This
holiday season communities across the country will see pop-up stores
mysteriously appear out of nowhere. They
will sell items that are seasonal, great gift items, or something that people
will be open to buying with year-end disposable income. Why aren’t any of these stores ones that sell
books?
On
the one hand, bookstores shouldn’t be temporary. They should be long-lasting structures that support the community they serve, as if a church, school, or hospital. On the other hand, books should be sold
everywhere, and if it means this comes in the form of a pop-up store, so be it.
What
would be great is if a pop-up bookstore arrives, it does so well that it
decides to stay permanently. Let the
pop-up audition lead to long-term success.
Pop-up
stores fill voids. Landlords want
something to fill their space and get some rent. Communities benefit when these stores sell
something useful. Nomadic commercialism
goes with our freelancer economy. Everything is temporary, from outsourcing
labor overseas to part-time workers domestically.
Perhaps
what would be helpful to the book industry would be to have pop-up and
permanent stores have book displays in their otherwise non-book stores. Let’s have candy, clothing, electronic, and
sporting goods stores sell books. Some
already do, but the vast majority don’t.
Maybe
what’s needed is a dual-usage store. How
about a location that has books on display during certain days of the week or
hours of the day, and then alternatively, something else is sold during the
other hours. It’s similar to how
community spaces or athletic fields or sports arenas are used for multiple
things.
Another
way to use space creatively is to have a split store, where a portion of the
space is used to sell something other than books. Many bookstores sell music, games, magazines
and gift items, but what if a bookstore sold women’s shoes or wine or pizza?
One
model book publishers can adopt is the farmer’s market concept. Once a week or once a month, a town’s parking
lot or vacant space is used to house fresh food sales, organic foods, or home
cooked items. How about a book market
comes every Saturday to a public space in town?
I
think all libraries should sell books, new or used. Some will hold a sale once every so often to
dump donations they don’t need or can’t house, but libraries should have a
commercial venue as part of their establishment. Have a coffee bar, sell books, and serve the
community.
Books
thrive when they are purchased and recommended to others. The more places that sell books, including
pop-up stores, the better chance we’ll see more books sell and further growth in
the book industry.
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Brian Feinblum’s views, opinions, and ideas expressed in this blog
are his alone and not that of his employer. You can follow him on Twitter
@theprexpert and email him at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He feels more
important when discussed in the third-person. This is copyrighted by
BookMarketingBuzzBlog © 2015
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