Brick and Mortar Thoughts

Some tips from the Pros on how to operate a successful bookshop.

10 things to ask when you've already bought the store

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So you’ve just bought yourself a bookstore. Congratulations.  You asked all the big questions before buying, rent, utilities, cash flow, inventory, etc.  but before the old owner moves to Florida make sure to ask some specific questions about the details of doing business.

1. Where are the lightswitches?

Oh you laugh, but I had to call the previous owner the first day because I couldn’t get the lights on.  The lightswitches by the door didn’t work.  All the switches are actually BEHIND the white bookcases. You need to move books to find them!  If you’re in a brand new building, this probably isn’t a problem, but many bookstores are located in repurposed older buildings… which means the lightswitch may not be by the door.

Make sure to ask what ALL the switches do!  If you’re in a subdivided space, it may turn out that some switches in your space control the neighbor’s lights!  Some switches may also be master switches that control whole areas and if they’re off, nothing in that area will come on, no matter how many times you flip the switch.

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When another book store moves to town it's good news!

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If a chain moves to town, you’ll go out of business, right?

WRONG. You may even make more money than you do now!

Chains don’t move into markets where they don’t expect to turn a  profit.  They moved in by you because you’ve established there IS a market for a bookstore… and they’re convinced that there’s enough demand that they can turn a profit even with another bookstore nearby.  They’ll probably even turn a better profit by having you nearby.

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My hardbacks hit me in the face…

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Do your customers prefer hardbacks or paperbacks?  Do you even sell hardbacks?
Obviously, price is a big factor when customers make the decision.  We sell both hardbacks and paperbacks at Gottwals Books (www.gottwalsbooks.com), and we often hear the question, “Isn’t that out in paperback yet?” because someone would rather not spend $15 for a new release.
hardcoversMany of my customers, though, love the feel of a hardback.  They also like how they can make them stay open while they read.  A hardback also looks better on the shelves.
There is a short story called, “Seven Types of Ambiguity,” that tells of a small basement bookshop that is crowded with books and lamps (the store owner uses lamps instead of overhead lights so that he can leave unnecessary lighting off during the day).  The story begins with one young, educated man perusing the classics, loving every bit of it.  He particularly loves a certain green-colored book.  The sad part, though, is that he doesn’t have the money it takes to buy the “good stuff.”
Well, in walks a small lady with her BIG husband.  He awkwardly looks around, fumbling through pages almost as if he has never read before.  He says that he wants some of the “good stuff” like Dickens because his mother read that to him when he was younger.

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Slow Day at the Bookstore

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Slow Day at the Bookstore
Shane Gottwals
Gottwals Books
Slow days stink.  There’s no two ways about it.  They stink.
Slow days put me down.  I can’t shake the feeling.  They just do.
The only remedy (besides prayer and reading my Bible) is to hear the register ring.
This is sort of what has happened today.  I spent the morning in our new store sort of moping about the fairly good traffic flow yet almost total lack of sales.  You sit, look out the window, get way too enthusiastic when someone comes in, think about how nice it must be to have a job that pays per hour, find tedious tasks that don’t need to be done, scour the internet for sundry items that you can’t afford, kill the random fly that’s not bothering anyone at the window, and long for better sales days.
The more I pondered oh-man-this-store-really-isn’t-going-to-make-it thoughts, the more I realized how unstable business can be.  We’ve been open at our new location (www.gottwalsbooks.com) for about two months now.  I was just recently interviewed (with a TV spot that aired a week ago on our big local news CBS affiliate-check it out on our website) about the business community here in Byron, GA, and I told them that I could not be more pleased with how sales are going.  But, this week has me a bit down.
Notice how I just said, “this week.”  It is completely absurd to base anything on 3-4 days of sales when your 8-10 week trend has been impressive.
us-dollarsHere’s the heart of the matter… business will often slump, and it will slump hard.  I remember managing a consumer electronics store that did two million dollars per year in business.  We had (very embarrassing) days when our sales would be a couple hundred dollars.  You don’t pay 30 employees with $200 per day in sales.  However, I also remember those $10K+ days that made up for all of the rest.

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