This will be ShelfTalker’s last post of 2015! The next post will be on January 4th. For this serious, last of the year type of undertaking, given that I’ve been spending most of my waking hours in December matching up customers with gifts for their loved ones, and turnabout being fair play, I decided to ask some of my customers what they wanted from DDG in 2016.

First, though, I asked the store sheep what they wanted for the holidays. It turns out that Jo, Flo, and Mo had a particular book they wanted to hear as a readaloud, as you can see below.

Many customers did not want anything new from DDG but had instead flattering things to stay about the status quo, viz…

“I want you to stay the same.”
“I love great service and you have that already.”
“I come here to get ideas for new books for my kids and you do a great job with that.”
“You already do so much. The things you do in the schools is great.”
“You already exceed my expectations!”
All right enough of those. Hem hem. One common theme was that we should have coffee here. This idea ranged from having a Nespresso machine to taking over neighboring stores and having a full-fledged coffee house, with a never-ending stream of literary and musical entertainment. One customer suggested moving all the books to the second floor so that you could look down on live jazz entertainment, ala Busboys and Poets, while you were browsing. (Possible problem: DDG inhabits a one-story building.)
While taking over our neighbors or adding a second story onto a building I don’t own probably isn’t in the cards, I am thinking about getting a Nespresso machine.
Another food and drink related idea was…
“A margarita bar. I would spend a lot more time here and I could walk home!”
Another customer suggested that we should…
“have a lot more books. I mean you already have a great selection and are loaded to the gills.. But if you had more books then I could spend more time here browsing.” (hmmn)
“Have a book club.” (I signed her up as we already do of course.)
One customer wanted to have our middle grade and YA books arranged by both content and reading level.” (I showed her how our systems worked to attempt to do that on the sly.)
My staff asked for “professional gift wrappers next holiday season.” (I explained that would be no problem as they are professional gift wrappers by default.) Konner also suggested getting a green screen to enhance all of our goofy photos. Not a bad idea!
And finally, as I wish all you beloved ShelfTalker readers the most wonderful of Holidays (retrospectively as the case may be) and the happiest of New Years, I’ll end by asking you what bookselling topics you’d like to see Elizabeth, Josie, and myself to consider tackling in 2016???? POST THEM BELOW!
Happy Holidays, everyone!