HOW TO MAKE IT BIG WITH YOUR OWN USED BOOK STORE
Operating 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" type of business, or a
small investment type business for someone to start
while holding down a regular, full time job. The type of
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.
Start up risks are rated high, with the average time
period needed to become firmly established, of about
3 years. After that becoming established period,
however, you should be able to enjoy ownership of a
business without extreme market fluctuations, plus an
income close to $100,000 per year or more.
Ideally, a used book store will need a market population
of at least 50,000 persons to support it. Try to locate
your store in a high traffic area, as near as possible to a
college or university. Something to bear in mind is 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 prob!bly buy 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.
Shopping centers are excellent locations for book stores.
Locations near other, or "new" book stores are also very
good - if the buyer doesn't find that he wants in the other
book shops, he'll look in your shop. Grocery shop areas
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 shop
window. .. take pains to arrange your window display
in an uncluttered manner, showing the kinds of books
you have. However, a window display is not really
necessary. More important is a window for the
passers-by to see into your shop. At any rate, if you
do go with 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 shop and notice the
people browsing through your books. We know of one
successful operator who had members of his family,
relatives and friends, purposely "browsing" through
his store, just to project that kind of image for the
store.
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 till parallel to one of the side walls .. you
don't want it blocking or guarding the easy entry or exit
from your store. You want your customers to feel
comfortable just visiting the store. In other words,`do
everything you can to encourage the browsers,
because it's been proven time and time again that the
browsers are the book buyers. Allow the people to
come and go generally as they please; to pick up and
thumb through the 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 about 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.
The next thing is to build or buy half shelves, tables and
revolving racks for other or more books. The half shelves -
about 4 feet wide by 4 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 3 feet wide by 4 feet long, and about 30
inches high.
These also should be located at right angles to your wall
shelves, but closer to the front of your store. A revolving
wire rack, to hold currently popular or specially featured
books, and located at"the front of your store, will be a
special extra merchandising effort that'll really pay off in
the sales of your books.
In locating your half shelves and tables down the middle
of your store, stagger them - one 3 feet from the wall
shelves, the next one 6 feet out, then 4 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 - and this is precisely what you want. This kind
of arrangement will cost you some space, but it'll be
worth it with increased traffic.
Another merchandising idea that works 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-size hard
cover books with bright, flashy colors in these racks.
Your store hours should match those of your neighbours ...
in fact, you could jump off to a quick start, by opening a
half hour earlier than your neighbours. Use this opening
half hourto take care of paperwork, and get yourself
organised 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, then hire part time help.
First off, write out ` list of duties you want each
assistant 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, and put them as job requirements, and
explain them when you interview for hired help.
Look for, and try to hire only book lovers who are
personable, outgoing, and have some sort of business
aptitude. You 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
fulfil 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 utilise hand carved
wooden signs, while others display painted signs with
calligraphic lettering. By all means, spend the extra
money to have spotlights installed on your shop front,
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, and let word of mouth advertising and
time do the rest.
Even so, you should run an ad in the yellow pages.
Perhaps an ad in the 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 window wipers
of cars in the larger shopping center car parks.
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 neighbours, friends and relatives as possible
for the donation 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 50 cents or less - in all the charity
shops, car boot sales, jumble sales, bazaars, etc.
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 it for 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.
It's going to take a while for you to become proficient as
a book buyer, but with practice and some experience,
you'll quickly develop the "intuition" you need to realise
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 also find that out of a box of 25 books, you're only
interested in buying 10. The seller will generally be
wanting to get rid of his books, now. And for a couple
of dollars more than your "bid price" on the 10 books
you want, he'll let you have all 25 of them. This is like 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, all books on a certain
table for just $1.00 each, or your choice of free books
for everyone coming in to browse on a certain day.
You should carry hard cover as well as paperback
books. Pay no more than 25% of the new price for a
mint condition used hard cover book, and buy only
those you are certain can be sold in your store. Pay
no 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, time management and
people management.
HOW-TO BOOKS: These should 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 BOOK: 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 books 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 perfection, 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 movers in your inventory, so
develop good sources of supply, and price them for fast
sales.
Building and maintaining your inventory, while continuing
to rapidly turn that inventory over, can be handled in a
number of different ways. It's not a good idea for you to
exchange two or three of your customer's books for one
of your own. There's always a variance in price, plus you
may not want the type of books your customer is offering
to trade.
The most feasible plan seems to be to give the customer
a "credit" for each book you buy from him. Simply have
a supply of business cards promoting your store, printed
at your quick print shop. On the back of the card, have
them print something along these lines:
"The bearer of this card is entitled to ________ cents credit
on 50% of the listed purchase price of any book at This
Book Store." Youz signature follows.
Then, when someone brings in a couple of books to sell,
you pay him in credit chits, marking in the amount and
signing your name on the card. An easier way might be
to have your signature printed on the cards when you
order them - you or a clerk would simply fill in the credit
amount, and stamp the card.
Many used book stores add to their income potential by
adding DVD cassettes lending libraries. These are real
money makers, with a kind of service that lends out
"books on DVD", and special learning programs where
portions of the rental fee applies to the purchase of the
original DVD cassette. 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
shop lifters and outright thieves. The best bet is to
place mirrors strategically throughout the store so that
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 them 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 f/r the
dreamer unaware that it's just another retail business
and should be handled as such. Well organised and
intelligently operated used book stores are very stable,
and they do 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, I say reach for the sky
and lay the angels of paradise always be smiling upon
you with endless good fortune!
