R.I.P. All The Problems In This World 2021-2026 or ???
Am I forced to close the shop?
That is what I started to seriously take into consideration since last year, and I want to explain to you why that is, but also what a sustainable solution could look like: how to keep the store open, and even to be able to finally take advantage of ATPITW’s much untouched potential.
I definitely don’t enjoy feeling the need to ask my customers for help. As a business I want to offer you a product you want to pay for, but it came to a point where I can no longer afford not to ask. Because the truth is that in 2026 my small business is relying on the support of its customers going beyond regular purchases. And I do believe it is okay to ask, if only because of all the amazing feedback I received over the past years, which makes me feel like you really care about my little shop, and thus you will hopefully keep on reading and understand the challenges ATPITW is facing. And if you do I am convinced that, step by step, ATPITW can get out of a seemingly doomed situation in the best way possible, and finally even be able to wake up the sleeping giant and create frequent events for you - the community around this shop - from themed RPG workshops to art shows, talks, concerts, and more!
Pic by Jalaludin Trautmann, 2023
What happened? Why is ATPITW in trouble, and why couldn’t I avoid it?
It was clear from the start that there is not much profit in importing books from small presses and indie publishers from overseas, but I calculated that I could at least live a middle-class life as a father of two kids, as the business owner and only employee within 3 years of establishing the store. BUT what I couldn’t calculate was Putin invading Ukraine, and how hard the following inflation would hit! While the margin selling books and my income remained about the same, my private monthly expenses have doubled up, and of course everybody else found themselves in a similar situation. Our budget for our weird hobbies has become tighter, while it appears each month more and more products are available. It became a challenge too big!
Contrary to that the store actually keeps growing year by year! On paper it appears to be growing and healthy, but more sales means more work > less time > need for an employee > need to make even more money > need to buy even more stock to be able to sell more > more work > more time > more tax … and it just goes on like this. I could never find a healthy balance. Somewhere it was never enough, because the profit I make doesn’t match with my monthly expenses.
I did also make a mistake by expecting that I would eventually and naturally be able to access the stores untouched potential to develop side branches: RPG workshops, events, publishing, etc. And to gain an extra income with a higher margin to support the core business.
What did I expect?
After a lot of consultations, first practical steps by creating a little online distro and one year of thinking it through in detail, I became convinced in the summer of 2020 that I have to do this! To start my own small business. In fact I was convinced I really am the only person able to do what I actually had in mind: to import carefully selected small press and indie RPGs, comic and art books and make them available in Berlin/Germany/Europe.
At that time I was already 40 years old, and another very big part of my conviction to do it was that I would finally be able to generate a reasonable income for the future, and to be able to provide for my two kids, and to put some money aside for my pension. And if I would work hard, and take it step by step, I would even be able to hire an employee or two to work in the shop after some years. That became my goal, and I became 100% convinced that what I would create would be of high value for customers, myself, and also for the urban climate of this city - something I could be proud of!
I had played pen and paper roleplaying games since I was a teenager growing up in the 90s on the West German countryside. I have lived in Berlin for more than 20 years, and in the late 2000s I studied classic animation in Babelsberg. I am and have always been a creative and contributing part of the underground culture and music scene of Berlin since I moved here. What I have never done before ATPITW is work in a comic, games or book shop, nor did I ever work for any publisher. In fact I started All The Problems In This World in 2020 with no business experience at all, but after talking to bookshop owners, other people running small businesses, accountants and business consultants I became convinced I could and should do this! And after all it was a big chance! At that time nobody else in Berlin (not even Europe!) did something similar. It was simply impossible to purchase the majority of the titles I wanted to stock all over the European continent - especially not concentrated in one store - while the interest was and still is growing, even more so during COVID, and in Germany bookshops were among the few places allowed to be open for business during lockdown!
What did I want to create besides a business?
I never was and never wanted to be a business man in terms of being in it mainly for the money. I worked for a company whose bosses were business men, and I learned a lot there, but I also knew that I wanted something different. Of course the income has to be enough, but I chose to start ATPITW because it was just the right thing for ME! Literally suited to my personality, skills and interest. Another critical point for me was what kind of customers the shop would attract, because I am too impatient to be nice in the face of ignorance. And do I see myself as able to deal with the ATPITW kind of customers for many years? The answer was and still is: yes, absolutely! Because I knew from the start that ATPITW would attract a very mixed group of enthusiasts, and quite the opposite of an elitist, homogenic and ignorant bubble.
I see myself as an enthusiast just like my customers, and I wanted to create a beloved destination point, where you feel seen and appreciated, and in the best case to offer a pleasant gateway to hobbies that can have a very positive and sustaining effect on anyone curious. My goal became to create a shop with a tangible soul and culture. And to provide possibilities to make meaningful, even educational and connecting experiences in a physical shop in one of the few cities in Europe I could imagine such a place at. A shop devoid of and without the need for big names and corporations that simply sell products, ATPITW presents a very carefully selected range of what I consider more than just products: passionately and thoughtfully created printed matter and artifacts. To me that is quite the opposite to popular lifestyle consumerism anno 2026, and thus very important! And since the beginning I did and still do receive wonderful direct feedback from customers from all over the world walking into the store almost every day (sometimes several times a day!!!) telling me how happy they are that there is such a special place with such a selection. I also receive wonderful feedback for how I do the newsletter, the store’s name, how I present my products on insta, etc incl. from publishers and creators. Since the start you ALWAYS gave me the feeling that you all really appreciate what I was doing. Thank you, it means so much to me!
At the core ATPITW is a bookshop. Then why is it so challenging?
From the outside ATPITW is very much a bookshop (or a comics and games shop). ATPITW sells printed matter, BUT looking at it from the inside: what ATPITW really does is importing printed matter from overseas. And that is a completely different business with a different focus!
When I started I was convinced that I was very well prepared, but I was not fully aware of the whole workload I would actually be facing besides deciding and finding titles to stock. And how could I? There was nobody who could tell me, because there was no shop quite like ATPITW before. And I was also not aware of how draining it is to deal with the many things that actually make the core business even possible: from bigger and smaller challenges that come with social media to actually maintaining a physical shop, and all the responsibilities that includes. For example very little things, which at first seem like just a minor alteration,can create a chain reaction with a very big effect. That is one reason why, for example, shipping your orders can take very long sometimes.
Delivery from overseas publishers/distros takes a lot longer, and much more time is needed to make sure everything actually arrives safe and in correct numbers. On top of that ATPITW focuses on indie publishers, small press and self-publishing artists, which means dealing with dozens of parties, instead of just one or two big distributors. Communication is especially challenging, because every publisher/creator works differently, and might have different expectations/experiences. This is also one of the reasons why this job is so exciting to me!!! But again, it is significantly more time consuming thinking for two in order to erase errors, but then there is also always the risk of errors during transport caused by DHL, UPS, FedEx, etc., and thus everything needs to be managed and communicated with as much precision, concentration, awareness and well working routines as possible!
After I lost the instagram account (8k followers) in 2023 I was forced to ask publishers I was already working with (and new ones) to buy their titles on consignment, which luckily most agreed to - otherwise I would have been forced to close back then - but that also meant that I would have to send monthly sales reports. Based on those reports the publishers would be able to invoice me for the titles sold in the month prior. For the first two years I was able to always send the reports on time (the first week of the new month), but with the shop growing, and working on consignment agreements with several dozens of publishers/creators I was not able to send the reports on time any longer. In fact publishers were waiting for several months for their reports. I have managed to organize myself better now, and am able to send reports at least within a month, but again: this is very time consuming and different to how a regular bookshop works.
About 60% of the titles ATPITW has in stock are ordered through distros. That means the distro covers the whole import part, which of course means that usually a book costs more than if I would order it directly from the publisher. But ordering through a distro saves me a lot of time, and is in many cases the more reasonable solution. Without distros it would be simply impossible to have the shelves filled. BUT a distro has its own laws. They are supplying dozens of retailers and are connected to even more publishers offering hundreds of titles every week. If the distro doesn’t have a certain title in their warehouse a retailer can order it (if still in print), but it often takes several months up to half a year for the distro to actually deliver it, if they don’t already have it in their warehouse. And even though, for example, I ordered 6 copies they maybe just deliver 3. And I have to wait again (propably for weeks or months) for the rest to be finally delivered. FYI: about two times of what I have in stock in the shop today I am actually waiting for to be delivered. New orders and restock that is. - Let’s say I have 500 titles available in the shop, then I am actually waiting for 1000 backorders to be delivered since months. With no estimate when they will arrive. I just get an invoice from the distro once they actually ship another batch to me. This is one big reason why I don’t offer pre-orders anymore. And that is also the reason why many titles are out of stock again and again and again.
But because ATPITW is so special, there is also a lot of potential!
For years I have been crying over „the untouched potential of the store“, which I am unable to access, to everybody who cared to listen to me. I did try to find people, and a few times it even seemed like I found the right one, but ultimately they pulled out and it turned out impossible to find somebody truly committed. Because what I need is somebody not only reliable and dedicated, but who can afford to be as committed as myself to organize, delegate and promote such events, with the goal to really build something sustainable and for the long run.
I do still believe in this untouched potential very much! And as a matter of fact I believe the untouched potential of the community around the store is the key to save ATPITW. The challenge at hand remains: how to access said potential, and by that save the store. To turn a bankruptcy into a great chance!
This is the potential I see:
to start organizing RPG workshops (beginners, new games, GM-focused, writing adventures, advanced RPG theory, etc.) hosted by a selection of experienced GMs and special guests and starting on a monthly, then bi-monthly, then weekly basis in local game cafés and online
to start hosting fantasy music listening and DJ sessions in local bars, and to promote and organize concerts (again), and at some point an open air fantasy music festival
to collaborate (with a café, art space or showroom) to organize exclusive art shows featuring cartoonists and illustrators ATPITW stocks
to collaborate with a movie theater and have indie comics and TTRPG-themed screenings
to publish RPG books, comics, art books and fantasy music on ATPITWs own label, and/or to collaborate with others
to have monthly drink and draw sessions
to host online and local artist talks
to release different merch products designed by artists ATPITW stocks on a regular basis
to expand the webshop into a website with an editorial, reviews, interviews, etc.
to create exclusive discounts for those who pay the monthly rate / membership
How to access it?
Because I work a lot and with a passion I gained 18.3k followers on social media, and 1.3k newsletter subscribers. If as many as possible, of those who can afford it, would pay a monthly rate of their own choice I could use that money to:
pay health insurance, taxes and the landlord, after I was not able to pay several of their bills over the past years.
hire a part-time secretary/accountant to organize my accounting, and assist me in structural decisions. I need somebody with a better understanding of and experience with numbers, so that I can focus on the things I am really good at and on finally accessing said unused potential.
Is it realistic that this will work?
I think I speak for all of us saying that there is a demand for a shop like ATPITW in Berlin. The numbers speak for it, too. After five years in business the turnover is even higher than what I calculated at first, when I wrote a business plan in 2020 to get the 30k loan from the bank to be able to found ATPITW (and which I am still paying off). And the popularity of what ATPITW focuses on is definitely still growing too, despite inflation. You might be aware that other comic and fantasy book stores in Berlin and internationally started selling (indie) RPGs, too. Because since a few years RPGs and everything Medieval and Fantasy themed has been experiencing an ongoing popularity spawned by artists and fans, not by companies! That was one big reason to start this business five years ago. As a part of this popularity Dungeon Synth became sort of its own thing, detached from Fantasy RPGs and Heavy Metal. Over the past years popular record shops started to stock it in numbers, music festivals in the US and EU are popular and artists started headlining tours. In Berlin other promoters but me started doing shows with international artists. And there is also still a significant interest in the EU for indie comics and art books too, of course, and many new and exciting artists and publishers pop up year by year. Print is definitely not dead! On the contrary young people recognize its value over digital media. And ATPITW is still the only place in Europe focusing on all of it! I’m not bragging when I write that here is no alternative to ATPITW, collecting all in one physical store!
The main issue really is that I actually have two kids and not as much time as needed to save ATPITW alone, but my hope is that I could convince you that with your help we can lift ATPITW to a new level. From „just a retail shop“ to a true centre of our community!
More background and past challenges that lead to today’s situation (if you care to read more…)
I couldn’t know about the unforseeable challenges I had to face over the past years.
In 2023 I lost 8k followers and my original instagram account, to a phishing fraud, with no way to inform the followers nor to get that account back. Believe me I tried very hard! - Because of that my sales dropped significantly in the first months of 2024 !
In July 2024 black water started to run down and drop from a leak in the ceiling from the apartment above mine. In November 2024 it became several liters of black water daily, causing severe black mold in my bathroom and kitchen, and an unbearable living situation. It was absurd, and like being forced to live in a poisonous cave, while the landlord ignored me for several months. I ended up going to court to force the landlord to do something. I won the case and they finally repaired the damage after more than a year in Oct 2025. The repair took six weeks, in which I had to move 5 times between several hostel rooms, and when I came back my apartment was covered in dust, because other than agreed the workers did not tape and cover all doors and furniture…
In February 2025 €4k were spent from my bank account without my knowing nor authorization. The bank refused to recharge the money, because they declared that only I could have given the person access to my account and by that it’s my responsibility. I had to go to court again, which resulted in me getting 70% back from the bank a year and many hours and grey hairs spend with this later. The thief was of course not caught.
In August 2025 the store was without internet for a month. The provider said it was a jammed signal and it took them a month to send a technician, and only after several calls from my end. When the technician came he said there was never a jammed signal and he just changed my router. - I couldn’t feed social media the way I used to (every hour during work days) and thus at least lost 1000,-€. The internet provider offered me free Wifi to cover up for the month without...
More personal challenges
On top of financial challenges I found myself one foot into a burn-out, if not already several steps in, because I always believed (and I still do) I would be able to turn the wheel around, and that I just have to work harder, because simple math and logic show that when I work more, and invest more, I will also sell more. That is simple math, but the complete equation is that when you sell more and work more, at some point you need an employee, but then you have significantly more costs, too, and you start again! And in the end it is not enough again, and you figure: do I only work to be able to hire somebody else, while I can’t even afford to buy my teenage son his much needed new furniture? Each year I had to ask my family (who are not exactly wealthy, but support me with what they have) for money. I have to use my own income to be able to pay my assistant, who I rely on to keep the store running, and thus I can’t afford to put aside any money for myself, nor my kids. - I am fully aware there are many people out there who can not afford such things as holidays or a vacation, but I am trying to show you that All The Problems In This World is not working the way that it has to, to sustain me and my family.
It’s been 5 years since I opened, and I have only been on vacation once, the year I opened the physical store. And I was only able to afford it by paying for it from the loan that I took to be able to open the store.
I started going to therapy a few years ago, and my therapist says I could and should apply for a convalescent treatment/cure, but who pays my bills while I don’t work? - I am on medication, because I was diagnosed with ADHD. Now I believe ADHD is something great and amazing, but it’s also super challenging to deal with living in a world that is not exactly supportive of many of its features. I am convinced ADHD is the reason I not just had the weird idea to open ATPITW, but also to actually do it! There is a reason nobody has done something similar before in all of Europe! - I love my work and dealing with customers face to face - but at the end of the day I can only manage to run the routines.
More business challenges
Last year I figured that I have to hire an assistant to work part time each day to be able to take over boxing and shipping orders, and to answer your emails regarding shipping. And trust me, you have no idea how challenging and complicated this job is! From answering the same questions again and again. Of course I could use a chat bot, but as a small (physical and online) business I rely on good customer service, and I also want my online customers to be able to talk to a human who makes them feel heard. But that also means that, in many cases, when all they have to do is to take a look at the FAQ on the website, they email you for the most-FAQ-ish questions. And when you think in 2026 people should know the difference between tracked and untracked shipping, it appears many still don’t. And because you don’t want to lose the customer you give your best to keep a nice tone, because first of all they don’t trust you being reliable, because UPS, DHL, Hermes, FedEx, GLS, etc. are not exactly customer friendly companies, and they push the reliability to the sender (while the only reason they exist is them being reliable to move things from A to B once in their physical possession) you have to make up for that! And on top Amazon and other corporations set a standard no small business can ever compete with, while everybody believes this to be status quo. Please, show me how you would handle that!
So you have to really WORK to earn a customer’s trust, by taking the time to look into each single case, and then write a personal, friendly and informative reply to them explaining the situation, and hopefully they trust you. Actually most do, because my customers really ARE empathic and decent humans. But still, you do not know who you are talking to, and the more customers/orders, the bigger the chance of talking to a less understanding person.
Finally, nobody would understand if I would charge my customers for reasonable and friendly customer service. Like every other retailer I have to cut that off the margin of what I sell.
Why didn’t I quit earlier, if things were that bad for years already?
First of all, I always believed I would be able to change course to safe waters! Because every week I get incredible feedback from my customers for what I have created with All The Problems In This World, and how great and unique it is. That always kept me looking forward and staying positive. Second and more important, the store keeps growing. The turnover grew significantly every year, BUT unfortunately that is not enough! Because while the cost of living grew significantly too, the margin for each sold book remains basically the same. Third, I believed I would find a solution: I reached out in 2024 looking for a partner for my business, but to find someone qualified, reliable and willing to commit financially turned out impossible. I spoke to several interested and found one I believed well fitting, but they dropped out after they were offered a job raise and better position at their old company. Understandable, but it set me back to zero. That was in summer 2025, and here I am with an even bigger workload, an even bigger debt, and it being even more impossible to realize the potential myself, in which I still do believe in very much.
In a better world
In a better world I would expect a city and its government to support small-businesses that focus on creating culture and community. For example to have you pay less rent, or provide room in one of the many empty mall and office buildings, or to pay less taxes. Especially in a city mostly popular for its cultural impact like Berlin, which is on the best way of making it impossible to maintain that „historical“ standard. Because instead politicians do their best to sell out the city to start-ups and tourists, and turn the faces of quarters and streets once popular for their distinct character into the most superficial and sad mélange that now covers every Western city and its streets. Namely cafés, bars, fashion and lifestyle shops that all look the same, and no local can afford nor even wants to go to or just empty shop fronts. Now, don’t understand me wrong. I am not against tourists, nor expats or start-ups, but there must be a reasonable balance, and even politicians must see that? If they have a social conscience, and care just the least about their voters/city/neighbourhood?! Or am I naive? I guess so.
Alternatives?
Last summer, when it became clear that my potential partner changed his mind, I started thinking of turning the store into a collective, with me being just one of several regular members, but as much as I believe in collective work and theoretical anarchism, I don’t think that it is a realistic opinion for ATPITW. - First of all there is a reason why customers are so happy with what I have created, what I sell and how I run the shop. That is a lot if „Is“, but that is, because I am and was always in charge of everything, and I always had a very clear image of what the store needs and what not. I am convinced a collective would sooner or later turn the shop upside down. And second I took a 30k loan, and invested about the same money out of my own pocket, plus all the work hours of the past five years. (18k organically grown followers on Instagram don’t come from out of nowhere!) I simply can not afford not be paid off, nor can I just forget that, even if I wanted to. The possibility to be out-voted by a collective (that has individually and even together invested much less time and money) about future decisions I consider wrong, and against the store’s core principles, is something I can’t swallow. But no matter how much I tell that to myself, it doesn’t change the fact that I have to find an alternative solution, and I think the last option is to ask for your support!