Fair’s Fair “For Book Lovers”

As we have been developing our “brand” - twenty years of finetuning our processes and our ways of doing business - we have been taught, led, prodded and coaxed by an ever-growing, caring and nurturing customer base. 

Over the years the business has gone from me having it (10-12 years), to it having me (6 years), to where it really has finally sunk in - this is the customers’ business they have generously entrusted into my care.

Thankfully, we have great customers who are very understanding and very few of them are as obsessed with this business as our present 22 staff members. The book business has a way of sucking employees into its vortex and no matter how often I remind people “remember this is just a used books business” - they can only be calmed for a few minutes at a time.

The following was sent as an email response to the following email from a fellow in Toronto - 1682 miles away.

“When do you anticipate being able to search your inventory on-line?  It would be a tremendous benefit.

Thanks,

Brian xxx”

Thanks for asking Brian,

We did sell books on the internet through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and ABE for over 5 years and found it an unpleasant experience. We often felt sullied and bullied by their processes and sometimes even by their customers - we don’t get that in our local stores - perhaps keyboarding and/or distance disables a book lovers normal affability or maybe listing a book psychologically morphs it into just another piece of merchandise.

We know our approach to the book business may seem unusual in that we are more interested in building an efficient stable organization and providing a real service to the local community for many years to come. This rather than chasing after the quick bucks sometimes offered by the internet which may in the long run break down the fabric of the community.

The simple fact is – the book business is in peril across North America and also in Great Britain and something has to be done. The prices for books throughout Europe and Australia are skyrocketing. The most important first step I can offer is to suggest you start shopping regularly at the best used books store or stores in your area and get your friends to do the same. Encourage the booksellers you contact to vigorously pursue buying and trading opportunities in your community and to stop being so anxious to send great books out of your area – the books shipped out of your area may well be a loss to your community.

We have invested six years beta-testing a program to teach the computer all the variables and permutations (and there are many) necessary to efficiently operate a book store. Our present program is already outstanding but because we operating four busy stores with 22 staff in the Calgary area we are presented with daily feedback about refinements we still need to implement.

The only reason I mention the work we are presently doing is – we think the book business can be revived by hardworking conscientious operators and their customers. Conscientious operators should be supported and encouraged to thrive because an efficient group of such stores provides far-reaching benefits to a community.

We were both gratified and humbled when a magazine article named us as “One of the 100 Best Things about Calgary” – especially since we know how much farther we have to go on the path we have chosen.