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June 22, 2003
Entry: "Harry Potter"

Last post on Harry before I actually finish the book. :) We were overwhelmed. Somewhere arount 250 people showed up to our little store in the middle of the night. In costume, in good cheer... parents, children, teenagers, adults... Unbelievable. When we closed at 9pm Friday night to set up we had 485 requests. We had to take the phones off the hook between 9 and 11 so we'd have some unreserved books left to sell (and so we wouldn't go nuts). I think we sold around 200 books that night and then another three hundred and some saturday. Today we sold a modest sixty-ish. And to put all this in perspective, Saturday's sales beat last year's Christmas Eve sales by a comfortable margin.

We wouldn't have any un-held copies left if it weren't for a divine stroke of luck that got us 300 delivered on Saturday. I won't go into it, but I have never experienced luck like this. This must be what happens when you work so hard and worry so much you don't have time left to wish for luck. And because of it, we've got to be the only place in town that still has it in stock, at least for today. Most places will get more tomorrow. Amazon is sold out. It is just indescribably cool to be able to tell kids calling in that yes, we do have some left, and yes, they can come right down and get one.

This is why I love my job.