used bookstore observations

For the last two weeks I have been helping to restock our used bookstore at the library. This is beyond what I normally do as the 'manager.' I have some very capable gals who normally take care of this on an almost daily basis. One of them, however, has taken a long summer vacation and I volunteered to help the other gal get this very important work completed.

The first thing we do is sort through all of the donations that have come in since last Thursday. You see, Thursday is when the BIG sort happens. I'm talking 10 folks come in each week and sort, box and haul an entire week's worth of donations. On Monday, the store stockers do a presort. They go through and separate all the nonfiction, the hardback fiction, the standard size paperback fiction and trade sized fiction. Any remarkable nonfiction is taken to the storage closet and the store if filled from there. Same thing for all the fiction.

The trick comes in when you are trying to fill the shelves and keep coming across titles that we already have on the shelf. We try to not have duplicates in the store. So, when it seems that all you have is Brown, Baldacci, Grisham, Roberts etc in the store, most likely we have 2-3 additional copies of that title in the storage closet.

Yep, we are heavy on the bestsellers. Coming across a midlist author is like finding a diamond whether it be in hardback or paperback. We look for unknown or lesser known names. We give a shout of glee when we find them. Often I will turn them face out to encourage a customer to at least pick the darn book up and give it a test drive.

For a while our inventory of romance paperbacks was slim. Now we've had a run on trade sized paperbacks. Oh, I have enough Anita Shreve and Ya Ya's to choke a horse, but beyond them, not much to choose from in the storage closet. Still plenty of non-romance paperbacks to stock.

The other thing, our sales are exploding. Not sure if it is summer. Maybe the price of gas is keeping people home more and on the couch reading.

Just a few observations from the trenches.