4 ms·

Fascinating. Was she independently wealthy? Selling drugs on the side? I've always been curious about the financial aspects of businesses like this. I find the

Fascinating. Was she independently wealthy? Selling drugs on the side? I've always been curious about the financial aspects of businesses like this. I find they can often shed some interesting lights on ways to streamline operations/financials.

treeman79 4y ago
Probably owns the land, building etc. So long as property taxes are low it wouldn’t cost her much to stay there. My dad has been doing this with coins for a couple decades. Going over peoples collections with them explaining the history origins what they’re worth etc. I did the math once and he makes about two dollars per hour. But he loves it. Pro tip from his own words coins are a terrible investment.
- Scoundreller 4y ago
  Stamps too. I buy 30-40 year old ones to use as postage and pay ~40% less than they paid back then. Maybe they had some winners that made those losers profitable, but I have my doubts.
JumpCrisscross 4y ago
> always been curious about the financial aspects of businesses like this I’m increasingly finding one of my favoured modes of leisure to be a book and a wine bar. Were I to open a wine bar in retirement, decades from now, I’d be fine running it at cost, counting the company and conversation as compensation enough. Swap that to a subsistence model in a low-cost locale, and the business still holds.
- CoffeeOnWrite 4y ago
  Off topic but do you just love wine and pleasant social spaces, or is there something about the whole wine bar experience in particular that makes it special, especially compared to other kinds of bars and cafes?
  - JumpCrisscross 4y ago
    > do you just love wine and pleasant social spaces Yes. Aperitif at a cafe in Italy scratches the same itch.
- reaperducer 4y ago
  I know a woman who runs a used bookstore as part of her alcohol recovery therapy. I don't know the details, but I presume that it's to keep her mind occupied so she doesn't sit around and drink. It's super low-end, but she's really nice. I don't go to her town very often, but I always stop by and give her $50 for 40 used paperbacks. We talk about them at the checkout, and she knows every one. I know it's heresy to say on HN, but it's been my observation that there are a lot of people who run businesses not to get rich, but to enrich themselves.
  - bdw5204 4y ago
    > I know it's heresy to say on HN, but it's been my observation that there are a lot of people who run businesses not to get rich, but to enrich themselves. I completely understand this. If you have money, why not run a business that either breaks even or loses a sustainably low amount of money? Making money for the sake of making money is as absurd as chasing political power for the sake of holding political power. Both involve confusing a means for an end. Money and power are only worthwhile if you can use them for something worthwhile that you care about. Otherwise, what's the point of putting in all that effort to obtain a means if you don't actually want to use it for something?
Aeolun 4y ago
A lot of these old lifetime shops are already paid off, so they basically cost nothing but taxes to run, and the pension of whoever owns them pays for that, so they have basically no need or incentive to make money.
coffeefirst 4y ago
Cost of living. When I was in the Midwest I knew way more people starting businesses. If housing is reasonable and commercial rents aren’t too bad, all sorts of stuff becomes sustainable that would never make it a year in more expensive cities.

treeman79 4y ago

Probably owns the land, building etc. So long as property taxes are low it wouldn’t cost her much to stay there. My dad has been doing this with coins for a couple decades. Going over peoples collections with them explaining the history origins what they’re worth etc. I did the math once and he makes about two dollars per hour. But he loves it. Pro tip from his own words coins are a terrible investment.

Scoundreller 4y ago
Stamps too. I buy 30-40 year old ones to use as postage and pay ~40% less than they paid back then. Maybe they had some winners that made those losers profitable, but I have my doubts.

JumpCrisscross 4y ago

> always been curious about the financial aspects of businesses like this I’m increasingly finding one of my favoured modes of leisure to be a book and a wine bar. Were I to open a wine bar in retirement, decades from now, I’d be fine running it at cost, counting the company and conversation as compensation enough. Swap that to a subsistence model in a low-cost locale, and the business still holds.

CoffeeOnWrite 4y ago
Off topic but do you just love wine and pleasant social spaces, or is there something about the whole wine bar experience in particular that makes it special, especially compared to other kinds of bars and cafes?
- JumpCrisscross 4y ago
  > do you just love wine and pleasant social spaces Yes. Aperitif at a cafe in Italy scratches the same itch.
reaperducer 4y ago
I know a woman who runs a used bookstore as part of her alcohol recovery therapy. I don't know the details, but I presume that it's to keep her mind occupied so she doesn't sit around and drink. It's super low-end, but she's really nice. I don't go to her town very often, but I always stop by and give her $50 for 40 used paperbacks. We talk about them at the checkout, and she knows every one. I know it's heresy to say on HN, but it's been my observation that there are a lot of people who run businesses not to get rich, but to enrich themselves.
- bdw5204 4y ago
  > I know it's heresy to say on HN, but it's been my observation that there are a lot of people who run businesses not to get rich, but to enrich themselves. I completely understand this. If you have money, why not run a business that either breaks even or loses a sustainably low amount of money? Making money for the sake of making money is as absurd as chasing political power for the sake of holding political power. Both involve confusing a means for an end. Money and power are only worthwhile if you can use them for something worthwhile that you care about. Otherwise, what's the point of putting in all that effort to obtain a means if you don't actually want to use it for something?

Aeolun 4y ago

A lot of these old lifetime shops are already paid off, so they basically cost nothing but taxes to run, and the pension of whoever owns them pays for that, so they have basically no need or incentive to make money.

coffeefirst 4y ago

Cost of living. When I was in the Midwest I knew way more people starting businesses. If housing is reasonable and commercial rents aren’t too bad, all sorts of stuff becomes sustainable that would never make it a year in more expensive cities.