/7/2007 05:19 PM, you wrote:
>
> > Bookstores close for lots of reasons.
> >
> > One of the more common is rent.  A wonderful DC art bookstore -
> > Franz Bader - has closed because of their rent going up.  There is
> > a point where there are no more costs to be cut and it's just time
> > to close.
>
>  Or move.  If there's no place you can afford, it's not the
>  rent...it's the lack of revenue.  Lack of revenue in a store
>  generally means lower sales, though it can mean a bad profit margin
>  too.  Rent is just a cost of business, like everything else
>  businesses spend money on (stock, labor, utilities, insurance, etc.).
>  Those costs have to be paid for by sales, which means customers.  If
>  customers buy enough, the costs are covered and there may be profits.
>  If they don't, the costs aren't covered and then you can't pay rent
>  or other costs.  Not being able to pay the rent is likely a sign of
>  fewer customers in most cases where a previously successful business
>  has money problems.

Rents in DC have often tripled or quadrupled.  Many smaller,
long-established businesses -- not only bookstores -- have become
unprofitable and folded.  Moving is rarely practical.

--Ted White