Turning water into wine.

It shouldn't be possible, but we've ended up with 55 linear feet of brand new shelving, and yet we have more room than before. (Not even counting 54 feet of linear new shelving we put in the windows.) All but about 15 feet of this shelving is dedicated to showing the covers of the books, which we dearly needed.

Everything is set up and it looks and feels great.

How do you add bulk and lose weight? How do you add so many more bookshelves without having to reduce any of the space and attention given to other product lines?

This miracle has happened before, more than once. I've been trying to make room for more product for years and every time I think I've reached the end of it, a need arises and a solution presents itself. 

The most impactful of these changes was during Covid. I'd been trying to turn the eastern half of the store into more of a bookstore. I'd made some progress, but was blocked by a lack of space. When we had to close for two months during Covid, I decided to lay down some much needed new flooring.

In doing so, we had to move everything out of one side of the store, and then put it back and put everything into the other side of the store. It got me to thinking about the layout and I realized that by dispensing with a couple of fixtures which weren't really doing us any good and by moving other fixtures just a few inches here and there, we'd be able to add a few more bookshelves. In actually doing it, I found that I could add even more bookshelves. I started to realize that something would be more effective here, that there was underutilized space there, little changes that added up to a lot.

With the new flooring laid down, it seemed to me that the actual layout of the store hadn't really changed but somehow we'd added hundreds more feet of shelving. So while I was at it, I consolidated a few more product lines, without losing any volume for the other product lines, with even more bookshelves.

Still, when I was done, it didn't feel to me like we'd changed things all that dramatically. But within a short time, I realized that in the perception of customers (especially tourists and new customers) we'd been transformed.

People kept commenting on what a nice "bookstore" we had. Now, we'd always gotten compliments. But most people before the changeover had referred to us as a comic store, or just a store. 

I realized that we had, indeed, become more of "bookstore" because we were able to carry so many more books and because we were finally able to add non-fiction books, as well a dedicated sections to poetry, nature, philosophy, and so on. Once on that path, I continued to fine tune the selection until we had the selection a bookstore should have. 

So this is a continuation of that process.

Now we find out if it actually results in increased sales. If nothing else, it makes the store more attractive, and that is good in itself.  

We're getting a massive load of new books today. I've really turned on the spigot for titles since we are now going to be returning books to the publisher if they don't sale. I'll probably be spending a few weeks adjusting, but we should be ready by the time summer really kicks in. 

Amazing stuff.

Final touches?

Well, I showed up for work yesterday and whatever event they were having on Bond on Saturday, was gone. But all the parking spots were being used, so I just went ahead and parked near Hospital Hill. After work, I took a couple trips around the block, finally inserted the car in a space not quite big enough, moved the fixtures onto the sidewalk, parked the car in the garage, and then pulled the fixtures into the store. 

Spent a couple hours putting everything in place. I'd managed to already push the bookshelves an inch away during store hours. I also managed to put in place the game books shelf and find a place for the toys somewhere else. 

I'm very seriously considering moving the front counter about eight inches to the west. That should give us plenty of room, maybe even to put the side bookcase back up. If I do it, I'm just going to do it. I'm undecided about using the cubes on the center bookcases. They would overlap the base by about three inches. I can use three of the cubes under the counter for storage. 

My measuring was all wrong. I think I translated the 48" by 24" of the card table into the base, when it was actually 40" by 28". The old story of measure twice. I sometimes don't measure even once. I'm just not good at carpentry, but if I take it slow and steady, don't get upset and just reverse the errors or try to jury rig them, I can get it done. 

All's well, that ends well. Everything is done but the cubes and putting the Rom-Com books in order. Tomorrow is the big day on new books. I figure we'll get about 500 books, which is about three times what a normal big order would be.

What I think will happen is: it will appear hopeless, but I'll adjust a little here, move a few things there, take out a few things, stack a few things, and so on. Over the course of a few weeks, I can get things functional. Then try to figure out what kind of flow I can handle. 

I have faith.

Spurred into making upgrades.

Not going to try to do anything today but deal with customers. Can't get near the doors anyway with the event happening. 

Luckily, I'm working Monday and most of the books don't arrive until Tuesday. 

My overall feeling is that the returnability program is a gamble, that ordering so many books maybe won't boost sales and that I might regret losing points on the profit margin. I'll see it through Christmas; I can opt out and go back to the old way of doing things if I want to.

If nothing else, I found a few more way to display more books, which I would have thought impossible before. The second best thing about this is the extra storage. 

Speaking of which, I ordered ten stackable white cubes. I want to raise everything up another 15 inches, to a little over five feet high. Plus, more storage. I figure three at the entrance, and six on the table. Could be cool. The only question is how secure they'll be. With tight quarters, they're almost certainly going to be collided with at some point. I'll see how solid they are when I'm done, and if they seem shaky, I'll hire someone to screw them together (who has proper tools.) 

Can still have it all done before the end of the month. If nothing else, the returnable program has spurred me into making upgrades.

I'm nothing if not inconsistent.

I preach the gospel of don't complicate things, Keep It Simple Stupid (KISS), if it ain't broke don't fix it, time and energy and space are the same thing as money.

Well, I'm nothing if not inconsistent. 

All it took was an offer from a major publisher for a generous book return program to throw all those good thoughts under a bus. 

We will almost certainly lose profit margin, work much harder, and risk having everything becoming uncomfortable. All for the uncertain goal of increasing sales.

Thing is, once I accepted the program, which seemed like a no-brainer as long as I didn't take into account all the things I mentioned in the first sentence, it was easier to keep going than try to change course. Now that I'm in the midst of it, I see even success in the venture as a possible problem.

We are stretched to the max right now in handling the flow of customers and still maintain a store staffed by one person at a time. If we boost sales by, say, ten or twenty percent (the best result from ordering more books) it will be that much harder to maintain our energy. 

I'm always trying to build sales, and this venture probably will, if for no other reason than we'll have more product to sell. I've always said, the more you have in stock, the more you sell.

The reason to do this is to boost sales in the slow months, or eight months out of the year. I'm always aware that there will be another down market. There always is. You want the slow months to continue to be profitable, or at the least, still viable.

If sales increase too much, we can let business take care of itself during the summer and Christmas, slow the pace down a little.

We also have the option of opting out of the program, going back to the previous way of doing things. If nothing else, this has impelled me to find more room for books (which if you had asked me in advance, I would have said was impossible.)

But most of all, I just think I need a challenge once in awhile, even if I'm throwing the gospel of KISS out the window.

Final changes just in time for summer.

I've built two of the window displays, three yet to build. Pretty crude, but effective. Once the books are on them, they'll look fine. I used wood glue this time, so I'm hoping that will be strong enough. It cost about $250 bucks because wood has gotten very expensive. I mean, buying window displays even if I could find them would cost a lot more and assembling them myself isn't that onerous a chore. And it needed to be done. 

I don't know. Maybe taking out the standups won't make any difference, but at the point in the store where I have only so many options about going forward. I'll have excess inventory, and this will eat up over 100 spaces.

So basically, about the same number of face-out titles in the windows as inside the store, or about 250 in total. I think I might be able to figure out one more bookshelf on the slat walls above the games if I'm willing to put some toys aside; say for Warhammer and other game related books. (Just had this idea, but it's a good one. Warhammer fiction sells extremely well.)

I now have two days to get all the fixtures fixed and ready to transport. I'll need to go in early on Sunday a couple of times to transport everything. (I might make a run this afternoon.)

What's kind of cool about these changes is that I have done anything but scrimp on comics. I've encouraged Sabrina to up our orders, I've got a whole fresh supply of back issues, all spruced up in fresh bags, boards, and boxes, with a large backstock to keep refilling them. 

So in exchange for pushing books harder, I've made the commitment to keep up the comics, card games, toys, and board games. I have more product than ever in all these categories. 

I think any changes from here on out will be micro adjustments because I can't imagine finding any more space. 

 But I've said that before. 

Many times.

I'm really proud of Pegasus Books.

 

When I first started carrying books, it was a sideline. I thought that even if I did choose a few categories to be in depth, it wouldn't be possible to become a full bookstore.

Well, we've done it. I don't know how. We don't have any more space than we did before, but by being as ergonomic as possible, we now have a wide range of books: fiction, non-fiction, art books, biographies, true crime, Rom-Com, classics, mysteries and thrillers, fantasy and horror and science fiction, manga, graphic novels, pop culture books, literary, inspiration, self-help, journals, coloring books, puzzle books, children's and young adult. 

And we managed to do this without really infringing on the other product we carry. Amazing.

I did the math on the latest changes, which will allow us to carry even more books since we're shifting to returnability.

I started off by taking out the poster rack and the spin rack for greeting cards (we're converting to a smaller counter rack). I'll be sorry to lose the posters, but they really don't sell all the often.

By taking out one bookcase, substituting with a smaller bookcase, and by adding the three new faceout displays, we're:

Replacing 168" of linear space (that is, spine out or storage), with 296" of linear space.  Basically, it's letting us take out of the general fiction area the titles that I'm calling Rom-Com, (not all are comedy, but most are light, even if mysteries or fantasy), and giving them their own dedicated space. These aren't what I consider Romantasy, but there is some crossover. 

This opens up space in general fiction for more titles there.

But the biggest change is how much dedicated space we will now have to facing out books. We're going from 49 face-out book spaces to 111 spaces face-out.

In other words, we now have 62 more spaces to display new bestsellers. If we couldn't do this, I'm not sure it would make sense to order on a returnable basis. 

I'm going all in. My first order in June from Penguin Random house was the equivalent of a full month of normal orders. (It actually covers two weeks, because I had to wait until June 1st for their program to begin.) At this rate, I'll be almost doubling my orders.

So I needed that space. If I didn't have the extra space, I'm not sure it would make sense to order so much. We are very dependent on books of which people can see the covers. Because we're a tourist town, impulse buying is more important than people coming in for a specific book (though we try to have the inventory to do that too.)

Most of this won't be finished until this coming Sunday, then we'll be ready for summer. 

The final change for this season is that I'm going to take the standups out of the window. Seeing cartoon characters in the window makes us look less than serious to the casual passerby. We'll still have standups, but they'll be inside on the comic side of the store. 

To hide the backs of the three bookcases I have against the windows, I'll need to build some more window display. With the multiple copies of books we're be ordering this summer, we'll have more than enough bestseller type books to show off. 

I'm excited by the changes. I don't know for sure if it will change sales. We perhaps already had enough selection to get whatever sales we were likely to get. We will get some sales by having a hot book in stock without any delays, but I suspect this won't quite be enough to cover the loss in discount.

So I'm banking on more sales with the simple equation: the more titles we carry, the more we'll sell.

Most of all, I'm really proud of Pegasus Books.

Trying to make the best store possible.

I moved eight very large bookcases last night. Turns out, I could maneuver them still almost full of books. A bit of levering and scooting them, and I created the six inches I needed. Took out the poster rack and one of the metal display cases. There should now be enough room for the customers to move around the new bookcases easily. 

(I do realize what I'm saying is hard to visualize. I lack the proper terminology.)

I laid out a four-foot by two-foot table to see how much room it would take up. 

One thing I hadn't considered was that one of the bookcases was hiding all the wires to our computers and such. Because of that, I took the bookcase that faced the door and moved it over the wires. I lost about 6" of space, but that's better than the 11" of space I would have lost with one of the new bookcases, which I had ruled out.

I think it will all fit, and because I was able to keep one of the existing bookcases, we're going to have a increased capacity of 2.75 bookcases, instead of the 1.75 bookcases I thought I was going to have.

We're talking inches, here.

The 3/4 sized bookcase can't be fitted in without moving four bookcases exactly one inch to the left. One inch. I couldn't quite do that last night, so I'll attempt it on Tuesday night. 

And then all I'm waiting for is the new bookcases (four in all, plus a foundation table), which Linda and I are going attempt to put together ourselves. 

We are also awaiting a huge avalanche of books, probably quadruple the normal number for a week. Part of the reason is that I was saving up for the new program Penguin Random House offered, which didn't start until the first of June, and then there is the fact that I can pay for the bulk of the product at the end of summer.

It's a bit of a chance, but also one that can by redeemed by returns, if need be. I'll be out of pocket in the short run, but it should pan out in the long run. 

I'm creating more display space and storage space. Instead of ordering one "Just-in-time" copy of a title, I'm ordering multiple copies so that I don't run out of them in the heat of summer. 

That's the plan anyway.

Why am I doing this when everything was going so well? 

My goal from the start has been to make the best store possible, and I still feel that way. 

And, well, it's just fun to see if I can make something work.