I’m doing some thought experiments, and I’d absolutely love feedback from Dopers.
As many of you know, my wife and I own a small (~1,500 square feet) bookstore in a small town. When we bought the store in 2001, it sold new & used books and some calendars. That was it. Since we bought the store, it has grown very quickly (especially in new books), but we’ve noticed that book sales have leveled off the last couple of years. We’ve experimented with quite a few other lines, some of which have succeeded, and some of which have flopped horribly.
Here are some of the things we’ve tried:
Journals (success, especially high-end leather journals)
Magazines (success!)
Pens & art supplies (dismal failure)
CCGs like Magic: the Gathering (did well for a while, but tapered off)
Pipes and cigars (just started: big success!)
Maps (success, but tapering off)
Globes (flop)
Postcards (flop)
Paintings and posters (very slow)
Booklights (moderate success)
Fancy bookmarks (success)
Jigsaw puzzles (flop)
Games like chess, cribbage, backgammon (huge flop)
We don’t have the space or the food license to do an in-house coffee shop, but we sell pre-packaged coffee from the local monastery, and just added a line of gourmet loose-leaf teas that are selling pretty well.
If you were passing through, what would you expect to find? What products would go well with books? What products would you not want to see, that might make the store look less like a serious bookstore?
Do you already sell candies? Around here, even the bookstores that don’t have in-house coffee places still have a really big assortment of candy at the counter (particularly fancy, overpriced chocolate).
Although I really only go to the book store for books, while there I’ve been known to impulse buy the odd bookmark as well as the occasional soft drink and/or candy bar. I’m also sort of in the market for a book stand . . . it’s very difficult to read and eat a bowl of cereal at the same time. What else? Well, sometimes I’ll notice stationary items at one of my local book stores and realize that might come in handy. You’re probably not going to get rich selling any of this stuff, but that’s the best I can come up with at the moment. Good luck with your enterprise!
Honestly I think bookstores have been drifting towards being something other than bookstores and I wish they’d stop. I realize that’s hard to do and still make money, kind of like movie theaters making their profit on concessions.
What would I like to see in a bookstore? Books and I guess their accessories like bookmarks or little clip-on lights.
What makes me think less of a store? Food, music, movies, games, toys, etc.
It’d be hard to satisfy a customer like me and still make money, I’m sure, but to me you get big points for selling used books! All of the extras don’t make me NOT go into bookstores nowadays, but I go less because of them. When I do, I sigh as I weave through the giant section of things that have nothing to do with books at all, and wonder just how many more books they could fit in there if they didn’t stock up on all of the extras. It’s sad when the selection of books shrinks to make room for coffee and movies… in a bookstore.
Do you have any couches or chairs? I won’t hang around in a bookstore that doesn’t have them and lots of others won’t either. The worst type of bookstore is one that doesn’t want you hanging around or reading the merchandise. I won’t buy all of it but I will buy something if I can take my time otherwise it is off to amazon.com
Music? I know Not A Platypus dislikes seeing that in a store but until our local Borders got rid of its music section, my brother bought probably one CD there for every two books he bought there. DVDs, too. Borders actually had a lot more import CDs and DVDs than I’d see elsewhere.
Half Price Books bills themselves as a books/records/magazines store. Their music inventory is about 1/10 of their book inventory (at least in my local store). But, you know, if you start selling some used music or some hip new indie music, you might get a new audience.
Also, have you considered a rewards/loyalty program, with email newsletters that include coupons? My brother goes gaga for that at Borders.
I get that paintings and postcards have not gone well, but what about something in between? Maybe find a local photographer or artist and sell smaller inexpensive matted pieces. They wouldn’t take up much space and you may be able to sell them on consignment for the artist so you won’t be out inventory costs to try it.
This has absolutely nothing to do with bookstores, but kids are going crazy for Silly Bandz right now. It’s the current fad. They’re cheap and if you picked some up you could make a nice little profit on them for the time being. Put them near the cash register for quick impulse buys (Mommmm, pleaaaase buy it for me!)
I see you’re in Montana… Are you in an area that gets many travelers passing through, or is it all local traffic?
Book-based gifts like mugs, t-shirts, etc. Foyles in London have a wide range of these and they seem to do very well. Often people coming looking for a book as a gift, but might well be happy to get a t-shirt instead; the gift-receiver would probably be happier with a Hitch-hiker’s Guide t-shirt than yet another copy of the book. (If there’s isn’t a t-shirt with ‘Dont’ Panic’ in H2G2 font on it, then there should be).
Calendars (seasonal only, not year round)
“Literary” themed tote bags or tshirts (ie with quotes or famous authors on them)
Remaindered art books have good margin on them
Interactive game-book combos (klutz press type stuff, if you don’t already carry it)
If you’re not already doing it, a selection of regional authors & regionally themed books (i.e. certain types of travel books (Wine tours of the Blah Valley), things like kids books set in your region).
I need tables and chairs scattered around the shop, so I can sit down and examine the books that I might want to buy.
I like a lot of magazines, but I dislike even more of them. I can live without just about all of the pop culture magazines. I’ve quit taking Analog, though, and I might pick up an issue if it doesn’t have part of a serial in it, and if it has authors that I actually like in it. Same with F&SF and Asimov’s, minus the bitching about serials. I enjoy crafting journals, if they actually have something sufficiently different to offer, but most of them don’t. As for other magazines, sometimes I pick them up, sometimes I don’t.
I think that a globe would not be an impulse buy, but something that would be planned, long range. I’d like a globe, but it is an investment in space as well as money, and I don’t want a crappy one. Maybe you could offer catalog orders for globes, or something.
I buy my CCGs at the comic and gaming store, usually. I did buy a few boosters now and then when Magic was much hotter. I do buy boxed games, but again, I’d buy them at the gaming store, though if you had a nice selection…I also like jigsaws, but I hate the cheap crappy ones that are a pain to put together. I might like a nice selection of boxed games, especially the classics like Clue or Monopoly or Risk, but there’s the danger of getting too much into games and neglecting the books.
I hate smoking. I hate even being around smokers when they’re not smoking, because most of them stink, especially cigar smokers. If a store has a lot of smokers around, and I find it too stinky, then I don’t go to that store.
I enjoy those wire puzzles, the kind where you have to figure out how to remove the ring from the two horseshoes that are put together, but once you’ve solved them, what do you do with them? They’re fun to look at, but I rarely buy them.
I like kinetic toys, and some educational toys. However, a book store should be a book store, not a toy store.
I WILL buy a small bit of good chocolate. In fact, I’m supposed to eat 2 squares of dark chocolate a day, doctor’s orders. Yeah, I’m keeping that doctor. I think that too many book stores are trying to be coffee shops too, and I don’t appreciate buying a book, getting it home, and finding a food/drink stain on my new book.
I strongly sympathize. I wish we could keep just being a bookstore, but that’s getting tougher and tougher. We just moved into a larger building, and we’re trying to keep our new sections book-oriented where possible. For example, the coffee/tea shelves include a selection of books about coffee & tea. There are cigar books & magazines by the humidor (which doesn’t take up much space).
We have two old comfy chairs and a big couch, and then we bring in more seating during events. There’s a huge teddy bear on the couch, which the kids love.
The only music we carry is by local groups, with a few assorted “listen to this in the car” CDs. We thought about carrying more music, but if you think book stores are hurting, do some financial analysis on music stores! Downloads are easy and margins are slim.
Our “frequent reader” program has been a massive success. We also pull a report every year and do an exclusive party once a year for our top customers, with food, drinks, free books, and more.
We do have a rack of cards from a local photographer, and we’re toying with expanding that.
We get skiiers in the winter, but not a lot of them. In the summer, though, when the pass between us and Yellowstone Park opens, our sales double because of tourists.
We’ve been toying with that. In our old location, the landlord owned a t-shirt store, so our lease said we couldn’t sell any clothing. Since we have the gourmet tea, mugs would probably go well.
We do the seasonal calendars, and carry some remainders in addition to the new & used books. Our local authors and regional subjects are the strongest section in the store–especially hiking guides & local history.
I went for eclectic on the magazines. For the first year, we didn’t even carry the stuff the grocery store has, but we added those when we moved. Almost every day, somebody says, “Wow, I’ve never seen this magazine before” or “Boy, this magazine is hard to find.”
Since we sell only the high-end cigars, most people smoke them infrequently. That means if they just smoked one, they’re probably not looking for another one yet. I’m very sensitive to the smell issues, and it hasn’t been a problem.
Good idea!
Thank you, Al. It was very kind of you to drop into this thread just to drop that little piece of snark.
Just books. I would not want anything else- not chairs or coffee or sweets.
Then again I would probably fail as a book store owner.
A quick one though. As you are probably aware, a lot of ladies seem to like to swap Mills and Boons sort of stuff every week or two. Are you set up for that? I doubt that it would make a killing but it may be nice bonus.
I think the problem might be the types of games you are selling as opposed to selling games themselves. Really I can’t see many people desperately desiring a backgammon set. Perhaps modern popular euro style games (Settlers of Catan, Ticket to Ride, Dominion etc…) and party games (Apples to Apples, Say Anything, Dixit) would fair better.
Touristy items in the summer – t-shirts, coffee mugs, maybe some local photos or old post cards that have been turned into posters. You could put this stuff in the same general area where you put your “Local Interest” books.
How about a selection of very nice gift wrapping paper, gift bags, or gift boxes?
And also cards for various occasions like B-days, graduations, etc.
I think anyone who is buying a book as a gift would appreciate not having to stop elsewhere for a card and gift wrapping.