Bookrush coming to a close

Wow. What a week. I think I'm finally figuring this thing out. I was a little understocked for fall, but I had a better mix of books than I've ever had so I was still pretty confident we'd do well. In this company's 15 year history, this was the best month by a long shot. We had a few problems, ran out of a few too many books but I guess that's how it goes. I may never hit it perfect but I'll get closer I think. The new help worked out well and all of them confirmed they'd be back next semester. This semester we had some new neighbors move in next door. I'm glad to have neighbors because another business just draws more business and people know where you are and know where they are. It's a good fit. The new neighbors are a bookstore. Not a college bookstore, but a bookstore none the less. They do new and used and serve coffee and snacks, but they agreed when they moved in they wouldn't touch college books. That's fine, I agreed not to mess with their type of books. We even did a joint mailer to increase their awareness. They decided to put a coupon on their half for buy two get one free on used books. Can you guess how many people came in wanting to use that here? I would show you the ad, but that might give too much away and I'm not sure how my neighbors would feel about being on my blog. So all semester we've dealt with the usual retards, and now we have a new kind. The kind that says "Can I check your prices, then go check your neighbors prices?" After most of that I finally just said "Sure. They'd love to see you." Every one of them came back and bought books from us or sold their books to us. Seriously, how dumb would it be to open up two identical businesses side by side? How dumb would it be to have two stores for a campus with less than 5,000 students? No one seems to get that, and I had a couple of people threaten to go next door if I didn't give them a discount. I know I need all the business I can get, but seriously? You're going to threaten to go to a place that doesn't sell college books if I don't lower my price? Am I not already 10-15 percent under the campus store? I know college books are expensive, and I can assure you not all college stores mark up books to the point that they're no longer affordable, but I never thought in college that I could stand there and negotiate the price of a book. That's just crazy. Anyway, so the new neighbors are cool for now. When they start buying and selling college books we'll have a problem but for now they're okay. That's about it from the bookstore for now.