Robin Agnew
Yes, I am a retailer, the type of business that's vilified by all right thinking news outlets this time of year. Black Friday happens in our store, too, but it all goes down so differently from the reports I hear and read. Listening to NPR the other day I was almost puzzled. It's as though I operate in a different universe.
I don't have people lined up on lawn chairs, waiting to get into my store Thanksgiving night. I don't open on Thanksgiving. I don't open until 11 the day after Thanksgiving (I need my sleep, after all). There isn't a crush through the door first thing - we're a downtown business, and Black Friday is a mall and big box event.
Yet, Black Friday still rolls forward, and it's always a busy day. When I heard people on NPR talking about how shopping on Black Friday - waiting in line, the thrill of the hunt - is an "experience" , I just thought, we offer a different kind of experience, but not just on Black Friday.
Our experiences focus instead on author events. The comraderie of the line, the thrill of the hunt (will there be enough books left?) - that's all there. Plus the delightful experience of meeting an author, and asking him or her questions about their book, their writing process, what they like to read. Our "experiences" are sprinkled judiciously throughout the year.
And yet, this Black Friday did feel a bit different from the past few. It was busier, for one thing (for us, the traditional "busiest day" is the Saturday before Christmas) but this was a steady, buying crowd. And they weren't buying gifts, for the most part, which was the interesting bit. They were buying stuff for themselves.
I sold a car load of true crime (these are not gift items), many of them titles we'd had on our shelves for years. I was happy to blow off the dust and send them on their way. We're about sold out of any kind of Doyle anthology, those always go this time of year, the bigger the hardcover, the better.
There were people looking for the darkest, grittiest type of British stuff - Mo Hayder, Stuart McBride - there were folks looking for an author whose name I forgot but who wrote about the policeman in London whose wife was killed? (Easy one). There was a family first thing who come to Ann Arbor from out of town to enjoy walking around. I saw them across the street afyer they left - books in hand - huddling outside, having a coffee. Now, that's the holiday spirit!
If this Christmas will be busier than last year, that would be great. Last January was especially tough and it would help very much to have a busy holiday season. We're not offering "door busters", but we do have a top 12 list, discounted, and a heap of recommendations and ready conversation. In fact, a perpetual book buying "experience."
Today Ann Arbor is a full on U of Michigan vs. Ohio State "experience", probably leaving book buying out of the equation. I won't leave the house myself until the game is underway at noon. I'm buckling in for the holidays, whatever form they take. It's always a surprise.
