Rocket Bomber - article - retail - commentary - Rethinking the Box: Motives

“Rethinking the Box” is a collection of my ruminations on retail, ostensively to outline my ideal [graphic novel] bookstore, but it’s a rough and twisted road I’m travelling to get there.

Part One — Part Two — Part 2½ — Part Three — Part 3½ — Part Four

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So. You want to open a bookstore.

Are you nuts?

Let’s recap some salient points that you’ve forgotten

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 can’t beat Amazon or any of the major retailers on price. You have to find another way.
3. 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.
(from Part Four of this series, as linked to above)

Let’s take a step back and try to get a ‘big picture’ view of what it is and what you want. (and after we seriously consider those two questions, the answer may not be your own bookstore).

Motive

I love books. If you’re still around reading my stuff at this point (many commented and linked, but I think The New Yorker put the final nail in the coffin on that one. And ‘Matt Blind’ is now a tag on their books blog; I hope I never merit the honour of its second use) odds are good you love books too.

Wouldn’t it be grand if one could work in an environment where one was surrounded by books every day? Imagine the conversations you’ll have, the satisfaction of helping people find the books they want and need, the joy of introducing the uninducted to the world of scholarship, literature, and the arts; the intellectual engagement possible when your clientele is made up of the book buying public, rather than the more pedestrian sort of retail customer.

[I’d advise against clicking the link to the article above — even though I wrote it — if you want to keep your cherished illusions about the business intact]

A lot of people who love books and think they’d love running a bookstore actually want a library. A personal library, with a lock on the door and the opportunity to restrict access to only those people they like. “Here is my collection, which I offer for ‘sale’ in as much as I’d like you to compliment my taste and insight in selecting these titles, and only these titles, which are worthy of my efforts and your consideration.”

Out and out snobbery of this type (and to this extent) is rare, but it exists in the back of the mind of every independent. It is a gross stereotype to characterise our model small bookseller as nothing but a judgmental prick peering over his glasses at you, aghast at your temerity for asking about Grisham of all people. “I’m sorry sir, I think you’ve mistaken us for the Big Box Bookstore out by the mall.”

Here’s the thing: If you want your own store, you’re going to need a little bit of that attitude to succeed.

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Anyone (well, almost) can get a job as one of the drones working at Big Box Books. That isn’t to say they’ll be able to keep said job past a single Autumn, but in the build-up to Christmas (and other winter holidays of course, but Christmas is the headliner) we need warm bodies to run registers, shelve books, and stand at an information desk — the computer systems are good enough to enable your average youngster, with his or her years of internet experience, to handle routine searches and we’ve enough experienced staff (including a few ‘lifers’ like myself) to step in and deal with the hard cases.

That is to say: at any given time there are likely 60,000 to 80,000 people working in the trade (and that bumps up to 100,000-120,000 in November; in a normal year, anyway) [source1: pg 8 — source2: pg 65 — source3: pg 6 — source4; number of stores cited at 150 but without employment estimates.]

And the whole is so much bigger than just 1500 or so ‘superstores’ — some estimates say there are 11,000 bookstores in the US. [source] Even Mom & Pop stores have to employ someone. So maybe we should consider a round 100,000 employed in Bookselling retail, with another 50,000 seasonal employees (possible seasonal part-timers; not last year, obviously — or this upcoming Xmas season either for that matter).

That is to say, there are a lot of booksellers out there. Heck, anybody could do my job, why do I insist *I* have something new to contribute to the process?

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To take that next step, past merely ‘working it’ and on towards ‘running it’, you need an ego. You need to be a snob. Else, you could just take your weekly check as a happy little wage slave and thank the customers & shareholders for the opportunity to answer questions and continually seek for the ‘Oprah’ book week after week after week. There’s the employee discount, after all, and health insurance and dental and a 401(k) and all the rest… why take a chance, why rock the boat?

Why?

If you plan to open up a bookstore, you’ll have to sort out your own ‘why’.

A consideration of motive is important. Hell, why do I want to open my own store?

Because you’re all doing it wrong, that’s why.

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If you stand on the corner of your town square or commons or the intersection of Elm & Main and you see this same lack, the same failings, this opportunity and if everything I’ve posted about the slimmest of operating margins and the joys of customer service can’t dissuade you from your dream of owning a bookstore, then we may have something to work with.

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Alongside motive, as any good mystery bookshop owner will tell you, is method and opportunity.

The Method is plain: You either start from scratch, or you buy an ongoing operation — a currently-operating bookstore that is either what you want or close enough that you can get there without breaking the bank with new investments, or breaking clean with the existing customer base. (if you’re changing so much that you lose the regulars, what’s the point of buying the business?)

Buying In seems to have obvious benefits, as the store will already have fixtures, inventory, community recognition and goodwill (and a decade or two of goodwill is priceless) and hopefully also a dedicated customer base — but half the time a business is up for sale because the current owner can’t make a go of it. They tried, they’re failing… slowly failing, else the store would be shuttered rather than sold, but still it’ll bleed you dry over time (same as the last owner) unless you can figure out something he or she didn’t/doesn’t know.

So, research, due dilligence, all of that: don’t just buy because a happy-looking little store (so cute! and it’s a bookstore!) happens to be on the market.

Starting from scratch is more difficult; starting from scratch may be the only way. That’s where I’ll pick up the topic again next week.