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How to make it big with a used book store
HOW TO MAKE IT BIG WITH A USED BOOK STORE
Operating a used book store is a lot like owning a recycling center
- not too glamourous 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, about 3 years. After that "becoming
established" stage however, you should be able to enjoy ownership of
a business without extreme market fluctuations, plus an income close
to 50,000 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
campus. 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 probably 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 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 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 store. 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
store, 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 through out. The lighting should
be indirect, and somewhat subdue to give your store a warm feeling.
Locate your checkout counter 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
your store. In other words, do everything you can to encourage the
browser, because it's been proven time and 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 will 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 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 oversize 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," then hire part time
help. The best arrangement is housewives or college students in 4
hour shifts at the minimum wage.
First off, write out a list of duties you want 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, and post 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 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 sign 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, 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 windshield
wipers on the windshields of 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 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 $.25 or less - in all the thrift shops,
Goodwill stores and Salvation Army outlets. Church bazaars and
estate sales can also sometimes 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,
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
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 wind fall 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 a
nickel each; or your choice of free books for everyone coming in to
browse on certain days...
You should carry hardcover as well as paperback 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. 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 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 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 yours. 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
chit" 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 Ye Olden Book Store.
/s/ Your Signature."
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 emboss the card with a notary-type embosser.
Usually, you allow 20 to 25 cents for mint condition paperbacks, and
about one quarter of your selling price for hardbacks. Always make
sure the customer understands that regardless of how many "credit
chits" he has, the credit chits can only pay for half the purchase
price. This of course, is to protect your cash-flow problems, and
your income of "hard money."
Many used book stores add to their income potential by adding tape
cassette 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.
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.
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