So You Want to Open a Small Press Bookstore/Artist-Run Space? A Cautionary Tale

Re:So You Want to Open a Small Press Bookstore/Artist-Run Sp... by winkelwagen on Saturday October 20, 2018 @02:57AM (#18262137)

From what I understood is that not every Starbucks needs to be profitable. Some are insanely profitable, while others are just branding and marketing places that sell coffee. Of course there is a difference between not being profitable and bulking up insane losses each day, I think that is something Starbucks does well.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:So You Want to Open a Small Press Bookstore/Artist-Run Sp... by itchyouch on Saturday October 20, 2018 @04:38PM (#18265316)

They keep them going as long as they are profitable. They track a metric called “store contribution” which is the profit sent to corporate after all the store expenses. The highest volume stores are grossing about 40+k/week with contributions in the realm of 500-700k/yr from one example I know of.

Moderate stores are doing around 25k/week. Stores below 10-15k/week tend to be at risk of shutting down or having the location changed. A 15k/week store can become a 30k/wk store just by getting a drive through.

There is also a distinction between “community” stores and higher volume profit stores (eg by highway entrance). Community stores get to be a little less profitable but build a “second home” for those in the community to hang out at, while non-community stores bring in profit by being in a high traffic area.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:So You Want to Open a Small Press Bookstore/Artist-Run Sp... by masonic on Sunday October 21, 2018 @05:10AM (#18267253)

Two SV locations that I used regularly (Alma Village in Palo Alto, Hacienda center in Sunnyvale) have closed this year alone.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:So You Want to Open a Small Press Bookstore/Artist-Run Sp... by UncleEntity on Saturday October 20, 2018 @12:26PM (#18263989)

I've always wondered about this, there are 15 Starbucks within a 2 mile radius of where I live (just looked on google maps) and for some reason they don't seem to cannibalize each others sales enough for them to not keep building new stores, at least 3 of them have gone up within the last year or so.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:So You Want to Open a Small Press Bookstore/Artist-Run Sp... by masonic on Sunday October 21, 2018 @05:12AM (#18267256)

Even 17+ years ago, there were downtown intersections in both Seattle and Vancouver that had two Starbucks each on opposite corners.

[ Parent | on HN ]