Briefing.

A FIRST PERSON ACCOUNT OF RUNNING A SMALL BUSINESS

THE rise of e-commerce has some pundits predicting the death of conventional mail order.

But at Pack Central Mail Order in North Hollywood, founder Bob Paris has thrived without taking his catalog online, even though he does use computer technology to track his inventory and customer data.

How does he stay competitive? Paris ships CDs and cassettes to prison inmates, a population that continues to swell and has limited or no Internet access. Jennifer Smith spoke with Paris about the ins and outs of selling to a literally captive audience.

"We've been doing it since 1980. It's a real niche. Anything having to do with correctional facilities is a growth business.

"When I worked in a record store during college, I noticed that most of the mail-order buyers were inmates. When I graduated, I decided to start my own thing.

"In Rolling Stone they had a classified section called Inmate Dialogue, which was inmates looking for pen-pals. I used them as sales leads and sent a catalog to the address.

"At the time, mail order had a very dicey reputation. I called the business Pack Central because I just wanted a name that would induce people to order and give them faith that it would arrive. It really doesn't mean anything.

"I was working out of my sisters' bedroom, using a 12-page catalog. What allowed me to start out was that you don't need inventory. If you have a store, you have to carry everything -- and some of it may bomb. We can get any recording that's in print within a day, and if we see repetition from requests we can order more directly from the record label.

"We don't do sales over the Internet -- inmates don't have credit cards, so they're not e-customers. At prison facilities they have a 'canteen' system where family members or friends can deposit money into a special account. The inmate then requests that a check be sent out to us.

"One of the greatest problems is barrier to entry. People who run prisons are worried about inmates getting contraband. We've never had a contraband incident, so we do pretty well.

"We send out every order insured mail to protect against the one or two (inmates) who will try and say they didn't get it.

"Years ago we sent an order to an inmate at Attica and it was returned stamped, 'Escaped, no forwarding address."'