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HOW TO MAKE IT BIG WITH A USED BOOK STOREOperating a used book store is a lot like owning a recycling center - not too glamorous until you take a look at the owner's bank account. This is an ideal "absentee-owner" or a small investment type business for
someone to begin while holding down a regular, full-time job. The person
"best-suited" to running a successful used book store is the man or woman who
loves to read, has collected books over the years, and enjoys associating with people of
similar interests. Bear in mind the shopping habits of the average used book buyer. First, he's a browser. He notices your shop, drops in and begins looking around to see what kind of books you have available. If he spots something that really interests him, he'll probably buy right then and there. If not, and provided you've made him feel comfortable this first time in your store, he'll be back - dropping in to browse whenever he+ s in the area. Ideally, a used book store will need a market population of at least 50,000 to support it. Try to locate your store in a "high traffic" area as near as possible to a college or university campus. Shopping malls are excellent locations for book stores. Locations near other or "new" book stores are also very good. If the buyer doesn't find what he wants in the other book stores he'll check your store. Grocery store shopping centers are generally poor locations for book stores of any kind. It's important that there be a lot of casual strollers in your location area and that you encourage these people to drop in and browse around. If you want the entire front of your store to be a show window, take pains to arrange your display in an uncluttered manner. However, a window display is not a necessity. Of more importance is a window for the passers-by to see into your store. If you do choose to make a window display, keep it low - never more than 36-inches high - leaving a lot of room for the people passing by to see into your store and notice the people browsing through your books. An by all means maintain the display. Dust it frequently. Don't let the books in the display yellow and fade. You want the passer-by to feel drawn into your store by the wide array of your stock, not repelled by the unkempt nature of your display. Once you have your store location selected, paint the entire interior in a dark, warm color such as mahogany. Install a lighter shade of indoor/outdoor carpeting throughout. The lighting should be indirect and somewhat subdued to give your store a warm feeling. Locate your checkout counter parallel to one of the side walls. Don't let it block the easy entry or exit from your store. You want your customers to feel comfortable just visiting your store. In other words, do everything you can to encourage the browser. It's been proven time and again that browsers are book buyers. Allow people to come and go generally as they please; to pick up and thumb through books that interest them, to read them, and "fall in love" with them. These will be your real book buyers. Your book shelves should run along each side wall and across the back of the store. Don't build them more than six feet high. Partition these shelves into sections approximately four feet wide, and at the top of each section place a sign indicating the general subject matter of the books to be found in that section. Paper the walls of your store from the top of your book shelves to the ceiling with posters - colorful and descriptive travel posters, broadway show billboards, concert posters, and full color dust jackets from books that are perennially popular. Next, build or buy half shelves, tables, and revolving racks for more books. The half shelves - about four feet wide by four feet high and similar to book cases in your home - should be located at right angles to your wall shelves, and in the rear of your store. The tables should be about three feet wide by four feet long, and about thirty inches high. These also should be located at right angles to your wall shelves, but closer to the front of your store. Stagger shelves and tables in the center area - one three feet from the wall shelves, the next one six feet out, then four feet and so on. This will allow more people to be "seen" in your store, cut down on the appearance of a formal or military layout, and project a more casual atmosphere for browsing. This is precisely what you want. This kind of arrangement will cost you some space, but it'll be worth it with increased traffic. Place several revolving wire racks near the checkout counter to hold currently popular or specially featured books. Also near the front place a special sales table with marked down items, special overrun purchases, and weekly or monthly featured authors. This will be an extra merchandising effort that'll really pay off in the sales of your books. Another merchandising idea that works very well is a couple of revolving wire racks on wheels. These you push outside and position near the entrance to your store. You can feature popular paperbacks, and a few over-sized hard cover books with bright, flashy colors in these racks. Your store hours should match those of your neighbors. In fact, you could "jump off to a quick start" by opening a half hour earlier than your neighbors. Use this opening half hour to take care of paperwork, and get yourself organized for the day. When the early shoppers see you're open early, they'll begin coming into your store to browse and kill time while they wait for the other stores to open. If you cannot be there to open the store, hire part time help. It is best to hire housewives or college students in four hour shifts at the minimum wage. Write out a list of duties you expect each clerk to perform while he's on shift. In addition to taking care of sales transactions, you might want him to do some stocking, dusting, cleaning, sorting and pricing. Regardless, you'll have fewer problems and enjoy bigger profits if you formally write these "shift duties" out, post them as job requirements, and explain them when you interview for hired help. Try to hire only book lovers who are personable, outgoing, and have some sort of business aptitude. You can then train these people in all phases of your operation with the thought in mind that they will run the store in your absence and eventually be your store manager. The best way to find such people is by talking with your customers, observing which might be willing to work for you, and which of them might best fulfill your needs . You'll need an outside sign for your store, preferably one that hangs at right angles to the flow of traffic in front of your store. Many successful used book stores utilize hand-carved wooden signs, while others display painted signs with calligraphic lettering. By all means, spend the extra hundred dollars or so to have spotlights installed on your storefront, focusing on your store sign. Backlit plastic signs just don't create the comfortable image necessary for the success of a good used book store. Newspaper and/or broadcast advertising will be much more expensive than it's worth. Your best bet is to create a comfortable feeling and open invitation for browsers, price your stock fairly, concentrate on personal service. Then let word-of-mouth advertising and time do the rest. Even so, you should run an ad in the yellow pages, an ad in the nearby college paper, and from time to time, special sales ads in your local shopping newspapers. Inexpensive flyers inviting people in to exchange books or to just browse can be printed at your local quick print shop and handed out or placed under the windshield wipers on cars in the larger shopping center parking lots. Advertising and special sales during holiday periods such as Christmas, Mother's Day, and Father's Day are generally quite effective in bringing new customers into your store. Most used book store entrepreneurs use their own book collections as a start-up inventory base. In addition, talk to as many neighbors, friends, and relatives as possible seeking donations of books . Then start making the rounds of all the garage sales and flea markets. You should have at least 10,000 books in stock when you open for business - and that's a lot of books. Search for books to sell (those you can buy for 25 cents or less) in all the thrift shops, Goodwill stores, and Salvation Army outlets. Church bazaars and estate sales can also provide you with almost "complete" libraries. You might place a small ad in your newspaper announcing that you+ re looking for good used books to buy. Generally, you evaluate a book according to the price you think you can get for it in your store. Then you subtract two thirds of that total, and offer that as your "buying" price. Always separate the books you feel certain you can sell from those you aren't sure about. You may wish to offer your customers exchange privileges on their books. For example, if you sell your stock of used books at one-half the cover price, offer customers one-quarter of the price of their books as an exchange rate. A customer who brings in books with cover prices totalling $30 will receive $7.50 credit towards his next purchase. Write the credit amount on a business card that the customer can keep until his next visit. Such a system will build your stock, give customers a feeling that they're getting a real bargain available nowhere else, and will cost you little money. It's going to take awhile for you to become proficient as a book buyer, but with practice and some experience, you'll quickly develop the intuition you need to realize a profit on every book you buy. Always flip through the pages of each individual book, and be sure of its condition before you quote a price. In many instances you'll find that out of a box of twenty-five books, you're only interested in buying ten. The seller will generally be wanting to get rid of all of his books now. Thus, for a couple of dollars more than your "bid price" on the ten books you want he'll let you have all twenty-five of them. This is a windfall to you because you can always use the "unwanted" books as leader items or extras to generate traffic during two-for-one sales, A Nickel-A-Book Sales, or your choice of free books for everyone coming in to browse on certain day. You should carry hardcover as well as paper-back books. Pay no more than 25% of the new price for a mint condition used hardcover book, and buy only those you are certain can be sold in your store. Never pay more than 10% of the new price for a mint condition used paperback, and steer clear of the hard-core sexually oriented books. Visit the libraries and book stores in your area. Observe what the people are interested in reading, and what they're checking out or buying. Stock your store with these kinds of books. Below is a listing of the kinds or types of books you should consider stocking in your used book store: BUSINESS BOOKS - These should include books on leadership, career advancement, and time and people management. HOW-TO BOOKS - Include all-the self-help and self-improvement manuals you can find: mail order, auto repair, carpentry, metalwork, home building, gardening, and business start-up. COOK BOOKS - You'll probably be surprised at how many people buy books relating to the culinary arts. A well stocked cookbook section will mean definite profits for you. Forget about books on dieting, home economics, and etiquette - these just don't do well in used book stores. SPECIAL INTEREST BOOKS - Watch and listen to the people of your area. Be on the lookout for people into World War history, aviation, sports, movies, and just plain old book collectors. PAPERBACKS - Women's romance, science fiction, mysteries, and historical novels are all good movers currently enjoying an upsurge in popularity and sales. These will be the "best-sellers" in your inventory, so develop good sources of supply and price them for fast sales. Many used book stores add to their income potential by adding tape cassette or video tape lending libraries. These are real money makers with a kind of service that lends out "books on tape," and special learning programs where portions of the rental fee applies to the purchase of the original tape cassette. The rental of video cassette tapes has skyrocketed in the past several years. To find out more about adding video tape rentals see Report #3311, How To Set Up And Operate Your Own Videotape Rental Store. A great many used book stores add to their income by running mail order book selling operations in addition to the retail business. This is a natural, either for a retail operator wanting to expand his market or a mail order operator wanting to increase his income. A word of caution: Though you must project an open, comfortable invitation to browsers and would-be book buyers, you must also inconspicuously guard against shoplifters and outright thieves. The best bet is to strategically place mirrors throughout the store so you can see your customers from the checkout desk at all times. Your smaller and more expensive books should be kept up front so that you can see the books and what the customers are doing with them without seeming to be guarding them. There are a number of theft prevention gadgets and devices available, but even more important is alert hired help that can keep an eye on the customers without making them feel they're being watched. The risks of starting a used book store are high for the dreamer unaware that it's another retail business and should be handled as such. Well-organized and intelligently operated used book stores are very stable, and provide a very comfortable income for the owner-operator willing to persist through the start-up period. This can be the kind of business you've always dreamed of owning, but you'll have to
have the patience to let it grow and the perseverance to see it through to its ultimate
success. With these thoughts in mind, reach for the sky and may the angels of paradise
always be smiling upon you with endless good fortune! |
