Buy Local Week

With this being the beginning of Buy Local Week here in Bellingham I thought it appropriate that I post a response I sent to a very good question from one of our customers.  He had just received our holiday catalog and was curious why the prices on some of our books were considerably higher than those of online retailer, Amazon.  Here is the answer I sent to him. I'd love to have your comments.

Thanks for your note and the chance to let you know a bit about book pricing.  The publisher sets the suggested retail price of a book and bookstores and other resellers buy the books for a discount off of that price.  Our discount is in the range of 40 - 45% off the retail price.  Regular discounts that we give, such as our frequent buyer program, school discounts, our birthday card discounts, etc. pare that margin down to below 40%.  The costs of operating a bricks-and-mortar retail establishment--occupancy, personnel, etc. eat up most of what remains.  In the most profitable days of retail bookstores bottom-line profits were about 2%.  Stores have struggled for several years to get back to that point in spite of low compensation (including that of owners--Dee and I make less than we would if we had stayed in education) and controlling every possible expense. 

Amazon and other online retailers have created a very low-cost delivery system, though it's still unclear whether they really make money on the book part of their business, given all of the other products they sell.  We simply cannot compete with those vendors on price.  What we believe we do deliver is a contribution to the quality of life in the community that remote mail order businesses cannot and will not provide.  Each reader will make his or her choice on the basis of what is most important to them.  Retail bookstores may well be the buggy whip stores of a previous century.  In 1992, when I was president of the American Booksellers Association there were about 4500 independent bookstores.  Today there are fewer than 1500.

Village Books has had a good run, coming up on thirty years.  It may be that "the times they are a changing."  And, we too, may go the way of the dodo bird and dinosaur.  But, it's not going to happen soon.  Many folks understand the difference between price (what one pays for an item) and true cost (what one gets and/or sacrifices for it).  Many believe that what we, and other independent businesses, contribute to the life of the community makes the cost of buying from us lower than buying from Amazon or WalMart or...

We hope you see the value of what we, and other independent businesses, contribute to the quality of life in our community.  We truly appreciate your business and will continue to strive to provide great value.  Thanks again for your note.

Comments

[jenn]

I have also heard that sellers like Amazon can get an even larger discount from the publisher since they can buy in such large quantities. Is that true?

I agree that there is a difference between price and cost. Thank you for your thoughts about buying from and supporting local independant business.

[Elizabeth Burton]

And if bricks-and-mortar stores could get the same discount as a wholesaler but would have to give up returns, would that help?

[sg]

I love Village, and I understand that B'ham is a small town and all of our retail selections are thinner than in larger cities (except maybe for gigantic chains like WalMart, but having only been to the one in bellingham twice, I can't compare it to other WalMarts in larger areas). Our Barnes and Nobel, Macy's, and Sears are all pretty tiny compared to other stores. The "new" Village is open and inviting, but it seems really understocked and uninteresting. I know, I know, you'll order anything, which is great, but I've never understood why the in-store selection is so small. Combining the new and used seems to have made it even worse rather than better. I've never understood why the science and philosophy sections are so small, not the mention GLBT. I used to shop at Village all the time, and still usually do when I'm looking for something new, but I usually end up at Henderson's (for the selection and the fact that I can spend hours in there browsing) or buying books directly from smaller publisher sites (more money for the authors). Village used to be funky, now it's just sort of quaint and slightly elite. Bamboo floors and sweeping staircases are great, but I want more selection!

[Village Books]

Jenn, Elizabeth & SG,

Thanks for your comments.

Jenn - Amazon may get higher discounts and other promotional considerations. That was certainly true of big box bookstores a few years back but that playing field has, supposedly, been leveled a bit.

Elizabeth - A higher discount to take on the risk of not being able to return is a subject worthy of discussion. However, even wholesalers can return books to publishers so that discount must not be high enough for them to be willing to risk that either. There is no doubt that the current returns system is not healthy so we, and other booksellers, welcome a conversation.

SG - I'm sorry you're disappointed in our selection. Henderson's definitely sets a high standard. The cost of used inventory, however, is much less than new and the dollars it takes to stock a store our size is considerable. The fact is that we have far more books, new and used, since we expanded four years ago. It may not appear to be so but, we expanded from 7500 to 10000 square feet of selling space so the space is more open. What we hope we provide is true "selection," meaning we have sorted through a large variety of books to present those that we hope meet many of our customers needs. Space and dollars do limit what we can stock. It's important that we are able to turn over our inventory on a regular basis. Section sizes are based on the historic demand for those sections. We are always trying to improve the store so, your comments are taken very seriously.

Thank you all!

Chuck

[Bellingham Real Estate]

So when is the next buy local week? I should have got into the action.