I always forget how slow winter can be. It’s almost unfair, really, to have any month follow the craziness of hand over fist sales of December. We go from being unnaturally busy, from the moment the door opens, to the slowest month of the year. It’s just unfair.
One of the great things about the store being slower is I can actually get things done. Things that tend to get put off for another day. Things like deep cleaning. This needs to get done, but can only really happen when the store is not full of customers. It’s not sexy, but it’s part of the job. Other mundane things like trying to organize the back room can happen. Of course our back room was organized (bless my staff) and then I went and messed it up by trying to organize returns.
Returns are an early winter ritual. After the decimation that is the holidays, I see shelves with breathing room and I like it. I also get a real sense of what’s just not going to sell. For us, it’s hardcover books about politics and economics. Doing returns when the store is slower means it’s easier to make massive piles throughout the store based on publisher. I know other stores actually print out lists of books that haven’t sold in a X amount of time. I take a much more anecdotal approach. I examine a certain section and look to see which publishers seem over-represented. Then I decided which publisher I should train my eye on, based on number of books I see that could go, and which publisher I need credit from. Then I go through the whole store looking for books from that publisher. I look at each book that’s on the return bubble and I play this game: would I miss it if it weren’t here? Conversely, am I sick of looking at it? If I answer these questions with no or yes, then in the return tub it goes. Then I check each title for its return status. It’s actually shocking just how fast books go out of print; this just reinforces that returns need to happen more often, or you miss the window.
Doing returns in January and February can help close the cash flow gap of the slower seasons. Of course, publishers hate returns, and in a perfect world, every book I buy would be a winner, but that’s just not the case. Mistakes abound: hardcover picture books with adorable bears just don’t sell at the rate I buy them, too many 100th day of school books (does that day really get celebrated?), and one too mNY young adult hardcovers about the girl with challenges triumphing against the odds of the drunken mom, the absent father, and her eating disorder. These books have to go. Not just because they’re not good books, but because they are money sitting on the shelf and often it’s money bookstores don’t have in January or February.
The other thing that returns do is it readies the store for the new spring books. It’s a sort of out with old, in the new scenario. There is something wonderfully satisfying about knowing that your shelves truly reflect what you want to sell, not just what you happen to have on hand. Inventory control is a fun balancing act, and doing returns allows me to correct the wrongs.
As much as I like doing returns, I can’t wait to get these snowstorms and below freezing weather to turn towards Valentine’s books and Easter Bunnies in the coming months.