Rocket Bomber - article - retail - commentary - Rethinking the Box -- Beating the Big Box: Five Case Studies.

Rethinking the Box is an occasional series where I’ve decided to look a tad bit deeper into just what it is that I do for a living. My eventual goal is to outline my dream [graphic novel only] bookstore but being a geek and a nerd (and possibly also a dork) I couldn’t just spell that out, I had to provide some context — and the exercise is starting to get out of hand.

Part One set the tone and provides historical background.
Part Two looks at differences between bookstores and comic shops — from formats, to purchasing, to returns — and then in a follow-up to that second post I ran some numbers and we looked at book retail gross margins, net profits and inventory turnover.
In Part Three I outlined one important and overlooked part of the business: the customer base — but immediately had to clarify what I meant for people who thought I was just making snarky comments about the book-buying public. (which I was, but there were also some salient points about retail to be gleaned from my observations, once we dusted off the top layer of sarcasm)

Which brings us up to date.

##

If my employer would like my opinions on how to save the big box, or at least make it more competitive, well… I’m sure they know how to reach me.

Tonight, I’m taking up the standard of the loyal opposition. Can an independent book store — a raw startup, without even a lease yet — ever hope to face down competition from an outpost of one of the major chains?

Can we beat the Big Box? Yes we can. The trick, of course, is that you’ll never beat one of the majors at their own game — unless you have a couple million in spare cash to burn through. (IF you have the cash: call me.)

Don’t get caught in the trap of thinking you have to play on the same field as the majors. WOPR will tell you, “the only winning move is not to play.”

There are a lot of different books, many different ways to look at the market, at least a dozen ways to set up a bookstore (I’m about to give you five) and this isn’t an election: you don’t have to be all things to all people. You can connect with even a small part of the whole, and that will be enough to get things rolling. You can play your own game, by your own rules, and even make up the rules as you go along.

Assumptions:
1. We’re looking at a break-even proposition. That is to say, meeting payroll and paying the bills (on average, over the long term — some years will be awfully lean). You might not even make enough profits to take a modest vacation. Ever.
2. You live in a big city, 2 million people in the metro area, that kind of thing. If you live in a smaller city or larger town, you might as well go the general bookstore route — which is both easier and harder, in ways that I might not be able to articulate in a column like this one.
3. Your hometown has a college or university in it. This isn’t a dealbreaker, per se, but your odds of succeeding with any type of bookstore go up in a college town.
4. A little bit of luck.
5. A lot of passion for the books.

The Basics:
1. You can’t beat Amazon or any of the major retailers on price. You have to find another way.
2. The biggest part of that is finding a niche. (I’ll give you some examples below)
3. …while also finding ‘wedges’ to expand that niche, value-adds and extras a website can’t provide, and that other bookstores don’t provide.
4. You need to be willing to work 80 hours a week. Of course, a lot of that is just manning your retail storefront 12 hours a day — and if you’re not busy, it isn’t going to be a hard 12 hours, just a tad boring and depressing. When it gets to be too much for you to handle, hell, I think that means you’re doing enough business you can afford to hire some help.
5. Inventory is a sunk cost. No matter what the concept, you’ll be spending more than you think on books. It’s an investment, though; books on shelves in a bookstore are as much a draw as neon signs in a bar window, or strippers in a gentlemen’s club. Yes, I am in fact encouraging you to think of your books as tawdry draws for a hungry, horny public. For real booklovers, that is exactly what they are. Stock as many as you can: nothing sells books like more books.

Erasmus: “When I get a little money I buy books; and if any is left I buy food and clothes.”
[I should have that tattooed somewhere]

##

Beating the Box, Five Case Studies

##

The Kitchen Sink.

Concept: Cookbooks.
Related: Essays on food and cooking (Pollan, Kingsolver, Reichl), Restaurant Reality (Bourdain, Buford, Ramsay), Gastronomy Tourism (Sterling, Richards)
Relevance: From Julia Child (‘63) to Food Network (‘93 to present day) there are many TV shows, websites, and yes, a whole lot of cookbooks to literally feed the demand of foodies.

Let me sell it to you: Actually, a cookbook-only bookstore is an easy sell, which is why I list it first. The product line is easily delineated from other books, ridiculously easy to explain to potential customers, appeals to a very broad band of the public and is self-contained, internally consistent, and cohesive as a whole.

There is very little work to be done here, actually, past lining up a retail space and getting the word out.

Killer App: In-store demonstration kitchen
Alternate Profit Centers: Cookware and bakeware lines, if you’re feeling adventurous. If you have an in-store kitchen, you can host guest chefs for a cooking-and-signing, or offer after-hours cooking classes, or (with an impromptu dining room set up in the stacks) rent the space out for special dinners and other events. With a liquor license (or a one-time event license) you can host wine tastings or a wine-and-food class.

##

Professor Plum’s

Concept: Mystery
Related: True Crime (Rule, Capote), Spycraft, Some types of puzzle & logic books, mystery board games and party games.
Relevance: Established in 1841 and still going strong.

Let me sell it to you: Genre fiction is an easy sell since the reader base is motivated, knows what they like and buys what they like, is typically well defined (customers already know what a mystery book is) — and there is a deep demand. With a number of authors all writing extended series, all you have to do is stock every volume of a given detective’s books and you’ll make friends fast.

Killer App: Mystery Dinner Theater. granted, it’d likely be more theatre-with-hors-d’oeuvres unless you’re good friends with the cookbook store next door, but even canapés and mystery would be a big event. The setting (your mystery bookstore) couldn’t be more appropriate.
Alternate Profit Centers: Hosted book group discussion with coffee and cake (for a nominal fee, enough to cover the refreshments — you make money selling a klatch of fans the book), Movie Night (again, after-hours with refreshments) — and there are plenty of movie adaptations of mysteries.
caveat: I’m pretty sure Prof. Plum is a trademark of Hasbro, so you’ll need to come up with your own store name.

##

The World’s a Stage

Concept: Travel
Related: Travel Essays (Bryson, Mayle, Mayes), General Travel Reference (what to pack, how to pack), Photo Books (if you can’t go there, a ‘coffee table book’ might be the next best thing)
Relevance: Not just for those who can afford overseas travel, but also those looking for options closer to home, and those who want to dream (even if they can’t afford it yet)

Let me sell it to you: The exotic, the foreign, the siren call of the unexplored frontier — and even if we can’t go there, quite a few people love to read and daydream about the wonderful world around us. If you can partner up with an established travel agency (or happen to already own one) then a travel bookstore may be quite easy to set up — you know, other than the inventory, staffing, retail space, public awareness, little details like that.

Killer App: [if you can swing it] Guided tour travel packages.
Alternate Profit Centers: I hate to try and pitch a slide show as a Bookstore Event, but if you know someone who is well travelled and good with a camera, this is a definite possibility. You could also try classes on finding the best travel deals, or (think Rick Steves) expert advice on travel to particular regions.

##

Lloyd’s

Concept: A Newstand… with topical books
Related: The Issues of the Day: business, politics, economics, relevant history, sociology, psychology, Malcolm Gladwell, and Steven Levitt
Relevance: It’s hard enough to find good [or any] magazines and newspapers on current affairs. And few topics are more relevant.

Let me sell it to you: There is a segment of information junkies that just isn’t being served by other channels; cable news networks and NPR are a good start but where does one go for in-depth analysis and thoughtful commentary? Books are one answer, but where can one find the right books? — or the left books for that matter, or the just-a-shade-off-center-but-potentially-controversial books?

Someone with an argumentative-for-the-sake-of-being-argumentative spirit and willing blindness to the most polarizing of political demagoguery could do quite well selling books to both sides (or all three sides, or all seven sides) of the debate.

Killer App: Foreign Newspapers. These are an endangered species; if you can stock papers from London, Paris, Berlin, Moscow, and anywhere else — we won’t ask your sources, we’ll only offer thanks. Honestly, in an internet age, the paper-version of a paper is the damnest thing to come by. (even an e-version on the internet of these are hard to come by.)
Alternate Profit Centers: Coffee. …and… it pains me to actually type this: Cable TV News. Imagine a Coffee Shop with a [not complete, but decent] newstand and a [not complete, but decent] selection of bestselling business and political titles, where you could order a cup of strong black coffee, a wedge of cake, and sit for a couple of hours while watching Headline News like other junkies watch ESPN.
caveat: Lloyd’s of London is probably going to defend their brand on this one, so you’ll need to come up with your own store name.

stinger: since I might not have sold you one this yet — think of it as a ‘sports’ bar aimed at William F. Buckley. I can wait a minute while that sinks in.

##

The Coffee Table Book Store.

Concept: [*ahem*] The Coffee Table Book Store
Related: This is a format used in a number of diverse categories — Art, Photography, Travel, Arts&Crafts, Sociology, Nature, Architecture, Interior Design, Pets, Film, Theater, Music, History — and in at least one case of recursion: a coffee table book on Coffee Tables.
Relevance: customers ask me for ‘coffee table books’ multiple times every damn day of the week.

Let me sell it to you: Oh, you thought I was joking. No. This is actually a viable business model. And as much as I protest that there is no such thing as a ‘Coffee Table Book’, like porn we all know it when we see it, and this one pseudo-category represents the majority of bookstore disappointments.

Someone comes in, looking for a specific book; we check the computer, and while it’s out there, somewhere, I don’t have it and it’ll take a week to order. And the customer says, “Oh. I wanted it for a gift, I needed it for this weekend, that won’t do. Thank you anyway.”

See there? Customer wanted a book, I said (they heard) ‘no’. Even though the exact book they wanted exists. There’s your opportunity to beat the Major Brand Name Bookstore right there.

You could stock a tenth of the titles, but if they were all ‘coffee table’ books, you’d be able to meet the (immediate) demands of so many, many customers.

Killer App: Salesfloor full of full-colour, large format books. You might have to hire security to keep the customers from drooling on the merchandise.
Alternate Profit Centers: There are no easy alternates here, past the obvious add-on of a coffee shop. In fact, given the fact that sales of books will be sporadic and unpredictable (except during December), the undeniable draw of your compelling stacks may be your only profit center, and the only way to realize that profit is to sell the browsers coffee. And cake.
caveat: the Browsers will quickly turn your New books into Used, just because they can’t help themselves from browsing. I haven’t thought of a good counter to this yet, otherwise I would have opened up a Coffee Table Bookstore myself

##

Oh, I’m a crafty strategist; I’ve thought of at least one way to keep Art & Design books in stock, and in salable condition — but in a way that would never support a store on their own. They’d be a related product line (and alternate profit center) for a Graphic Novel Bookstore.

I apologize to my regular readership: I keep teasing. By the time I eventually finish up this series, I will take everything posted to date and tie it up in a pretty gordian knot incorporating everything. It may not be a business plan, ready to submit to a bank for a loan application, but I hope to get damn close. And I also hope the drive so far has been entertaining.

We’re still not there yet, but enjoy the scenery.