Making it work in today's economy

At least once a month, Kathleen sends out an email to all our member retailers asking them questions about relevant issues. Last month she received so many responses that she couldn’t possibly include them all in the Retailer Response section of the magazine. So we’ve decided to post a few here as well. The following answers are from Will Schremp, owner of Discount Bible Book & Music Store in Detroit, MI. Let us know what you think!

What are you currently doing (or would like to do) with your book sections to make them easier to navigate and more appealing to your customers?
New book fixtures would be nice.  We are still using homemade ones I built almost 30 years ago, repainted, of course. However, my guess is new fixtures would not increase sales as the product would not be any better displayed.

What type of publisher-provided marketing/merchandising support would be the most beneficial to your book sections? Why?
Here is where we are different than most other stores. We have offered "across the board" discounts of at least 10% for over 30 years, starting back when discounting was very unpopular. In the last 10 years are so we have emphasized the "bargain" end of our business, buying remainders, sometimes whole skids. In the past 4 years we have been buying front and back list from several publishers. We carry the majority of their list selling it at 30 to 50 percent off list, depending upon the discount we get.

Whitaker House and Harvest House have stated policies on how to get some or all their product at 65-75% off list. We operate with a gross profit margin of 33% overall. (That's another story about how we can survive doing that.) If we pay 35 cents on the dollar for an item and sell it at 40% off list or 60 cents, the gross profit is 41.6%, 25 divided by 60. We buy Whitaker bargain books at 75% off list and sell them at 50% off list for a 50% gross profit. We also buy from 2 other suppliers that have an offer similar to Harvest House. However, we are on a pilot program with them, so I don't feel that I can give their names yet. Our sales of Harvest House product for example have gone from $8,000 to $55,000 in one year. The increases have been comparable with the other vendors.

Now, let it be clearly understood, these sales increases did not and will not occur if these same books are placed on regular book fixtures even when properly signed. If placed in with your regular stock, no sales increase will occur. We display all this product on banquet tables, well signed. A full 1/3 of our sales floor is banquet tables, no skirting either. This creates the "WOW" factor for our customers. Also, we sell boxed greeting cards at 40% off and display the same way. We also sell new and bestsellers for 20 percent off list on 8 30X60 inch tables facing the check-out counters. I suspect our sales of these items are twice or more than if the customer just "stumbled" across them while browsing. If they came in just for them, would they find them? And, then too, they would miss all the others that may also interest them.

There are some axioms here, if I can call them that. One is that it is better to make at least something than nothing. The thought that if I can't make at least so much, I'm not selling it at all doesn't make a lot of sense. Would you rather make a nickel each and sell 1,000 or make a penny and sell a million? The second is that your potential customers don't shop at Walmart, for example, for the service, or selection.  For our product, its price. The third is that anything on flat tables just have "sale" written all over them.  Lastly, bills are paid with gross profit dollars, not gross profit percents. The mass marketers are prime examples of that. This is a restatement of "One" but put differently.

Some fine points exist too. As book buyer, I want to see all special orders as they arrive. I have added many titles to my inventory that I would otherwise not know about. I stock many titles in more than one location. Some titles span more than one clear cut category. For your computerized system, there should be a way to do this. Even though we do about a million a year at list, we buy almost all non-sale priced books and Bibles from a wholesaler. We order twice a week. This allows for a better than 4 time turn.

Lastly, even with the above that has served us so well in the past, we are seeing sales decline over all. But, I am convinced, that without the above, we would have been closed long ago. Competition here is fierce and as we all know, the economy isn’t the best.