Borders - Smaller Inventory, All face out = More Sales

It just means more focus on bestsellers and brand-name authors. If booksellers and publishers had their way - that's all they'd carry.

If you want to see this in action, check out Walmart's or Kroger's (supermarket chain) book selection. They're all face out and they're all the same ten or twenty authors.

well, I can tell you that it's that way in the WalMart and I get to see a LOT more covers than I would spine-in... I'm not sure if it'll encourage me to BUY more books, but I'll probably LOOK at more books if they have good cover art.

I'll be interested to see how this pans out in the long run - between this and the "deal" with Lulu.com.... could be interesting. If nothing else, the stores are gonna look a WHOLE lot more colorful with all those covers staring you in the face!




as for it affecting the small pubs - can't get my book into stores (other than personal contacts) as it is now since my publisher doesn't have a distributor, so it won't affect me so much.

I also don't buy books at walmart and such becuase they don't tend to carry what I am looking for.

It's a pity. Ages ago, Borders used to be known for title depth and knowledgeable sales force. Some years back they did the first big stock reduction, keeping fewer titles in and trying to get people to order what they didn't have on hand (this was around the time I left, 2001). They also began to McDonaldize the work staff, hiring fewer folk with book knowledge and getting in cheap labor just to run the registers.

So it's sad to see them continuing the same trend. Browsing bookstores to come across unknown treasures is going to be one of those things we'll be look back at with nostalgia.

Marlys said:

They also began to McDonaldize the work staff, hiring fewer folk with book knowledge and getting in cheap labor just to run the registers.

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Well, if they have a lot of leftovers of James Frey's "memoir", they can always sell them as a package deal with other books:

"You want Frey with that?"

caw

Hate the idea. They don't have titles I'm looking for a lot as it is. Now I might as well shop on Amazon or at B&N. What about those obscure books that you miss and find out about years later? Pulped, I guess.

It makes sense, however, for the publishers and Border. It's a shame, but people are buying the same books over and over and over -- and those are the ones that will be faced outward.

I really enjoy browsing for lose little unknown books. Seeing a title that interests me and discovering the cover does too, only to open it and fall in love with the prose.

In fact, I'm planning a B&N day, which involves finding a babysitter for my daughter and many hours in the bookstore, browsing for those perfect books.

Occasionally, I buy books from Walmart. Most recently, I bought our own Jim Hines' Goblin War book. There were about 20 or so of them in a center display, so I grabbed me one because I've read the other two, and, hey, I know that guy. Sorta.

I still think I will prefer browsing, so I hope not all bookstores do that.

Hopefully they will be decent enough to enlarge their stores, otherwise I will be visiting B&N a lot more often.

But then again, I hardly get the chance to go to either of them since Toronto has Chapters & Indigo.

I don't know about this - I don't think I've ever bought a book based on loving the cover or not bought one based on hating it. Isn't what's inside the cover why I'm buying it?

Really irritating. Borders is one of the stores that stocks Samhain books. Now that I'll have a book with a publisher who has distribution, the store decides to stock fewer books.

I can't win. I'm hoping for shelving anyway, at least regionally.

I think, in the end, it will drive more people to Amazon and B&N online - fewer titles means fewer choices, and I want specific titles, having heard of them from other places. I don't buy much instore anymore anyway, but when I do I tend to pick up titles I haven't heard of. Pity that might end.

Yikes. It sounds like very bad news to me, for the reasons already stated-- even more focus on bestsellers, less room for stock of new and midlist authors. Less variety for readers, leading to less variety of books publishers will acquire and death of more small presses.

Rowling, King, Roberts, and Dr. Phil get richer, the rest of us are SOL.

Siiigh.

Susan Gable said:

Borders is trying something new. It will reduce the number of titles it carries in its stores because all the books will be shelved face-out. However, they found that when they tried this, the store actually sold more books. (Albeit they will sell more books, but fewer titles.)

Thoughts?

Susan G.

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Obviously it makes good marketing sense if they're selling more books. Research shows that readers are drawn to books first by cover art, then title, then back blurb and THEN they open the book. The cover is the grabber. As a not-so-famous author it's a spur to GET famous.
Linnea

Ahh... therein lies the rub - how do you get famous if you're being nudged aside by the already-famous?

and which came first, the chicken or the egg?

I usually ignore the ones that are face out. I like to go treasure hunting. Looks like I'm a minority, though...

Jersey Chick said:

Ahh... therein lies the rub - how do you get famous if you're being nudged aside by the already-famous?

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We could all chip in and hire a hit man.
Linnea

See... that's what we need - more outside-of-the-box thinking...

I like face out on the new books (Books a Million, Barnes and Noble) because it lets me see at a glance what's been added. (Both have a new books section, but also put the latest author edition face out in the general book section).

But if it means that I'll have to order older books in a series (because they carry fewer books) I'll just stay home and shop Amazon.

Our Borders store is pretty raggity-ass anyway. It's my fifth choice and I always call before I go to find out it they actually have the book I want on the shelves. With Books and Barnes, there's a good chance they'll have it.

My wife runs a retail toy store, sells lots of boxed games, puzzles, crafts and science kits, among other things. She always tries to display as much as possible face-on. It is a well-established fact, backed up by decades of retail experience, that items displayed face-on attract more customer interest than those displayed edge-on.

Sort of the way selecting a girlfriend or boyfriend works.

caw

I'm going to go ahead and say I don't think this is a bad idea. If I want stock, I'll go to B&N; Borders already has less selection overall. But I do go to Borders because they have coupons and I really like to browse through their new-arrivals... which are all face-up on the tables in front, or face-out on the shelves in that particular genre. And if I'm just looking for something new to read, I'm the sort of person who really is drawn in by a catchy cover. There's this one book I pick up almost every time I'm in the sci fi / fantasy section because the cover is so enticing (and then put it down when I realize it's THAT ONE again, and I don't want it based on the back-cover description).

And a reduction of 5/10% in stock is not that bad, in my opinion. Half of the things I buy aren't stocked regardless of where I go.

If this becomes a trend, I hope it will mean that publishers put more effort into attractive and accurate covers.

blacbird said:

Sort of the way selecting a girlfriend or boyfriend works.

caw

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I dunno...edge on you can better see the size of her....um....assets.

This is annoying to me because there's a Borders between my apartment and my office, so if I feel like buying an impulse book at the end of a workday (which I do about once a week, usually grabbing three or four titles each time), there will now be that much less to choose from. Yeah, when I want a specific book I usually order it from Amazon, but if I want it right then or am just looking to see what's out there, I get it from Borders. Which will now be less likely to have something of interest to me. Fan-tastic.

I find covers facing outward to be more of a nuisance than anything, since it takes longer for me to locate the book when I can't just glance at a shelf full of spines, but if nothing else I'm glad that cover designers will now get a shred more recognition (and reward) for their efforts. Hopefully this will give publishers another little nudge away from godawful covers and toward unique, striking, attractive ones.

I really didn't want to get involved in this, because I currently work as a manager at Borders. However, all the outrage over this change is getting a little ridiculous.

I want to start off by saying that when I initially heard about the decision to reduce inventory, I hated it. The staff, in general, hated it--mostly because we didn't know the particulars.

Bookstores are dying because of online competition. That's a fact. You cannot expect ANY bookstore/chain to remain in business by doing nothing other than what they've been doing for years. They have to change. The public has demanded it by their buying habits.

Face-outs are five times more likely to sell than spine-outs. That's also a fact. Sales are down across the board for all bookstore chains, which means that costs also need to come down. Reduction in inventory makes good business sense. Coupling that with a more aggressive face-out plan, and the decision could prove to be a saving grace.

In addition, I'd like to point out that the reduction in inventory is already 2/3 complete in all stores. Have you noticed the change? Most of the reduction was in areas that frankly, don't sell well regardless. How many of you actually browse the Architecture or Philosophy sections anyhow? Do we really need to carry six different QP versions of The Odyssey? Genre Fiction and regular Fiction, plus high-selling categories like History, Cooking and Travel are not so much reduced. For most of those categories, it's been a reduction in the number of copies per title as opposed to the variety of titles.

The largest portion of the reduction has been in the multimedia department, which should come as no surprise to anyone who has downloaded music instead of purchasing a CD. That has been the greatest change overall.

Will Borders lose some customers because of this decision and all the hoopla surrouding it? Probably. Voracious readers (like those on this website) might vote with their wallets and decided not to patronize Borders any longer. But let's be honest, you're probably more likely to buy stuff on Amazon anyhow. Borders has already lost you. However, I sincerely doubt that the general public will even notice. Most of them are only looking for the newest James Patterson or Nora Roberts anyhow.

Sorry, but I had to get that off my chest. Now I get to wait for the snarky responses to my snarky response.