In an era of retail when bigger isn’t necessarily better, Russo's Books in Bakersfield, California, has lopped off about one-third of its footprint. Customer response has been overwhelmingly positive.
With QR codes going mainstream, indie booksellers are increasingly integrating them into their shelf-talkers and newsletters. Among the results has been the opening of conversations between customers and staff about e-books, new technologies, and customer service.
Richard Howorth, co-owner of Square Books, in Oxford, Mississippi, recently gave a presentation to Italian booksellers as part of the Scuola per Librai (School for Booksellers), which convenes every year in Venice.
Becky Anderson was “blown away” by the scope of Germany’s Nürnberg Toy Fair, where she recently found several new toy lines for Anderson’s Bookshops and came away with ideas for how indie booksellers can share information about favorite products.
On Monday, February 28, ABA indicated its strong support of the decision by Random House to adopt the agency pricing model for the publisher’s e-books. Under the agency model, a publisher sets a retail price for a specific book, which establishes a level playing field for all resellers.
Cynthia Compton of 4 Kids Books & Toys in Indianapolis and Fishers, Indiana, uses the lion’s share of her advertising budget to give away $5 gift cards. And she can rattle off half a dozen reasons why it’s a good idea.
Left Bank Books, Pudd’nhead Books, Subterranean Books, Main Street Books, and The Book House have formed an alliance to help raise awareness of their stores and their unique contributions to their local communities.
To boost Oskaloosa, Iowa’s buy local movement, Nancy Simpson of the Book Vault has partnered with other indie businesses to offer “A Day for Divas,” an afternoon of shopping, sampling, and indulging.
Last month’s Winter Institute session “How to Create New Business Models Through Strategic Thinking” revealed how indie booksellers are using their ingenuity and their roots in the community to come up with new ways to grow book sales.
