Customers are even more illogical.

The previous post was a roundabout way to call into question some of the consumer choices I see.

I can' t tell you the number of times someone walks away from an in-stock book, for instance, saying, "I'll buy it used."

This is almost always an illogical choice.

I'm going to make a blanket statement here. Everytime you walk away from a new copy of a book to look for a used copy, it costs you 5.00.

Example: I have a copy of To Kill a Mockingbird for 15.00 retail. Same copy would be 7.50 used.

Customer walks away looking for the book.

It will take a Minimum of half an hour to go back to your car, drive to the next likely bookstore, go in and shop, get back in your car and get back to where you started.

It will probably take you a minimum of a quarter gallon of gas in wear and tear and gas costs on your car.

So -- half hour of time, is 4.25 at minimum wage, quarter gallon of gas and wear and tear, .75.
Thus 5.00.

Mind you, most of these customers wouldn't work for 8.50 an hour, but there it is....

So....here's the kicker.

My new book buying is based on three things: Classics, Cult books, and favorites. That's what I concentrate on getting. I can tell you, most of these three categories of books rarely show up used --

Why? I already told you. Because........they're classics, cult books and favorites -- the same exact books that most people keep. Buy once and keep.

So whenever we get classics, cults and favorites, it's usually because someone is getting rid of a relative's books, or something like that.

Now Linda's store has pretty much an open door policy -- that is, we pretty much take everything that comes in the door. It amounts to 200 or 300 books a day -- which is more books than it sounds. That's enough books to cover a 6' by 3' table with stacks a foot or two high. Lots of books.

Now most of those books are going to be mysteries, S.F., romances. A large portion will be best-selling, new literature. Some are going to be non-fiction. And so on.

A very small portion are going to cult books like, The Alchemist or Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas or Desert Solitaire. A very small portion are going to be classics, like Catcher in the Rye or 1984. We don't get collections of Hemingway and Steinbeck all that often. An even smaller portion are going to be my favorites.

I know it doesn't make much sense. The world must be awash with Lord of the Flies and Of Mice and Men. You'd think.

But, like I said, I think most people keep them.

"I find these books all the time!" I hear you say. Or, at least, that's what the customers constantly say to me.

But it's a perceptual problem. You found the books you found, you didn't find the books you didn't find. At any one time, all used bookstores are going to have a portion of classics and cult books.

But will they have the specific classic or cult book, at this time, right now, available to buy that you are looking for?

I'm guessing, for instance, that we only get To Kill a Mockingbird in maybe 10 times a year; I'm also guessing that it stays out for sale for less than a week. So, out of every 52 weeks of the year, we'll have it available maybe 10 weeks. Multiply that by all the other classics and cult books, and at any one time we are going to have a fairly large collection of good books.

But will we have THE ONE book you're looking for, the book that I have in stock at retail price and that you're holding in your hand?

Odds are worse than you think.

"What about stores like Powell's?" I hear you ask. Well, assuming you live in Portland, you can probably add more cost to the half an hour -- more time, parking costs, shopping time, etc. Powell's is probably more likely to have it, it's true. Because they buy books, instead of trading. But remember, the supply and demand equation doesn't really change all that much. If I can keep 10 copies in for ten weeks out of the year, and Powell's does ten time the business, then they have ten times as many people looking for the book.

See what I mean?

So you go to the next bookstore, and it costs you 5.00 in time and energy. You get it for 2.50 less than it would have cost you to buy it new. If you have to go to two bookstores before you find it, it cost you 2.50 more. If you got to three stores, 10.00. If you have to give up and come back to my store and buy it new, it cost you nearly twice as much as original retail.

Or you can go online, take half an hour of your time that way, wait for it to show up, pay the shipping costs and take your chances.

Or you can buy the book for retail, right now. AT best -- even if you do find the book at the next used bookstore you go to, you save yourself all of 2.50.

I guarantee you that if you read the book, the original cost will be the last thing you're worried about. You'll remember the book. You'll remember if you liked it or not. You're not going to be thinking of whether you just straight out bought it, or got in your car and wandered around to 'save' a few bucks.

It's illogical, I tell you.


Again, I'll put a little caveat here. Some people just enjoy shopping. It isn't about the book.

But really, most of the time these guys actually find something in my store. It's the guys who walk away because I have that one book they want, but at retail, who are wasting their time.

It's instant karma --- they are being punished by fate for making an illogical decision, though they are probably not logical enough to realize it.