Tobias Lutke Quotes

I spend my time being a retailer, not an economist.

We buy and sell goods. We buy low and sell higher - that's what we all do to make a profit. But I consider a merchant someone who has a certain intuition and instinct, and - very important - knows how to run a business, knows the numbers.

On the whole, and this comment can get me in a lot of trouble, I find that retailers in the comic book business are not business people. They're fans who've gotten themselves shops.

My mom and I had a kids' clothing store called Smooch for six years, and I did all the buying before I even had kids.

I was a salesman just out of college, traveling all over American roads in the cause of selling handbags to stores that would in turn sell them to American women, not unlike my father had done.

I got two stores, two streetwear stores, at home. Have to tend to those. Play Cloths. Have to tend to that business.

The people that are running the bulk of the comic shops in North America aren't business people and they don't understand sales. They don't understand good product.

When I was 9 or 10, I had a ten-cent business: I would walk your dog for a dime, go to the store for a dime, empty your garbage for a dime - and then I could use the money to buy tricks at the magic store.

No one in my family had a retail or marketing background. They were professionals. They didn't understand just what I was doing by going into retailing. After I started, though, it got into my blood. I knew this was what I wanted.

Making a million dollars is the simplest thing in the world. Just find a product that sells for $2,000 and that you can buy at a cost of $1,000, and sell a thousand of them.

A desire of gain is common to mankind, and the general motive to business and industry.

I have a business background. I have always wanted to open my own business.

I've been managing Internet businesses since 1999. That's 12 years of being in the tornado, and it's pretty exhausting. I'll be looking at the next challenge, but in terms of operating an Internet business, I've scratched that itch very well.

Working in a store and being a shop assistant, if you don't know what to do and you like fashion, I think it's a great way of getting into the business because you do windows, cleaning, and everything. That was my school for two years, working in a shop, and that's how I met people in magazines and designers.

Trying to move the volume of products we're talking about from place to place to get it ultimately into the customer's hands, to price these items, to market these items, I think the retail business is incredibly complex. But if you get it right, it's a beautiful thing.

I think it'd be great to own a fun concept store with my friends and just sell books and records.

I was a very good cook, and I knew I could build a business.

EBay gave me the framework to discover I was an e-commerce entrepreneur. I touched everything, from shipping to logistics.

I was 17 years old when I built the first store... A very simple, basic store with a basic counter - not very much equipment, all purchased second-hand. And the menu was very simple.

I'm not in business to make money.

The restaurant business is something that you have to treat like a baby. You have to constantly be there. You can't trust it to anybody else, because no one's going to love it like you do.

This is my hobby: growing stores, adding stores. It's fun.

I got into retailing because I wanted a real job.

It was something of a personal challenge for me to come up with a business suitable for the Internet world and the Internet age.

We can serve our customers well only if our buying jobs are right. You cannot sell if you haven't ordered wanted goods into your store.