I'm always looking for ways to improve the store.  What's stopping me isn't the lack of money but the lack of space. As a result, I basically spend even more money on trying to make use of the limited space than I would have to spend if I had open space to fill. I'm not sure if this will make sense for most of you, but I'll try to explain.

I measured some of the jury-rigged bookshelves I have and realized that because I had been using whatever shelving I could find, I was wasting space. I'm talking inches here. I could add six inches of length to one shelve, three inches to a couple of others. I can put three eight foot shelves across a slatwall instead of two. I can squeeze in two small bookcases as endcaps. I can use a shelf for books instead of toys if I prop it up. And so on.

I just spent so much money on planks of wood that I could have bought four pre-made bookcases. But it would have meant removing what's there and rearranging the store. Instead, the new shelving is going to probably add a grand total of maybe half a dozen feet of linear display space. A hefty expense for a such a small improvement. But that's what I have to do; squeeze a few inches here and a few inches there. 

We will also end up with another sixteen linear feet of display, but because this space is too high on the wall to do anything but display some art books face out, it isn't a vast improvement. But it is a bit of an improvement. 

I just keep finding an inch here and an inch there. 

I've also decided to stock up on the perennials and make sure they are always in stock. Each of these books already have a spot dedicated to them, so getting extra copies doesn't use up any more space but makes sure that space is always occupied. 

I have to admit, I think that because of the struggle to find display space, I've stumbled on to some techniques that I wouldn't have discovered if I had room to spread out. For instance, I generally place about two books face out on every level of the bookcases. These are placed in front of the alphabetically filed titles/authors, which you would think would hinder the sales of the books hidden behind them.

But what I found out was that people who are searching alphabetically can easily move the face out books to one side and grab what they need. Meanwhile, if the face out books are proven sellers, they will sell again and again and again. 

Take a bestseller and file it alphabetically and it will sometimes stop selling. Take a mediocre seller and place it place out and it will usually start selling. I realized one day that I kept seeing these same books on the sold lists, again and again. In my own mind, I came up with the figure that half of the books we sell are face out.

As an experiment I asked both Sabrina and Dylan what percentage of books that sold in the store were face out, and they both separately also came up with the figure of 50%. II would never have discovered this if I had had more space to place these books face out within the filed books like most stores do.

Roughly speaking, each face out book if mixed into alphabet would eliminate space for six or so titles. Twelve title per shelf, seven shelves per bookcase, multiplied by all the bookcases in the store adds up to a hell of a lot more titles I can carry.  

Here's the hard and fast rule. The more books I carry, the more I sell. If I had a bookstore twice my size, I'd still be trying to squeeze every book I could into it.