Accumulating Leverage?
Mr. Reisman had been concerned but not really frantic. As the owner of Trader Jim’s for almost a quarter-century, he was a long-running tenant, a standing he thought would yield credibility, stature and plain, old bargaining power. Besides, “Culver City Camera,” as the store originally was known, is one of the community’s senior businesses. It came into the world just after the building — across from Tanner’s Coffee Shop — was built in 1948.
Hearing Footsteps
Across the same counter where thousands of customers, from Culver City and far beyond, have bought cameras and later, electronics, for 58 years, Mr. Reisman related the thunderbolt final-round development. On New Year’s Day, 17 days ago, he did not realize he was starting his last month in business at 4349 Sepulveda. “The straw that broke the camel’s back was when they came to me and said, ‘This is what the new lease is going to be,’” he said. “They began by doubling my rent. Then they told me there was going to be a 5-year plan. This would bring the rent up to where I would be paying 140 percent of what I am paying now.” Upon reflection, Mr. Reisman was willing to acknowledge that “granted, I’ve got this building for a song. But I also have been here for 23 years. I think I have earned the right to occupy the building at a good rate.” It was not as if Mr. Reisman was awarded any wiggle room to negotiate. “Once I found out there were no ifs, ands or buts about where they were going to establish the initial (lease) rate, I made a decision.
A Practical Question
“Why would I work as hard as I do, for them to be the (financial) beneficiary to that degree?” At times, the 48-year-old native New Yorker has felt like an outsider. He is privy to no information. He has no idea what the building owner intends to do with the structure or with the familiar space Trader Jim’s occupies. But he has a hunch. “Unfortunately,” Mr. Reisman said, “our level of communication is not what I had hoped it would be. I think their agenda is to get me out of this building and bring in someone who will pay what they have been told by lawyers and brokers is the going rate.”
Regrets? Not a One
Mr. Reisman does not want anyone to feel sorry for him. First, his 5 employees have been taken care of. Their next jobs are assured. For his part, Mr. Reisman, a family man with a young son, will direct his full attention to his online business (www.traderjimscamera.com), where he has spent particles and chunks of time over the past 5 years. He has devoted enough of his attention to the Internet that some 3,000 customers are willing to say nice words about him and the way he does business. Additionally, as the son of an entrepreneur, he inherited those skills that illuminate paths, especially in times of trouble. He is enormously resourceful.
A Lesson in Realism
Mr. Reisman studies his visitor. With firmness and conviction, he says, “Nobody did me wrong. Nobody hurt me. All that happened was, I added up all the plusses, all the minuses. What it came to was, I don’t want to reinvent myself into a different type of retail environment. I could either go smaller, or I could go significantly larger. If I go larger, I would have to go so much larger that I can’t do what I need to do to go larger. If I go smaller, I become even more invisible. When I am on the Internet, I can be sitting in a 50,000-square foot warehouse or a broom closet. All that people know on the Internet is that I am a good purveyor of quality products at a fair price, with reliable service.” His email address is www.sales@traderjims.com.
Configuring a New Business
Mr. Reisman said that his online enterprise “will develop into a vast array of new and current products. But right now what it’s going to be is a limited amount of new product and a vast amount of accessories and used equipment. The problem with new cameras is that the profit margin on cameras has been terrible for 30 years. You can buy a camera that you are intending to sell for $300, and you can pay as much as $300 for it. This is almost like the razor that is intended to be given away so that you sell the blades. The problem is, the ‘blades’ in this case used to be a roll of film and processing. Now the ‘blades’ are a memory card that is sold by everybody. The processing is more diluted and spread out than it ever has been.
One Man’ Blueprint
“My business plan is for me to really sell the items that big stores don’t. When you go into Best Buy or Circuit City to buy a camera, you will be looking for nifty little accessories. Them because they don’t feel it’s worthwhile. I want to be the source where people can find those items. I also want to continue to buy and sell vintage and used equipment. The enthusiast still loves that kind of stuff.”
Postscript
An important distinction needs to be made in Mr. Reisman’s professional life. One may presume his dauber would be down since his so-called bricks and mortar business is going away, with staggering suddenness, after he poured half of his life into the store. However, he has come to this stage of his life dressed in the armor of a pure pragmatist. For succor, he reaches back, places an iron, two-fisted grip around the most important values he gained from his family, practicality and realism. Mr. Reisman first is a pragmatist. He reviews decisions tall and short with his mind, not his heart. He is sad about leaving Trader Jim’s and his special, community-sized niche on Sepulveda Boulevard because cameras are his passion. But passion stops at the door. Pragmatism, not passion, makes him a successful businessman. His love affair with cameras began when he was 14 years old, and not accidentally. He asked for, and received, a camera as a gift. In the Reisman family, all of the children, at the behest of the teachings of their parents, developed and cultivated aesthetic interests and commitments. Cameras were Jim’s life love.
Part II: The birth of Trader Jim’s.
