RDC responded to yesterday's post by saying, "You should be happy. If everyone was really interested in minimizing time spent, they would just order online and not bother to go to the store"
Well, I have a theory about that, too. (I have a theory, right or wrong, about everything...eh?)
Here's how I perceive an online customer, whether it be Amazon, or a Kindle customer:
They want a book. A very specific book. They go online and order it or download it.
Here's how I perceive a Pegasus Books customer:
They wander into the store, they see a book they never knew they wanted, probably a book they didn't even knew existed, and they buy it.
Here's how I perceive a Bookmark customer:
They come to look at all the books, they see a book they remember that they once wanted, or a book by an author they like that they've never seen before, or a book that looks interesting, and they buy books. Mostly in multiples -- because they're getting them usually for less than 25% of the original cost, and because they are often old and out of the mainstream system. These customers like being in the presence of, and surrounded by, books.
In some ways, those three customers are three different types, with three different goals. (Obviously, lots of cross-over; sometimes you're one kind of customer, sometimes another.)
I've been saying for a long time now, that our customers, both mine and Linda's, are not the people who come in looking for a specific book or even a specific author -- they come in because they are readers and want books. Or they know that we have a selection of a lot of types of books.
Books -- not book? Get the difference?
These people are almost by definition, browsers, people who enjoy the process of shopping, who like feeling and touching the books and talking to the proprietor and who are capable of being surprised and coaxed and influenced.
The customer who wants the latest Oprah book? Who is told by a friend or relative they just MUST buy this one book because it's so great! Who see a book on the best-seller lists, and decide they simply must read it?
Those people are mostly lost to us already. They are already buying from Amazon, or at Costco, and I suspect that Kindle is just the next step in the process.
It's amazing how often people come in and are looking for a single book -- and we don't have it. I mean, that's not really on us, it's not really a failure, it's just a factor of there being so many books in the world. That they often walk out without finding that one book (and without buying anything else) -- well, that's already happening. They are most likely going to Amazon or Kindle.
Besides, if they are truly only looking for that one book? If it's new and hot, it probably hasn't even reached us yet....or conversely, it's old and rare and only available online anyway.
But wandering in and soaking up the books, like at the Bookmark? Or wandering in and being surprised by the quirkiness and uniqueness of the titles, like at Pegasus Books?
Now matter the price or the convenience or selection -- Kindle really can't do that. It's like having a picture of a nice fireplace on your big screen T.V.
Or having the real thing.
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2 comments:
The reality of the publishing industry is that there are far more books published in a year can anyone can effectively follow. As such a book buyer is not an informed consumer that go and buys the best books, but instead is a consumer that buys from a very limited subset of books. Now in the old days that subset was from a selection of books selected by the stores buyer.
While the online methods have still not come up with a good system for splitting out a subset that a consumer can deal with, the consumers, especially heavy readers are adapting to the online environment much faster than I would have expected.
"But wandering in and soaking up the books, like at the Bookmark? Or wandering in and being surprised by the quirkiness and uniqueness of the titles, like at Pegasus Books?"
Maybe not, but you can have:
wandering in and being surprised by the quirkiness and uniqueness of the titles, then take 30 seconds to find the titles that you want online and download onto your e-book reader.
The thing that should concern book sellers is how many e-book readers stop buying paper versions altogether. What I am finding is that once you get used to using an e-book reader you tend to stick entirely to that format. It is simply too convenient. My reader (in my case my Droid phone) is always with me. It always remembers the page I was last at. I can always pick up and continue whenever I have a few minutes to read. Others I have talked to have found themselves doing the same thing. I used to spend a lot of time going to book stores and browsing the selves. To some degree I still do. However, when something catches my interest I download the e-book version. I found that the last dozen or so paper books I purchased never got read (I actually gave them away and repurchased e-book versions) because they were in my home office or by the side of my bed, but not where I was when I wanted to read. End result is I am reading almost twic as many books as I was, but they are all e-books.
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