Eighteen weeks. January 1, 2006. Not much time. On that day I will be headed into my fifth year in business. The store will be celebrating 50 years in business. And... it looks like the anniversary sale will be colliding head-on with the going out of business sale. For the last month, practically my entire income has been provided by selling a dozen or so guitar picks a day. If I do the math, it will take about 1500 picks a day to break even. Divide that by four or five customers a day. I don't think that even my best efforts can get each and every one of them to buy 300 picks a day. A few years ago, I could make up the shortfall out of pocket. There's nothing left in the pockets, and this month was about 80% short of break-even. Can't make it up in school rentals - now just a couple of weeks away. If I rent out every band instrument I've got, I might hit break even for one month. Without profits, there won't be anything left to buy stuff for Christmas, which dooms any chances of breaking out during that season. It's a death spiral.