Book Store?

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Meg Ostrowski
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Re: Book Store?

Postby Meg Ostrowski » Fri Sep 03, 2010 8:33 pm

I wrote;

"I bet The Friends of Lakewood Public Library have inventory. Maybe they could play a role and have an ongoing book sale/fundraiser."

Then I saw their table set up yesterday at LPL for exactly that, an ongining book sale. Apparently they have been doing this for some time.

At just a couple of bucks per book it really seems unlikely that inhabiting the old Revelations location is a sustainable option for this idea...but hope others will keep pushing for a viable solution.


“There could be anywhere from 1 to over 50,000 Lakewoods at any time. I’m good with any of those numbers, as long as it’s just not 2 Lakewoods.” -Stephen Davis
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Jim O'Bryan
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Re: Book Store?

Postby Jim O'Bryan » Sat Sep 04, 2010 7:12 am

Meg Ostrowski wrote:I wrote;

"I bet The Friends of Lakewood Public Library have inventory. Maybe they could play a role and have an ongoing book sale/fundraiser."

Then I saw their table set up yesterday at LPL for exactly that, an ongining book sale. Apparently they have been doing this for some time.

At just a couple of bucks per book it really seems unlikely that inhabiting the old Revelations location is a sustainable option for this idea...but hope others will keep pushing for a viable solution.


Meg

I agree that a bookstore will probably not be sustainable long term, unless partnered with
other ideas, and or is a labor of love for those involved.

I believe that combination can be found. Today I will be heading out to look at other
bookstores that have made it in Lorain, Vermillion, Sandusky. It's funny, how much these
book stores work together behind the scenes, and how anxious they are to help each
other survive. They welcome the competition, the love, and perhaps a share of the pain.

I am a true believer in, "if there is a will, there is a way."

Jim O'Bryan
The cynical optimist.


Jim O'Bryan
Lakewood Resident

"The very act of observing disturbs the system."
Werner Heisenberg

"If anything I've said seems useful to you, I'm glad.
If not, don't worry. Just forget about it."
His Holiness The Dalai Lama
Stephen Calhoun
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Re: Book Store?

Postby Stephen Calhoun » Wed Sep 08, 2010 10:41 pm

(from east)

It would be interesting to survey the extant successful retail business models Lakewood is able to support right now.

Retail is, in general, a nuts and bolts affair. Usually, the retail entrepreneur comes at his or her vision with a business model, and, attached to this are assumptions about what sales *need* to be to, at least break even.

My own experience in retail ended in 2000--twenty years--but the picture of the goals given by both the record and book biz in various locations wasn't rocket science. And, yes, the big picture landscape has changed a lot. Still, the sales one needs to support two full time people in a 52 week x 60 hour per week retail book scenario are just what they are, and have to be. Figure a 50% margin by mixing in a lot of used, some new, and, non-book stuff, and you can come up with a raw model. Say, then, such a small store has to turn a $100,000 inventory at least 4/5 times a year.

And, you have to build in some reserves too so you can survive undershooting your targets by some percentage; say 20%.

The model, any model, is, the way I roughly look at it, just what it is, and is certainly viable, if you can figure out how to make your sales marks. Oh, and what you figure out costs money too. And, it has to work; be realistic; be realizable. It probably turns on how you figure out how to get many more than just the sidewalk hoppers to open the door.

Anyway, Lakewood is chock full of business models to look into. Any civic entity is partly the interplay of desire and sellers. It's always going on: this entrepreneurial "figuring it out." ...be a good initiative to be able to provide a helping hand to the entrepreneur, to be able to be a sound sounding board. Any successful Lakewood retail op is, in effect, potentially like a graduate school for how selling stuff at a profit can work in Lakewood.

***

Other ideas: co-op book store; consignment book store; book store able to support local media development and sales across the different media modalities (books, articles; poetry; music; street video.) Of course the more experimental the vision is, the less likely it can refer back to the so-called proven model, conventions, and best practices.

dr.p


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Jim O'Bryan
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Re: Book Store?

Postby Jim O'Bryan » Thu Sep 09, 2010 11:31 am

Stephen

All good points.

It is funny, every bookstore I have spoke to have said similar things, along with a healthy
dose of skepticism that reminds me of when "newspaper people" assure me newspapers
were dead, and a dead issue. Of course that was ten years ago, many things have changed
since then.

You left a couple ideas off your list, but not for lack of vision or trying.

Thanks for the note.

.


Jim O'Bryan
Lakewood Resident

"The very act of observing disturbs the system."
Werner Heisenberg

"If anything I've said seems useful to you, I'm glad.
If not, don't worry. Just forget about it."
His Holiness The Dalai Lama

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