Robin Agnew
The other night, the store hosted our monthly book club. We had a nice and detailed discussion of Alan Bradley's The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie. Two of the women were already reading book two. Towards the end I got up to answer the phone and a couple of the women started talking about their kindles.
I certainly don't want to censure what my book club chooses to discuss, but on the other hand, hosting a discussion of the kindle at my store with my book club somehow seemed wrong, and I told the ladies that I didn't like their conversation. I tried to say it nicely, but really, I don't think I have ever felt more discouraged as a bookseller.
Because these women are long time book club members and some of them are friends - some of them have been to my house, we've gone on trips or on outings together - it was somehow more shocking. I know our business is changing almost more rapidly than we can even follow, but to have a core group of customers talk about the virtues of a product they could never buy from me was a shock.
Yes, we offer a community place - they all love the book club - but we are also a business. If they are speaking with their feet the result will be that that community place will be gone. I was thinking back to a dinner table conversation over new year's. One of our friends works at Borders headquarters and her son asked her how Christmas sales were. Ours were OK, Borders was down, I guess. But we looked at each other in total communion and shook our heads. We just said "Books? Who knows what will happen?"
I can't fuss and shame people into shopping with us, certainly. That's no way to keep a customer. But increasingly I am starting to wonder what way there might be. People often call looking for, for example, used Colin Cotterill titles. Sometimes we have them and they are delighted. But all they seem to want is that one title. They aren't browsing. And they aren't wanting to buy a new title.
And there are, of course, exceptions. One of my favorite customers was in fact in this week - she comes in once or twice a year to stock up. She's from England. She was happy to buy new or used - she had her list and wanted to fill it, and we talked about authors I'd recommended last time she was in that she'd enjoyed. Try having that discussion with your kindle.
