Trouble in Bookstoreland
Takeover of the Independents by Central Distribution
I looked into the bookbuying system at our local high-end
independent bookstore (the last one left in a 50-mi radius) and
found out something interesting: there is none.
They can’t buy or stock their own shelves.
Nor can they give input.
They ‘work’ with the Borders distro system.
I was told that any input at all would be too much
bothering of the buyer. The people at our store respectfully
stay out of something which is so clearly not their concern.
Sure, they can special order titles. They can even
do this at whatever volume they like. A strange practice
that would be: special ordering books one at a time as they
are sold. Maybe they end up special ordering dozens of a
title, but that has no bearing on whether it will be stocked
in the future. The stocking status is set centrally, but don’t you
know there are so many bookstores and titles to
handle that it is understandably not a very sensitive
process. It’s kind of Soviet even: one week hundreds of
a title no one is interested in shows up, another time
a hotseller suddenly dries up. Who knows what the commissars
will bestow on us. Or what methods they use to decide.
It is not an open or responsive system.
No one seemed to think it at all unusual.
—High-end indy shop, staffed by Masters Degree English majors,
daily special literary events….no control over stock.
Good ole status quo?
