Welcome to Multiversity’s July update! While we’re in the early stages of shop development, you’ll get an update each month, with increasing frequency as we get closer to opening.
Small Wins
The theme this month is all about the little things that go into launching a business. It’s the stuff that doesn’t make headlines (or even get noticed at all sometimes).
Operating Systems
I jumped the gun last month when I announced that I’d be using CirclePOS for our point-of-sale vendor. I had confidence in the system, and I still think it’s going places, but there were too many roadblocks for a U.S.-based bookstore to overcome. I quickly shifted to a more robust system called Omnibus, powered by Edelweiss. If you’re familiar with bookselling, you know Edelweiss – they’re massive. Omnibus runs with Square to handle transactions.
I already have some inventory, and I’m hard at work getting everything into the system.
Buying & Trading
Omnibus is a young platform, but the team is constantly releasing new features. Last week, they rolled out the buy-back system. Hand me a stack of your books, I scan it, and you leave with store credit. An option for cash payouts is coming.
I also have a system in place for buying TCG singles for Magic: The Gathering and Pokémon, which is pretty great.
Labels
I got unreasonably excited about a label printer a couple of weeks ago. A DYMO 450 arrived, and I built a little tool to pull barcodes straight off the catalog and feed it. This is the epitome of the small wins ethos. Successfully printing custom labels just about made my day.
Now, I know a lot of readers hate stickers on books. I get it. I really do. I can promise that the labels I’m using are extremely easy to remove and won’t leave a trace. You’ll never know they were ever there.
And the Location?
I wish I had something to point to! The search continues apace, and there are a ton of empty spaces in the area, so I’m confident we’ll land in the right one. That part’s coming. But boring infrastructure is what decides whether opening day runs smoothly or becomes chaos, so… small wins.
Book of the Month
Now, I never said the Book of the Month was always going to be a new book. This time, it’s Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow. Have you seen the Supergirl movie? I have, and I liked it! Don’t let the critics get you down. The movie’s a good time, and the book it’s partially based on is fantastic. On her twenty-first birthday, a hungover and disillusioned Kara Zor-El gets roped into a blood-oath quest by Ruthye, a farm girl from a backwater world whose father was murdered by the marauder Krem of the Yellow Hills. What follows is a chase across alien planets where Supergirl, her poisoned and dying dog Krypto at her side, has to work out whether vengeance and justice are the same thing, and what kind of hero she actually wants to be.
Originally an 8-issue miniseries, it’s been collected as a trade paperback. If you don’t mind reading digitally, issue #1 is free on DC Universe.
Talk soon,
Daniel
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