Shipping Large sets of books – Protecting your self, your books and your customer A few years ago I got an order for a set of Encyclopaedia Britannica 1910 / 1911 edition. This was a nice set of books. An employee and I wrapped the books two at a time in Kraft paper and put the books into 75-pound test boxes I had obtained from Staples. The books were well wrapped and we padded the sides so that the books would not shift. The boxes were sealed securely with 2” wide shipping tape. I had no doubt that the packages would arrive in good shape at their destination. About 2 weeks after I shipped the books I got e-mail from the customer stating that he had
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This week Circle City Books and Music became the unexpected recipient of more Facebook attention than Tom Cruise’s date registry. Does that sound like an exaggeration? I suppose. But when, on Wednesday, the turnstiles started clicking faster than I could keep up, that’s how it seemed. We created our Facebook page August 1 and after five weeks, thanks to a large and indulgent family and several friends, 31 people had “Liked” us; fewer than one per day. Then Wednesday hit and in the space of about six hours 27 new people, mostly strangers, were added to our “Like” roster. There is a lot about Facebook that I don’t understand. How is it that for weeks virtually no one had visited the Circle City page, then,
After church this past Sunday, a 15-year-old girl came to me and asked, “Do you allow free help in your stores?” I told her, “I’ll think about it.” Consequently, it made me think about a number of times I’ve been asked that same question in the past. Sometimes, you don’t know what you’re getting yourself into, even if you know the individual who is interested. Yes, you can allow a friend to come spend their off hours shelving books in your store. Yes, you can have a good time while they are there, enjoying each other’s company while being doubly productive due to the extra help. But, then there’s the practical side: What happens if they promise to come help, you prepare jobs for them,
Organization is key. Maybe this is the librarian in me talking, but if a bookstore is to operate properly it needs to be organized. If the store isn’t, it costs staff and customer time and that costs the store money. If the sections of a store aren’t organized the customers can’t find what they are looking for, which, needless to say, is a very frustrating feeling. The customers will go to staff for help and take staff time searching for a book that may or may not be there. This costs the store time and money. As well, if a section isn’t organized, how can the store know what inventory is there? How can the management know what the store has in stock? My writing
Don’t Invite a Brush-Off! “Do you have that new book by So-and-So?” In my shop, the answer to that question will usually be no unless So-and-So is an outstanding northern Michigan author. New books are a small percentage of my store inventory, and about a quarter of those, fiction or nonfiction, have Michigan themes and content or are by well-established writers with Michigan connections. Thus the obvious answer to the question would be: “No, I’m sorry, we don’t have that.” Bad answer, inviting a brush-off. A much better reply is this: “I don’t have it in stock right now, but I’ll be happy to order it for you.” “Oh, I don’t want you to go to the trouble,” the inquiring browser often says in response, and