Shifting the bookstore paradigm
by bruno
“I’m in favor of anything that brings traffic in the store,” said Ms. Reidy of Simon & Schuster. “If it’s toys or games that brings a family into the bookstore, then I say fine.”
Ms. Reidy from Simon & Schuster echoes to the New York Times what is happening with major bookstore chains. The e-book is here to stay whether most nostalgic book readers like it or not, driven by lack of knowledge – kids are growing in an e-book/pdf world – and the economy – e-books are on average cheaper.
I think the bookstores are playing the game the wrong way. The way to play it is to make you *want* to go to the bookstore. The way you get people to want to is by having something there you don’t have anywhere else: knowledge about books. What you should get at a bookstore should be what you can’t buy anywhere else on the web. You can read reviews and opinions on books online, but what you want to deliver is someone that custom tailors book suggestions for you.
The icing on top of the cake would be for each bookstore worker/helper to have a card with a code on it. Independently of where and when you buy the suggested book, if the code was entered, the employee got 1% of the sale and the bookstore another 1%. This would shift bookstores more and more away from the physical delivery of books to a service oriented product relying on (hopefully) highly skilled employees whose life long experience in the business has inherent value.
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Comments
An interesting thought Bruno, and as someone who gives talks at bookstores/libraries, etc. I feel that these “value added” experiences (ah, B-School type speak..bleah) can deliver..look at Brookline Booksmith, Harvard Coop, etc. Am I cherry-picking with my selective use of examples and geographic region of the US? Yes, I am :)