The bathroom must be in the most inconvenient corner of the building jammed with outdated books and no ventilation.
Well, that was fast. Lots of good ideas here.
The owner WILL be selling this shop. And I will buy it, if he sets a reasonable price.
Most of these ideas we’ve already got covered. We won’t be serving coffee or tea or anything edible, because we’ve got cats and Fort Worth has health rules about animals in the serving area. I think the rules are good, it’s just that the cats win out. I don’t think that we can even have an urn and styrofoam cups out in any area that the cats are allowed to roam in.
We have THREE bathrooms, though one is not in use. We have one in the customer area and one in the staff area. The catbox is in the staff bathroom, and gets changed REGULARLY. I’ve been in the staff bathroom at various times, and it doesn’t have that litterbox stink. Also, the cats don’t pee or poop outside their box. A good thing, that.
We already have some chairs and pretty good signage. I’m going to put in some hardwood benches, too, as I’m fat and the chairs have arms. I hadn’t thought of stepstools, and now I’ll keep an eye out for any sales on them. The store map idea is good, I think I’ll implement that. There’s a price guideline at the counter, so that’s good, but maybe it would be a good idea to place guidelines in other areas, too.
One of the things that the current owner doesn’t do is have sales. The manager (who’s staying on for at least a couple of years) and I have discussed various strategies, and I plan to have a permanent sale table. If a book is damaged or just plain stale, it’ll go on the table for a while. I plan on running lots of sales, by theme, category, season, whatever I can think of. For example, 25% off all romance novels during the first half of February. 10% off beach novels (those light fluffy fiction books that you take to the beach, but don’t waste too much brainpower in reading) during the summer months. Basically, I want to draw people into the store with sales, and I’ll bet that they’ll browse and find some full-price books, too.
The books are already clearly organized into categories, and then alpha by author in the case of fiction. In non-fiction, it’s usually organized by subcategory, for example, there’s the craft section, then all the needlework books are together, and within the needlework category they’re classified as cross-stitch, crocheting, knitting, etc. I think this is best, when there’s enough books in a category to justify it. I know that I might be looking for a crocheting book and not necessarily a knitting book, even though I both knit and crochet.
I completely agree that a used book store has to SMELL like a used book store. This store is clean, but it does have home-made shelves all over the place. There’s a few professional book displays, but most of the books are in the amatuer shelving.
I would dearly love to offer trade-ins (2 for 1 or so), however, as the store manager pointed out to me, the electric company and the landlord won’t take used books as payment. So, the current policy is that the store accepts books for trade credit or cash payment (customers will get more credit than cash), and any purchase can have up to half the price paid in credit. The shop NEEDS the cash flowing in. I’ll keep the current policy.
The shop has some rare and collectible books (hardback and paperback), but most of the stock is just average used books. The shop doesn’t specialize, it carries all sorts of categories, though of course it can only carry what people offer to sell or trade in. Personally, I’m a big fan of SF/fantasy, and I like my mysteries, too, but I’ll carry a lot of categories that I’m not interested in. I WON’T carry what the SDMB calls hate speech…for instance, I won’t accept KKK propaganda. I will carry books that discuss this sort of thing, though.
I’m going to rename it. Either Bodoni’s Book Shop or Bodoni Booksellers. I’m leaning toward Bodoni’s Book Shop, I just like the sound of it.
The kid’s books section already has some toys in it. One of the cats, the longhair, loves kids and will accompany them to “his” area of the store. One of the manager’s daughters will hold him in her lap and read out loud to him. He LOVES this.
We won’t be selling books-by-the-foot. Half Price Books does this, and they’re only a few miles from us. Also, we are more selective in what we accept in used books that HPB. Of course, if someone comes up to me or the manager with a stack of “stale” books and offers us a price for the set, we can always consider the offer.
We’re working on a computer catalog. Right now, about 15% of the stock is cataloged, and the manager and assistant manager (my daughter!) work on putting more books into the catalog whenever they have some spare time. Internet sales are pretty good. The manager and assistant manager also have an almost uncanny knowledge of the stock.
I hope to have this deal completed by the first of October. That’s when the North Texas Booksellers Association holds its trade show, and it would be an excellent time for me to introduce myself to the other booksellers in the area.
Bodoni’s Book Shop. That sounds like a place I’d go. Leave out anything related to Booksellers. Too informal and corporate sounding for a store dedicated to used books. If I make it back to Texas this year, I’ll stop in with some cash. 
I like Bodoni’s Book Shop. It has good rhythm, and it’s not stupidly punny, like a trendy coffeeshop or something.
I vote for good organization too. I hate going into the history section and finding everything all mixed up, and I hate more looking for one particular religion writer through shelves of The Prophet and random junk, because they just shove the new books into the left-hand side of the shelf so that the books get staler the further left you go.
Not too much dust. Some dust is good; spiders are not.
Soft, pleasant music is good. Loud, not-so-pleasant music is bad. (My store plays oddball stuff which would be fine if it weren’t so ear-splitting and constant. I do not want relentlessly energetic music battering at me when I’m trying to browse!)
Will you have children’s books? I like having a selection of those, but they have to be pretty cheap or no one will buy them.
I also like the towers and piles of books. And, old hardbacks all over the place, though I’m sure they’re not cost-effective. 
I like a wide selection of stuff; bookstores with entire shelves of The Notebook, all still priced at $6.50, and plenty of the obvious classics but not anything more interesting than that—are not places I like to return to.
Either a computer system or everything in your head and your clerks’ heads. Nothing is worse than a store that disdains computers, but isn’t familiar with the stock, either.
–Can you tell my local used bookstore is less than satisfactory? It doesn’t have a bathroom, either.
I have my own little fantasy bookplace too. Yay, Lynn! Are you going to be on Abebooks? Can we all buy from you? 
No, no, no. Nothing fancy, but something like Peets in small batches. A lot of readers are somewhat coffee snobs. Definitely not Starbucks.
I roast my own coffee. I can smell Folgers in an urn @ 100 yards. I turn and run. 
Peace,
mangeorge
HOURS!
This is why I frequently end up going to B&N or Borders rather than the small, privately owned book stores. Around here, the hours are something like 9AM-6PM and closed on Sundays. Sorry, but I’m working most of that time and if I go to the gym after work, I’m going to pass on shopping at your (“you” meaning the bookstore owners here) establishment. Yeah, maybe if I happen to pass by Saturday before you close I’ll stop in. I’m not saying work your ass off by staying open all hours, but try to choose hours that accomodate a majority working professionals (not that you have to put the swing/graveyard shifts out either; maybe try staddling shifts).
Ok. No coffee. Better none than urn coffee. Sorry, duffer.
Staff who know books and love to read, even pop fiction, and who can make recommendations based on the customers preferences, even though those preferences might not be well stated. I do like younger, enthusiastic people, but that’s not real important.
Peace,
mangeorge
Ooh, ooh! I love used book stores. I’ve been to several incredibly good ones, and here are the things that make a used book store great, in my opinion. In order of importance:
- Good selection of quality books. Part of this will depend on the area, but the best used book stores are filled with books that I already own and thought were excellent, as well as lots of books that I’ve never heard of.
1a) Addendum: if the only science or computer books you have in stock are hopelessly outdated, it’s better to axe the whole section. A computer section full of Quicken 1.0 and Lotus 1-2-3 books is worse than no computer section at all.
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Prices not to exceed 50% of the cover price, except for ancient books (where the cover price is $0.50) or rare titles.
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The store should be cozy, and jammed full of books on shelves up to the ceiling. Have a table up front of recent arrivals or books which you know to be particularly good or eye-catching.
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Evening/weekend hours if you can swing it. If anything, regular business hours are the least important times to be open, really. Noon-9pm M-F is much better for most people than 8-6. Try to stay open both Saturday and Sunday if you can manage it.
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Cat.
Item #3 should also have noted that the books must be alphabetized, and stored by category.
When you put up pricing signs throughout the store ( in each section, ideally) please do them on the computer and then laminate them.
Book signings of local authors would be a nice thing too.
Are you going to have a logo with some jackboots in it
Another vote for Bodoni’s Book Shop.
Music- light or older jazz, maybe some quirky stuff but nothing overly jarring- and a radio handy for news & weather alerts
And colorful characters for staff- people with unique interests who can discuss lots of stuff without getting boorish about it.
I’m a big fan of little signs, cartoons and newspaper clippings pasted all over the place, ideally relevant to the section of the bookstore they’re in. I.e. new yorker cartoons about history near the history books. Elliot Bay books, my favorite Seattle bookstore, seems to encourage their staff to write little 20-30 word blurbs about their favorite authors or books or topics on index cards and tape them to the shelves near the relevant books. And I love that: even if somebody doesn’t feel like gabbing with the person behind the counter, they can still have a small-bookstore experience.
The exchanges policy you described sounds perfectly reasonable (half the value in credit, less in cash, and credit can be applied up to half of the sale.) I’ve seen that in other bookstores around here too. I mean, I always like the bookstores where you can use credit for the full price of the book. I haven’t paid for a book at my hometown used bookstore in 12 years: I’m still burning through credit for books I sold them in high school.
A couple of things about exchanges and credit. Be organized about it. I like being able to give my name and have the person behind the counter quickly find how much credit I have, either because they’re using index cards that are well arranged, or they’re computerized. I hate places where they have a big stack of binders behind the counter and it takes them like five minutes to even find my page. The buying part, at the end, should be efficient and fun.
If people have a ton of bags of books they want you to look through, there should be someplace they can just leave them so that you can look at them overnight or later in the day, and then they can come back. That way you don’t have to stand there and look through 200 of some person’s books while you’d rather be helping buying customers.
I’m surprised nobody seems to have mentioned how important it is to have a cheap-books table out on the sidewalk! Books you’re basically willing to have stolen, but that you can use to draw people into the store. I always look through the sidewalk table before going into a bookstore.
The thing I’ve heard from talking to used bookstore owners is that there’s never any problem getting ahold of books: people are going to try to sell you more than you can possibly handle. And you can do really well at auctions, book sales, garage sales, etc if you want to round out your collection. You’ll quickly be turning books away. The big expense is rent for a good retail location to actually sell those books from. And so what a lot of them do is have an offsite storage room that lets them be a little more liberal about what they buy, and then use that as a buffer to stock the store (or to sell on the internet.)
And don’t neglect the internet. It’s not glamorous, but every used bookstore owner I know says they do at least 2/3 of their sales online.
Oh, I could go on and on. I work for a pretty big bookstore now, and owning a little used bookstore is one of my fantasy jobs. So I’m totally excited for you – have fun!
YAVfSAbA (Yet another vote for sorting alphabetically by author.) And also strongly supporting making sure the prices can be found in a flash. Signs everywhere.
Do not put any store stamps or labels on the inside book covers. I refuse to buy used books at stores that do that. I want as pristine a book as possible. I don’t care if you’re trying to discourage people recycling books back to you (or to your competition). Value books on their condition only, not on how many owners it’s had.
Can the music. The clerks can have a little radio near the register, but it shouldn’t be hearable 10 feet away. What one person thinks is great music is another person’s “Get me out of this hellhole store!” noise. You’ll drive more people off than you’ll encourage to stay. Play the exact same music that the public libraries play: none.
Forget used CDs and video tapes. But used DVDs are okay. Just avoid getting stuck with multiple copies of the same title.
You basically can’t have too many newer titles. (But beware having the too many copies trap.) Get those by the truckload. Older titles aren’t nowhere nearly as profitable. (The real Used Book Store Scroungers will disagree, but they will only make up a small % of customers.)
Sales are vital to inventory turnover (and that is crucial for any business). For a used bookstore, try rotating thru authors alphabetically: “This week, authors A-C 50% off.” This gets rid of old stuff, gets customers in the habit of coming by often, etc. (And of course you know you hold the newest good A-C books in the back until the following week?)
In articles on “How not to start your own business”, used book stores are the classic example of something doomed to failure. The failure rate is amazing. Worse than restaurants. That one successful bookstore you see is just the lucky survivor of hundreds that came and went in no time. I’m supposed to say something encouraging here, but I don’t know what it would be. Sorry.
If you do choose to play music, stick strictly to music with no lyrics. I like to be able to find the books of local authors since they’re impossible to find at big stores anyway. If you could get a local author to show up once in a while to sign books, that would be way cool.
And if I were going to a newly opened used bookstore, I’d want to be able to buy a canvas bag with the name screen-printed on it so I could show off. That’s one type of business I don’t mind being a walking billboard for. 
The jillelope (to whom I’m getting married in a couple of weeks) manages a smallish used-book store here in town. I can give a couple of pointers that I’ve picked up from listening to her:
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Sell books on-line. You can sell them through Amazon’s Marketplace function; you never know who’s looking for that book of bathroom decorating tips from 1975.
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You might want to give trade credit for books rather than cash; everyone’s got a box of unsellable old paperbacks that they’d love to get some money for, but you’ll learn pretty quickly to spot the ones nobody’s going to buy.
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DON’T HIRE ANYONE. You’re not going to have much money. At all. No, seriously, I mean VERY LITTLE MONEY. If at all possible, only one person should work in the store, at least until you see how things are going to go.
Hmm, that’s about all I’ve got for now; I’ll see if I can get her to write up something about it, but I tried that a few months ago for another thread and she ended up not getting around to it. As you can imagine, with the wedding coming up so soon, we’re a bit short on free time lately, so I can’t guarantee it’ll happen. But I’ll ask her.
Oh yeah: The Lost in Translation soundtrack is a great album to play in a bookstore.
Lotsa good advice here, so I’ll try to not repeat any of it unless I can’t resist. A few pointers from one who’s dealt with more old/donated books than I care to remember…
desireable vs. just old: It sounds like you have some very canny people at hand, but pick their brains on how to differentiate between neat stuff and trash. I get frustrated with used book stores that clog their valuable space with obvious junk. IMO a good used book store cannily weeds out the dreck for me. A faded copy of Lavendar And Old Lace is charming. Yellowed paperbacks of Princess Daisy aren’t.
condition: A little dust is picturesque. The reek of mildewed paper isn’t. There’s a big difference between good old and just plain old. People will probably try to offload all kinds of ‘treasures’ on you, too many of which will be recently excavated from a basement or garage. (No lie, we will only receive donation books at our receiving entrance. Nothing’s more depressing than diving into a box of old books, then having a roach skitter up your arm. They go straight into the dumpster and aren’t even considered for sale by the Friends.) There are ways to eliminate smells and bugs in old books, but unless a title justifies the effort, toss it.
repair: Don’t know if your niche will be valuable/collectible books, but just a little basic repair and clean up can work wonders to spiff up stock. Basic book repair isn’t hard at all. If at all possible have a fairly clear work space at or near the desk. You can do a lot of it during quiet moments. Examples: soft erasers to remove pencil markings (and a little brush to whisk away the rubbings), cleaning wipes for lamiated jackets, binding glue and rubber bands or presses to reinforce weak spines, etc. It’s just basic care of your stock that customers will only notice subliminally–for the good, i.e. loved and cared-for books waiting to go to a new home.
bags: Nothing spells ‘tacky’ faster than blissfully buying a whole stack of books, then having the merchant shove them an inch across the counter. “They’re yours now, so juggle ‘em back wherever yer goin’.” Or grudgingly pull out wrinkled grocery sacks. I’m a demon recycler but convenience helps sometimes. By all means sell the string sacks, but have other options available.
I’ll send you some catalogs of specialty bookish-type-things, Lynn. There are all kinds of spiffy things designed just for book folk, from repair tools to step stools and PR stuff. The prices are very reasonable overall, and designed specifically for book handlers.
Lynn, I’m surprised that you didn’t come across this thread.
Congratulations, Lynn! That sounds wonderful.
burundi and I just got back from my favorite used bookstore in the world (I’m disqualifying Powell’s on a technicality): Chapel Hill’s The Bookshop. burundi had never been before, and it was love at first sight.
Some pluses:
-The place is big, and the inventory is bigger. Books that are shelved are in reasonably good order, but books piled above the shelved books are just in rough order. A nice combination of order and chaos.
-Each book is priced in a light pencil marking on the inside front. If you’re interested in a book, you don’t have to hunt around for the pricing formula: it’s right there.
-Every surface is covered–covered–in erudite articles and cartoons, ranging from stories about the flowers left on Poe’s grave every year, to New Yorker cartoons, to news about valuable historical manuscripts recently uncovered. It gives you the sense that the owner loves reading, and plasters his favorite tidbits up around his store.
-The poetry section is good enough to attract hipster kids, but he’s got signs there explaining in hipsterkid-friendly terms why it’s not okay to steal a book of poetry that has great personal meaning to you.
-No coffee. You go there to read, not to caffeinate.
It’s a fabulous bookstore. Best of luck!
Daniel
Subtly, and without shame, acknowledge the existence of L-Space, and finr your place in it.
Never put the embarrassingly outdated technology books in the technology section - keep them in a separate ‘historically interesting and amusingly outdated’ section.
Try to avoid a mildewed, dusty feel, and encourage a warm, clean, but ‘antiquated’ Carl Conrad Coreander atmosphere.
I was about to suggest this. Gives the shop a more open, accessible feel.