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Charity Shops and books
Sep. 6th, 2013 07:56 pm I've started helping with the books at a hospice charity shop in Wimborne. My stress levels are running pretty high at present (unemployment) and this helps as it's something I know well and I can make a difference without having to focus too hard. Also, it's giving me an excuse to get the bicycle out several times a week.
This shop is really working well for me. It's a new shop, only just opened and I'm the first person to take on the books. That means that there are no pre-existing bad habits to be broken and no staff with investments in an existing system.
When I suggest something, the shop manager is happy for me to go ahead and do it. (as long as the result looks good. ie. she preferred printed shelf labels to hand written ones and that's fine by me)
Best of all (and I fought for this for over a year at my last charity shop without ever getting it), she's able and willing to give me the weekly sales figures. That means I can look over the book sales and see if what I'm doing is actually improving sales.
Last week, I alphabetized all the fiction paperbacks and sorted the non-fiction into categories. That increased books from 4% of shop sales to 6%. This week, I'm working on the display, adding book ends to create space mid-shelf where I can put a book face-out to show the cover. Sold a cookery book within an hour of making it visible (it had been there for two weeks previously without selling). Faceouts also help make categories more visible.
Fiction hardbacks weren't moving at all (they never sell well in charity shops, people usually prefer paperbacks as they're smaller). I've made those 'buy one get one free' and they've started selling. Interestingly enough, not all the people who bought one took a second, but the sign made people spend longer looking at the shelf.
We're very short of paperbacks. Hardly any in the back room at all. They've been selling well, but I expect that to slow down due to lack of new stock. At some point, I'll start taking off the ones that have been there longest and passing them to other shops (if they're good ones) and to the dealer if they aren't.
We sold our first collectable book today. I found an old law book (about 200 years old) with a fascinating chapter on the laws relating to town militia. Sold for £15 to a friend of mine who runs the local militia reenactment group!
It'll be interesting to see how the next few weeks go. I'm hoping we'll get more donations from people visiting the shop and I've put an appeal on the shelves for local history and military history. They usually sell well. (I've already sold two military history books off the top display shelf)
This shop is really working well for me. It's a new shop, only just opened and I'm the first person to take on the books. That means that there are no pre-existing bad habits to be broken and no staff with investments in an existing system.
When I suggest something, the shop manager is happy for me to go ahead and do it. (as long as the result looks good. ie. she preferred printed shelf labels to hand written ones and that's fine by me)
Best of all (and I fought for this for over a year at my last charity shop without ever getting it), she's able and willing to give me the weekly sales figures. That means I can look over the book sales and see if what I'm doing is actually improving sales.
Last week, I alphabetized all the fiction paperbacks and sorted the non-fiction into categories. That increased books from 4% of shop sales to 6%. This week, I'm working on the display, adding book ends to create space mid-shelf where I can put a book face-out to show the cover. Sold a cookery book within an hour of making it visible (it had been there for two weeks previously without selling). Faceouts also help make categories more visible.
Fiction hardbacks weren't moving at all (they never sell well in charity shops, people usually prefer paperbacks as they're smaller). I've made those 'buy one get one free' and they've started selling. Interestingly enough, not all the people who bought one took a second, but the sign made people spend longer looking at the shelf.
We're very short of paperbacks. Hardly any in the back room at all. They've been selling well, but I expect that to slow down due to lack of new stock. At some point, I'll start taking off the ones that have been there longest and passing them to other shops (if they're good ones) and to the dealer if they aren't.
We sold our first collectable book today. I found an old law book (about 200 years old) with a fascinating chapter on the laws relating to town militia. Sold for £15 to a friend of mine who runs the local militia reenactment group!
It'll be interesting to see how the next few weeks go. I'm hoping we'll get more donations from people visiting the shop and I've put an appeal on the shelves for local history and military history. They usually sell well. (I've already sold two military history books off the top display shelf)
