ABA/SEBA Booksellers Forum Talks Advocacy, Co-op, and Gift Cards

The Southeast Booksellers Association (SEBA) held its Spring Seminar and Book Awards on April 4 - 5 at the Park Road Hotel in Charlotte, North Carolina. The weekend's programming included an ABACUS "Sneak Preview" and an ABA/SEBA Booksellers Forum. Representing ABA at the meeting were ABA COO Oren Teicher and BookSense.com Director Len Vlahos. Members of the regional association who attended ABA's sessions told BTW that they were informative and helpful.

The ABACUS preview, which was held on Friday afternoon, April 4, provided booksellers with data to measure each store's business operations against others with similar sales volume, store size, and region. Said attendee Nancy Olson of Quail Ridge Books & Music in Raleigh, North Carolina, "We're looking forward to the final, more expanded database report. Frankly, I can't understand why everybody wouldn't report [to the ABACUS study] so they can use this…. I felt like it was most helpful, even though preliminary. I think it would be more helpful if everybody would report, so we can have information by region, and we'll know it will be more valid information if we get more stores."

"I feel like it was such a great beginning that hopefully bookstores will get excited and participate," said Wanda Jewell, executive director for SEBA.

The ABA/SEBA Booksellers Forum was held on Saturday morning and gave booksellers the opportunity to hear updates on ABA business from Teicher and Vlahos and to offer their input to the ABA staff and board members. Overall, the forum "was fantastic," Jewell said. "I had a sense that everyone felt comfortable to speak their mind. It was a very relaxed and enjoyable forum."

Booksellers who spoke to BTW noted that the hot topics at the forum were advocacy, BookSense.com's new co-op program, and ABA's investigation into developing an electronic gift card program.

The first hour of the three-hour forum was dominated by talk of advocacy initiatives, attendees reported. "It was a very civic minded group," said Sarah Goddin, buyer and inventory manager for Quail Ridge.

David Friese of the Bookmark in Charlotte, North Carolina, reported that ABA's sales tax e-fairness initiative, the Liveable City Study on the local economic impact of independent retailers versus large chains, and the USA Patriot Act were all discussed.

The new BookSense.com co-op program, which is currently being tested and is due to roll out to coincide with BookExpo America in May, was a topic of discussion, noted Sally Brewster of Park Road Books in Charlotte, North Carolina. The BookSense.com co-op program is designed to give BookSense.com participants a simple way to collect exempt newsletter co-op funds for some or all of the cost of their BookSense.com Web sites. BookSense.com handles all of the paperwork for participating bookstores, and, in turn, charges bookstores 15 percent of the co-op dollars earned from the publishers. "We're very hot on it, it's win-win," Brewster said.

People at the forum seemed very enthusiastic about ABA's research into developing an electronic gift card, Brewster said. There was a discussion as to whether people would be willing to purchase new hardware to implement this in their stores. Brewster explained, "Some small stores had a problem with the idea, but most were enthusiastic -- we feel like we're missing out on sales."

"We get a lot of requests for gift cards," said Quail Ridge's Goddin. "I know it's extraordinarily complex, but it seems to be the way to go."

Overall, the ABA/SEBA Booksellers Forum was very helpful, Brewster told BTW. "It was great," she said. "Very informative -- I learned a lot." --David Grogan