ABA Senior Staff Help for the Holidays

In what’s become an annual tradition, several ABA senior staff members volunteered at member stores during the 2010 holiday crunch. Their goal was to help out wherever needed and to gather information about bookselling on the frontlines. This year ABA CEO Oren Teicher, COO Len Vlahos, and Industry Relations Officer Mark Nichols handsold and gift wrapped at Russo’s Books in Bakersfield, California; R.J. Julia Booksellers in Madison, Connecticut; and Posman Books in New York City, respectively.

The Grand Central location of Posman Books was “really busy,” said Nichols, whose handselling skills from his previous years as an indie bookseller returned immediately. “I had a great time.”

Jennifer Sy, Mark Nichols, Guinevere Cameron, and Kat Thek

During day one at R.J. Julia, Vlahos went to work wrapping special orders and spent some time showing booksellers how Google eBooks™ work. The second day, he hit the busy sales floor.

R.J. Julia promoted Vlahos’ visit to customers, saying: “Len will show you how simple it is to purchase and download books from our website – how cool to give an e-reader with books already loaded and ready to go! Our booksellers will help you choose the perfect books, and heck, we’ll even gift wrap your e-reader for you!”

On the West Coast, Teicher reported that Russo’s Books was busy despite days of rain, and everyone could not have been friendlier. Russo’s curates titles to reflect the interests of Bakersfield, Teicher noted, and makes excellent use of IndieBound marketing materials throughout the store. “They have absolutely mastered being local,” he said.

Russo's Books	Eat Sleep Read T-shirts at Russo's