What should a used book shop be like?

In My Humble Opinion
81

You’re getting some wonderful advice about the perfect bookstore environment, I hope you don’t mind my throwing out a couple of other observances based on your posts. Some comments rang a few alarm bells in my head, and while I don’t want to discourage you, I want to be sure you’re aware of potential pitfalls. And I’ll preface my opinions by saying I’ve never established or run a business in my life, so you may dispose of my thoughts as you see fit.

  1. You don’t go into detail about why, but you’re not very happy with the location. And the people I know who are in retailing really believe in Location, Location, Location. A bad location is an almost certain route to failure. And a business in a bad location is worth a lot less on the sales block than one in a good location. Think very carefully about whether the current location is bad for the business, or bad in terms of your convenience.

  2. You are buying a business that is losing money, and you are planning to retain the same staff, possibly hire more, and make very few policy changes. Also, you have ruled out for yourself the most frequent method of cost reduction for small business owners, performing the labor yourself. I’m very sorry there are health issues preventing this, as it will certainly make the financial picture more complicated.

  3. I would suggest that you can’t stock your shelves merely on what walks in your door, and that you need a buyer to do out to estate sales and the like. I’ve personally know two used bookstore owners, and they both do that themselves.

  4. Have you looked at the books from prior years to verify that the place ever made a profit?

82

These are all great questions.

  1. The business is locked into the current location for at least one year, and possibly two. The owner isn’t sure, and will have to dig out his lease. I plan to use the time before the lease expires to get to know the business and to scout out better locations. The location we have now isn’t HORRIBLE, but it could definitely be better. I can improve the business just by putting out an advertising trailer sign for eight months out of the year, and by turning on the lights and sign even when we’re closed. Many people think that the place is closed now, because it doesn’t have lights on.

  2. The current owner inherited the shop from his late wife, who was a booklover. He has no interest or ability in retail sales and books. He’s a nice guy, really, but he doesn’t have a clue about how to run a retail store. For instance, the ONLY advertising he will do is in the Yellow Pages, which is good, but not nearly enough. The manager and I have brainstormed, and have figured out several ways to advertise and promote the shop. My daughter happens to be the assistant manager, by the way. I’ve seen the staff at work, and both the manager and my daughter are pretty good at in-store sales, recommending books, etc. Both of them are also very good at doing the online sales, which is an area that I’ll be putting more effort into. I will be doing some of the online work myself, and thus be able to free up the staff for the stuff I can’t do. My husband is quite handy with his hands, and so is his brother, and I plan on having them do most of the maintenance on the shop. His brother owes us a fair chunk of change, and I think that he’ll be glad to work it off, instead of paying it in cash. So, while I won’t be able to work a shift at the register on a frequent basis, I will be able to do some of the work in the shop. Also, the current owner has been living out of state for some years now. I’ll be in town, and I’ll be able to handle any small problems and opportunities as they come up. I won’t be out on a cruise or on some road trip 90% of the time.

  3. The manager does currently go to estate sales, looks at private collections, etc. She’s pretty good at picking up stuff that can be resold at a profit. She’s going to teach me how to do this. My daughter is also very good at buying, but she doesn’t do outside buying on a regular basis now, as the owner hasn’t wanted anyone but the current manager to do this. However, when I own the shop, well, I think I can trust my own daughter! I love to go garage saling, and I think that I will enjoy doing this part of the business, as my health permits. In any case, I think it will be great to have three people able to make purchases.

  4. The owner is currently on a cruise, and won’t be back until the middle of next month. In addition, he has been using the “shoebox” method of accounting, so I am going to have to sit down with a calculator and his shoebox and figure out what’s what. I had a couple of years of accounting in college, a LOOONG time ago, and I’ve done the daily worksheets in another retail business, one that I was assistant manager in. I have read up on this, too, and I have a basic form that I can plug the numbers into.

  5. I’ve been in contact with a CPA, who has promised to introduce me to a lawyer who specializes in people who buy businesses.

  6. I’m in contact with SCORE, and have found someone who will help me. He’s been sending me worksheets and outlines and resources. I THINK I could do it without him, but I will take advice where I can find it.

83

Maybe that’s one of the reasons we don’t see more used bookstores. I mean, I want to look at used books, not get a hassle. When I go to Borders I get employees who are generally pretty cool, a cup of Very Good Chai, and easy browsing. There is another bookstore in town that is “local,” in that it isn’t part of a huge chain, but it is about the same size as borders. A good portion of the store is taken up by books on sale. Since they are ordered poorly, they are a real hassle to browse. I won’t go there because the savings on money just isn’t enough to pay for the headache of trolling through the mess. Plus, their chai sucks.

If I were going to make a used book store…a used book store?! Why not an used bookstore?! Good god I wish I had been a better grammar student!

If I were going to make a used book store a regular stop, then good ordering of the books would be a necessary condition to keep my business.

As for the cat, why would you eliminate people with allergies? I’m certainly not going to go to a bookstore that discriminates against my sister.

84

I’m not fond of my local used bookstore, and I’ll tell you why. The owner is a flake.

She makes a point of having signage that says “we can get it for you” but I’ve been on her list for a Robert B. Parker book for over a year… and in that time, I’ve gone in there several times and seen the damn book on the shelf! To her loss, I bought it elsewhere because I was so annoyed. If you keep a request list, pay attention to it!

As I qualify as a “local artist” and she sells small works by local artists, I brought in some beaded bookmarks of my own design to show her. She oohed and ahhed over them, and asked for my card. She never called. No biggie, I thought, I didn’t get the sale. HOWEVER. She is now selling bookmarks EXACTLY LIKE MINE - made by her. When I inquired about them, she told me that a local artist had shown her some just like them, and she thought they were so cool she just HAD to make some. She had absolutely no recollection that I was the local artist, nor did she realize what she’d done was unethical.

Pricing and buying - her method is just plain weird. She seems to price books at whim, without regard to condition. I’ve seen several copies of the same book priced differently. She is equally capricious about buying - sometimes you get 50 cents credit for a book, other times she’ll offer you a quarter. Also, she has an odd policy about SF and fantasy - if you bring in SF books, you may use that credit ONLY for SF books! When I asked why, she flat out told me that SF readers are “weird” and that she preferred not to deal with them. HELLO? I had just brought in a load of SF books that she had seemed happy to buy. Way to make your customer feel good.

On the plus side (and yes, there is a plus side): she frequently has local authors in promoting their books, she has a couple small book clubs that meet there including a kids’ book club, she does sell works by local artists, such as handmade stationery and such (assuming she remembers who the local artists are…), and she does do that “if you like ths author, you’ll like that one” recommendation thing, and if you catch her on a good day, she can speak fairly knowledgeably about most of the books in her shop.

I wish you many good lucks, Lynn!

85

Sounds like a place I’d frequent, if not for the fact I am several hundred miles away.

One question I do have (and my apologies if I missed in in reading through): what kind of bathrooms will you have? Now before you start laughing, realize you will have customers like me.

I dearly LOVE to go shopping in used bookstores, but I must be comfortable enough to stay in the stores for extended periods of time to hunt for just…the…right…book. I walk in the the store and the smell of books and leather and paper and dust (and cats) make my brain go into major overdrive: "Yeeeeeeehaaaaaaaw! A BOOKSTORE!! Oh boy ohboyohboyohboyohboy, what am I gonna find today! What am I gonna buy today? I can’t wait!

And my gut and/or bladder is saying (in a New Yawk accent), “Yo, smartboy, we gots needs, too! Right now, if ya know what I mean.”

And the lower system wins out, and the brain must wait until the guts & bladder are finished before we can look at all the exciting and wonderful books.

So, for those of us who end up inspecting the plumbing before the shelves…

Do you have a unisex one-seater room way in the back where I have to climb over stacks of books, mops, cleaning supplies, old boxes, etc. and hunt around for the light switch, and realize the light (a 20 watt bulb) is already on, and still have to climb over a stack of books to get to the toilet?

Or are there separate facilities for the men and women, but the tile on the floor is cracked, the wallpaper is peeling, the tank is cracked and mended with duct tape (but the toilet does flush!), the sink tilts to the left (and I have to guess whether you are one of those places that turns the hot water off but I don’t know it until I try to turn the handle and find nothing runs out), and the paper towel is sitting on the corner of the sink (all eight sheets left on the tube, and one-quarter of the towel is soaked from sitting on the corner of the sink).

Or are there separate facilities, and the women’s room is done up in such delicate shades of mauve that the local country club lavatory would wail in shame and embarassment of its own tacky burgundy hues, and a gorgeous amber-flecked vase of silk flowers sits on the marblized (Formica) vanity in front of the mirror (also done with hand-painted gold filigrees. The stall were made of metal, but had been marblized also, and did not clash with the vanity or the wallpaper. The floor was done in large pristine industrial tiles (no lumps in the floor) and there were no cracks around the drainhole. Damn, it was like being in a high class hotel. Only thing missing was someone to hand you a towel, and a whole slew of beauty and health care samples sitting on the table.

Been in all three types of bathrooms, all in used bookstores (the first one also describes our local Waldenbooks). The first one was heavy on the sci-fi and romance (good stock of those, but lacking in art and history), but I was very impressed that the owner of the third one had found a nice book of home renovations and actually had parts of the book displayed in the bathroom with ‘before’ shots of the bathroom (as in “I found this book here in the shop, and you can do this at home, too!”). One heck of a difference!

Keep the brain happy, but keep the gut happier, and you’ll have customers that stay longer, browse more and, hopefully, spend more.
Oh, and like others have said, lots of New York-ish cartoons, as well as reading quotes.

The used bookstore near the college was into classical music (especially string quartets), just enough for a soft background. Sundays was classical jazz day (different clerk).

86

I have to weigh in on the cats thing. Cats in a bookstore are way cool. My old favorite used bookstore used to have a cat that would sit on your shoulder while you looked over the stacks (incredibly cool). Loved that place (this was a long time ago) and talked it up to everyone…

And a LOT of the time I got “oh, yeah, I know the shop you are talking about. Can’t go in there, cats trigger my allergies.”

As I said, bookstore cats are way cool, but you are making a decision to not have customers in your store and to make some people who do choose to shop there uncomfortable. Buy an espresso machine. Be able to pull some space together for Tuesday night poetry readings and Thursday night folksingers. You can sell coffee. You can’t sell cats and they may be driving away perfectly good customers. ('Course poetry and folksingers might drive away perfectly good customers).

Most of the people I know with small businesses do far better listing stuff on eBay or Amazon than setting up and maintaining their own website. I’d be tempted to list books on Amazon if I were you.

If you choose to carry typical second hand bookstore child inappropriate material (i.e. back issues of Hustler), don’t bother to have a children’s section. As you do, I suppose you don’t. Even putting those things into a seperate room does not make mothers comfortable.

87

The cats are part of the book shop deal. Most of the regulars enjoy coming in and petting the male (who loves the attention) and admiring the female (who is not very sociable). While I certainly sympathize* with your sister, the cats stay.

I’m a flake too, but I like to think that I’m not a jerk. And I think that the owner you’re talking about is a jerk. Ripping off your design and selling her own version of it…that’s tacky. And if I’m flaky about SF, it will be in favor of getting more good SF/fantasy in the store. Not just because I like it, but because many of the current customers (and I want to keep all of them!) are into that. I really want to work on the request lists, too. Not just for goodwill, but because I figure that if I can get someone into the store to buy a requested book, that person might very well pick up another dozen books. I know what book buyers are like, since I’m one myself.

Currently, there are three bathrooms. There’s one for the staff, which has the litter box in it. It’s waaaaay in the back of the staff area. This bathroom also has all of the cleaning supplies and instruments in it. The customer bathroom is in the back of the shop, but customers do not have to climb over anything to get to it. The aisles are wide, without stacks of books in them (most of the time) and I think that the bathroom is handicapped accessible. It’s a unisex single seater, but there doesn’t seem to be a line for it. It’s neat, clean, and well stocked. The paper towels are hung on a paper towel holder, as they’re supposed to be. It doesn’t have any decorations, but there IS a full-length mirror on the wall. I am not sure why, I suppose that it was a staff changing room as well as bathroom in some previous incarnation. Or perhaps it’s for checking one’s clothes for traces of Simonizing. Simon is the longhair male cat, who loves to snuggle on customers, and he sheds. This process is called getting Simonized. The third bathroom is currently not in service. I don’t know what, if anything, would be required to bring the third bathroom up to par. With any luck, I’ll have enough walk-in traffic to justify opening that third bathroom for customers.

*I have all sorts of allergies and sensitivities myself. I can’t walk through the cloud of smoke that is at the entrance of some buildings, and will avoid doing business at certain places because I can’t breathe. I also avoid certain restaurants which put black pepper into EVERY main course, because I cannot eat black pepper and have a happy gut.

88

I visited the Book Shoppe when I was in Ft. Worth last month. The store was written up in a travel guide to the area and I talked my wife into stopping by as we explored the rest of the city.

Perhaps I was expecting too much, coming from the Washington DC Metropolitan area, but I though the stock was a little skimpy, compared to some used book stores in Northern Virginia. A wide stock, with frequent acquisitions of older and newer title, is what I’m usually after. I’m peculiar. Sometimes I’m after specific titles, sometimes I’m just exploring, and I like to lose myself in the aisles for awhile. Once or week or so, I take a long lunch and scour the local bookstore for hidden treasures.

I thought the Book Shoppe could use more books. I’m not sure how it works, but I think there needs to be someone on staff who aggressively seeks out people with books to sell. Is the Book Shoppe the first choice for people to sell their books at?

Also, a lot of the stock in the Science Fiction area has fading damage from the sun. I’m not sure how best to protect the stock from the sun, but a faded book cover would turn me away from buying unless I really wanted that title and couldn’t find it elsewhere.

The used book store I shop at have later hours. Most are open to 9:00 PM. Once a month or so, my wife and I stop by a store after going out to dinner and browse until it closes. A store that closes before 8 or o’clock is cutting off potential customers.

I loved the cats. One of the beasts, Simon, I think, ran out the door when I came in and I had to go out to fetch him. He seemed quite happy to be held.

89

Ok then, my ideal used book store has a big community bulletin board. Other small businesses and artists can post notices.

And if you find a location with sufficient traffic volume, a news/magazine stand.

90

If it was the longhaired colorpoint, that was indeed Simon. Schuster doesn’t care to be held at all, except for a very few people. Simon, on the other hand, loves to be held and quite frequently volunteers for customer relations work, as in he’ll follow someone around the store, hinting that he’d like to be picked up.

I’m sorry you were disappointed in the selection. Many people don’t know that the shop is open for business. Half Price Books is a fairly well-known used and remaindered book store, which advertises. HPB will also take ANY books or magazines or records or whatever. So, if people have a mixed lot, they usually think of HPB as their first and only option.

There’s a whole other storeful of books, I don’t know if you noticed it. The shop used to be two storefronts, but the landlord allowed the book shop to lease the next shop and knock out a doorway connecting the walls. The second shop has a ramp leading up to it, and there’s a lot of non-fiction books in that section, and some vintage children’s books in an old fashioned barrister book case.

The manager does go out to estate sales and such, but the book buying budget is tight these days, due to the declining interest of the owner. I think that he’s been thinking of just shutting down the shop for a while now.

I guess that the sunfaded books will have to go on the sale table, too, or we’ll just have to mark them down in order to move them. The manager and I have planned to move the front desk from the wall over to the window for several reasons. One is that we think it’ll be better security. Another is that we don’t like putting the books in the commercial racks to be faded by the sun.

I’m glad to know of your problems with the shop, I’ll see what I can do to fix them after I manage to purchase the place.

The shop already has a bulletin board (the old fashioned corkboard and pushpin variety). Not many notices on it now, but I’ll certainly allow certain notices. I won’t allow stuff like Herbalife vendor names and such, but I will allow school activity posters (there’s a high school AND a college just down the street from us), local artists and poets and bands, that sort of thing.

91

How completely cool. I’d like to add a thought or two?

There was a very huge used book store near where I grew up. Most of my allowance each week went into that book store. The thing I remember the most about the couple that owned the place is that they took care to ask me what I was interested in. Not just in reading, but in life. They didn’t ever stop me from buying a book- and there is at least one book that had a profound impact on my life ( and still does… ) that they might not have sold to me. But they did, because they held that kind of choice as a sacred thing. At the age of 14, they sold me the Hite Report on Female Sexuality. :smiley:

Their store was clean, well ordered but not clinical. The shelving was ALL wooden, and it for some odd reason made a difference. Unfinished pine planking. Easy to put together, looked and SMELLED good. Cheap to do, too.

I love book stores still, and seek them out. There is a small one in the next village, and a truly great one in New Paltz, up the Thruway a shade. College towns are usually good for a book store or two.

I know bookstores that keep index cards on frequent visitors, and some on all visitors. They take their name and #, and the kind of book they like, and any special requests… and, try to fulfill them. Tall order sometimes, but man that’s nice.

I wish you all the best of luck with this, Lynn. You do realize of course, that any Doper worth their salt will darken your doorstep, buy a book or two or dozen and stand for a Polaroid in the Doper Wall of Fame. :wink:

Cartooniverse

92

Hate to double post, but…heck…it’s Lynn.

Might I suggest that you look into UV-Resistant glass covering? It’s not new glass, it is applied by a Pro. It’d keep the books from fading, keep the brutal heat down ( and save a.c. costs a bit ) and keep the glare down in the front of the store, whilst not cutting down the light totally. That way, you can keep stock near the front without basically writing it off due to sun fading.
Just a thought. North Texas Glass Coating at (817) 488-0228 might be able to do the job for you. After all, when I think of glass coating in norther Texas, why…I think of them. :wink:

93

Yes, please curtail them; or at least keep just the cream of the crop. Lots of comic book stores out there…

Wise move, I love books; maybe a career change is in order…?

Boy, Lynn, for all the carping about you on the STMB, I don’t get it. You sound pretty well grounded to me (IMHO :smiley: ) I collect all manner of cartoons, clips, odds and ends in print, some dating back to the ( ah, I better not say :slight_smile: ) era. They comfort me in some peculiar way.

I’ll bite; send me a link.

GREAT idea, we do this in VT in retail stores; reusable, free advertising; and, the best thing is, customers LOVE them!

Just keep it soothing or surreal/sublime. As a fellow retailer who has “Issues” with piped in music, it can really be an asset or a detriment.

I’m a night person, too. Frankly, an all-night book store would appeal to me, but simply isn’t practical, and would no doubt attract the wrong element. But your thought of a 9 PM operation is nice; many people nowadays are mid-shift workers, and have to make do. This would be a good alternative for those late night folks.

Maybe not, but the best of luck anyway. :smiley:
S/F

94

I have been following this thread with interest. I have often thought that it would be such a neat thing to run a bookstore. Some recommendations that I would offer:

’Just Arrived’ section - Sometime, people only have a few minutes and just want to see what is new. This also saves you a bit of time in stocking the shelves.

Recommendations - Someone had mentioned staff recommendations, you may want to extend that to customers. You can encourage them to submit recommendations by holding a monthly drawing of those that were used.

Story Hour - As a way to draw in more families, you could offer a story hour. Perhaps even make it thematic. Of course, while the children are occupied their parents will have time to browse uninterrupted.

95

I go to a critique group at our local B&N, and certainly spend a lot more money there because of it. All you need are chairs for 6 or 8 people. We started with the community relations person from the store facilitating it, but have been on our own for years (we’ve been through a couple of them.) Having people talking about writing gives a good impression, I think.

96

Story hour is great. I know old folks who would volunteer to read to kids. And not just little kids. The Harry Potter crowd also like to be read to. And some of these bigger kids will take turns reading aloud to others.

97

And don’t forget a jar of lollies at the cash register.

I suppose a hammock would be out of the question, so I won’t even nemtion the hot tub.

98

When I lived out in Chicago, my favorite used bookstore had a couple of tables set aside for books that were overstock, out of date, or battered. There were in boxes that would hold the books so all you could see was the spine (made for fast browsing). These tables would be marked 50cents each or 5 for 2 dollars.

There is nothing like the joy of walking out with a stack of used books as tall as you are (and they got 5’4" of shelf space back).

This same book store also had canvas bags you could purchase. If you brought the bag back, you got a small discount on your next purchase.

99

<giggle> I know this place, it is my absolute favorite used book pusher’s place ever=)

bought some incredible stuff there over the past couple of years including a Tilke on extant middle near and far eastern clothing that is a must have for SCA garb purposes … shows line drawings that are accurate on the patterning of some extant pre 1600 clothing=)

Still looking to replace my early 60s french edition of LaRousse Gastronomie that got ripped off a few years ago for something less than a small fortune sigh

100

Oh, sign me up for a Bodoni Book Bag!