Chapter 7: 

HOW IS THE BOOKSHOP TO BE RUN?

SYSTEMS

The operational manual

This document will be of considerable importance in the efficient and orderly running of the bookshop, for the systematic organization and operating of a bookselling operation depends on very careful attention to a myriad range of details. There can be no room for doubt about the correct way of doing things and every eventuality should, if possible, be foreseen. (See Appendix II for outline contents of a typical manual).
 

CASH

This is the life blood of the store and should be treated with the care and respect it deserves. All management and staff must be sure that the handling of cash is undertaken with the utmost care and that no risks are taken that might lead to incurring a loss.

Handling cash

Strict instructions will need to be given to all members of the staff given the responsibility for manning the till or cashing up. Routines will need to be established for the handling of domestic and foreign currency, cheques, credit and debit cards and other forms of international currency exchange. Given that this is an area where a wide variety of dishonest practices may well lead to serious loss, particular care will be needed to prevent fraud or theft. It is recommended for example that takings are regularly transferred out of the till (the most robbable part of the shop) to a ‘counter-cash’ container or directly to the shop’s safe, which will be carefully sited out of the direct sight of customers. On no account should this transfer become a matter of routine nor should it be observable, since thieves may well easily find their way to the rear area where the safe is kept (see Security below). The same caution must be employed in transferring money to the bank, so that staff undertaking this role are not put at risk.
 

Till procedures

Rules must apply rigorously for this part of the shops operations, for example:

• The till area must be kept tidy and clear of personal belongings at all times. 

• The till should not be opened unless a sale is being made, or unless authorised by management.

• On no account should it be opened for persons asking for change, since this is often a prelude to theft.

• Cashing up procedures at the end of each day should be carefully worked out and a form designed to ensure that such procedures are always followed

• Any disparity should be investigated immediately and thoroughly. There is no guarantee that all staff are going to be completely honest however carefully they are vetted.

• It will be necessary to work out precise rules for operating at the till or EPOS system, once the choice of appropriate equipment is made and a manual produced which will form an essential part of staff training.

Banking

Once the financial arrangements are in place it will be necessary to open a bank account and to organise approved signatories for transactions (the owner may wish to reserve the right to sign all cheques) and to establish paying-in routines. Bank systems need to be understood and credit card machinery acquired with the necessary stationery to go with it. The bookshop will need a system of floats for the till and a sum set aside for petty cash. At busy times of the year it is worthwhile obtaining extra change from the bank in good time. Till bags are likely to be needed to transport cash, both inside the bookshop and to the bank.

Internal accounting books will need to be set up to record takings in an analytical way together with forms designed to regularise the cashing up procedures at the end of the day. Procedures to ensure that these are dealt with properly by the accountant are also required.
 

STOCK

The management of the stock will require the utmost care, since it is the major part of the investment of the enterprise. Systems must be put in place that ensures that rigorous control over the movement and maintenance of stock is adhered to at all times.
 

The need for stock control 

The bookshop must be a requirement of the shop that at its commencement it will have an efficient stock control system in place. This is best done by ensuring that all product carries bar codes and that all stock movements, i.e. goods in, sales out, write-offs, give-aways etc., are swiped by a bar-code reader. These will be attached to all computer terminals in the shop and it is recommended that at least one hand held terminal is available as well. The stock record should then, in theory, be completely accurate at all times with one notable exception - that of shop lifted items. This omission is identified when physical stock is matched with computer records, a process that should take place at regular intervals by staff delegated to look after particular sections of the shop. Staff should e on the look out when his task is undertaken, for 'gaps' opening p in stock -this may well mark a pattern of thievery that leads to more effective prevention, by tagging or by focusing cameras on the are for example. The computer should be programmed to produce a number of analyses on a regular basis:

• Sales per title - Daily or even more regularly for fast selling sections

• Titles for reordering, based on the above, but with heuristic analysis applied

• Titles on order not yet received - several times a week, so as to monitor deliveries

• Weekly best seller lists - not just the top ten, but numbers of titles, on a section by section or subject basis.

• Slow-selling titles - to be looked at, say, once a month for possible action (i.e. write-down)

• Thus stock control allows management to judge best the planning of investment

• Comparative sales by subject section

• Comparative sales by source of supply (it helps if gross margin earned can be calculated)

Stocktaking

This activity should take place six monthly, and after the initial stock taking it is possible (subject to the auditor’s approval) that it can be done on a rolling basis, department by department. Stock can be ‘read’ by bar code readers straight into the computer where it can be matched against the theoretical stock. Care should be taken to identify particular areas where differences lie, so that security can be tightened up or an audit taken of the accuracy of the goods in/out situation for particular suppliers. Whilst it is a tedious task for staff they should be made to realise the importance of complete accuracy. A difference in stock value comes straight off the bottom line - i.e. their capacity to optimize their earnings. An effective stock-taking is generally as a result of the issuing of clear procedural instructions that all staff can follow closely. The auditors or accountants for the bookshop can often offer advice on this subject.
 

Routines for handling goods

When designing the book store, careful account must be taken of the proper organization of the physical handling of stock. Procedures for each stage in stock handling should be carefully worked out and then monitored. Unpacking should be carried out quickly and efficiently (whilst this might seem obvious, few people outside the book trade realize just how formidable is the task of coping physically with large numbers of books). Trolleys, as employed in libraries, should be available to ensure that books are quickly and tidily distributed to their correct places in the store. 

NB: proper stock handling is often the difference between a well run book store and a failure. Sales are maximized if goods reach their eventual destination quickly and correctly, staff operate more efficiently and the customer is often badly put off by piles of half opened boxes and books littering the shop floor.
 

Stationery

A bookshop benefits from having a range of standard stationery designed for it so that letter headings, envelopes, compliment slips, postcards for shorter messages, telephone message pads, receipts, customer order forms are all of a piece. It helps if this can be produced on the computer using the word processing package, although professionally printed stationery is desirable to make an impression on customers, particularly institutional ones. Bags for wrapping books and carrier bags should be sourced early, especially if special designs with the bookshops name and address overprinted on them is required, since the lead time can run into months. Find most economic sources by seeking a variety of quotations, including some from further afield and order with appropriate overprint as soon as possible. Pricing guns with their special peel-off labels should also be ordered in good time if special labels for the books are required, since these too, require a considerable lead time. Rubber stamps for authorising payment of invoices and shop stamps need to be ordered, probably from a local stationery shop. It is best to provide artwork to avoid mistakes.
 

HOUSEKEEPING

A tidy and well ordered book store gains in its friendliness and ambience - no one really likes a mess and certainly a messy book shop does not inspire confidence.
 

Cleanliness and tidiness

The book store will need to employ cleaners for the heavy duty jobs, working to a carefully prepared briefed, but staff should work on a daily task basis on ensuring that the book store is always clean and tidy. A period of cleaning up first thing in the morning can be complemented by periods of shelf tidying and sorting towards the end of each working day. If staff are dedicated to a particular part of the store (it may well be the part for which they are responsible for stock-checking) the a certain pride of appearance can be a great morale booster, particularly if, within reason, the staff member can 'customise' their particular section. Care must be taken to select the right cleaning materials for the job: the wrong floor cleaner can ruin the surface of a plasticized floor finish. A 'kit' of materials should be assembled and kept together to ensure that it is properly used. Especially important is the cleanliness of the electronic equipment that can attract adhering dust and grime because of its electromagnetic qualities. Special cleaning kits can be obtained that do not harm the plastic surface of the equipment, whilst providing anti-static qualities.
 

Waste disposal

Bookselling generates a great deal of paper card and plastic waste. It must always be cleared from the shop floor immediately and it helps if then there are clearly designated areas to where it might go. In the event that the local government is ‘green’ and has taken the trouble to provide for recycling facilities, then every effort needs to be made to set card and paper aside for recycling and arrangements made for this material to be regularly collected. On no account should old food be allowed to collect in the staff area, since this can quickly represent a health hazard. Again a rota for ‘kitchen duty’ helps to ensure that this area of the book store does not become a problem.
 

HEALTH AND SAFETY REQUIREMENTS

A careful policy on all aspects of this matter will need to be worked out, partly in order to satisfy the relevant authorities, partly to improve staff morale, and partly because of the security aspects of the subject. The Operations Manual must be quite explicit about all safety matters.

On health it is important to ensure that at least one member of staff is delegated to be First Aid trained and that First Aid boxes are placed in the appropriate places within the store and that they are properly maintained at all times. Staff training should focus on particular health risks, especially the need to lift and move heavy boxes in the proper manner. Work place accidents will need to be properly recorded and reported. 

Safety matters should include Fire Exits and evacuation procedures; the use of alarms, including the use of a ‘panic’ button under the counter by the till; access to emergency services; having the right fire extinguishers in the right places and making sure that staff are aware of which is to be used for which kind of fire; protection from unwonted radiation from VDU’s.
 

DEALING WITH EMERGENCIES

Clearly laid down procedures are needed for dealing with attempted robberies; violence in the shop; fire; bomb threats and so-called ‘Acts of God’. All staff should know exactly what to do in an emergency and how to evacuate the bookshop of customers and what to do in the event of a complete evacuation. The manager will need to ensure that very simple and clear instructions are posted in places where staff can quickly consult them in the event of an emergency. It is vitally important that every member of staff is quickly inculcated with the need to fully understand all emergency procedures. Learning about them when the emergency has started will be too late.
 

INSURANCE COVER

It will be necessary to insure the premises, for the landlord and/or the bank will require this of the bookshop. The insurance company will almost certainly lay down clear instructions on the precautions to be taken to prevent unnecessary loss. This will include prescribing the right makes and types of safes, locks and bolts, fire door closures etc. Insurance or local government inspectors will also wish to see fire regulations strictly observed so that, for example, goods do not block fire exits. A favourable insurance premium can often be arrived at given that bookshops do not represent high risks to insurance company's actuaries and provided that all the insurance company’s recommendations are closely followed. Some bookseller trade associations have special insurance scheme arrangements for bookshops.
 

REGULATORY MATTERS

The following matters are likely to, or may, fall within regulation:

• Restrictions on the premises use, sometimes contained in a 'user' clause in the Lease, can be inhibiting, when, for example limitations are place on the use of windows or audio-visual equipment,

• Limitation of trading hours and days, but see note about extended hours

• Rules governing employment, especially terms and conditions - these are often very detailed and require special knowledge. In some languages manuals exist that provide detailed information on the legislation with updates being issued at regular intervals.

• The use made of the area to the front of the book store is often limited both by the lease and by local government regulations. By the same token however, such rules will prevent misuse by others - such as stall-holders setting up in front of the shop's windows. 

• Fire prevention procedures need to be examined closely and followed scrupulously to avoid the risk of closure by the fire officers

• Emergency procedures are partially a matter of common sense, but also need to follow national legislation in regard to safety regulations.

• Health and Safety Regulations are usually complex and generally require the bookshop to put up official notices governing these matters.

• Imports and Exports are, regrettably, subject to a wide variety of rules, despite the existence of rigorous international rulings, such as the Florence and Schengen agreements. Only too often imports are made the slower, not because of regulatory controls but the desire of customs officials to be unnecessarily bureaucratic about books.

• The copy and design of advertizing and printed publicity material should be carefully monitored since some countries take a strict view about what is permissible in advertizing copy writing. Special care is needed when reproducing publishers sometimes controversial material.

COMMUNICATIONS

The way the book store communicates with its own staff and with its customers is, too, a hall mark of an efficient bookselling operation. A clear understanding of the importance of proper communications must be fully understood and the use of staff training sessions on the subject will be important. Good communication will lead directly to profitable trading.
 

Verbal Communications

Whenever possible the best means of communication is by talking and listening, be it with customers or with staff, or indeed with suppliers.

Talking to customers

Customers, or more importantly potential customersneed to be talked to in a friendly and helpful fashion and then listened to carefully in order that their needs are fully understood. A welcome smile works wonders, together with an approach which suggests that the enquirer, however tentative, will get a sympathetic hearing. Once contact is made a conversation with a customer may well lead to extra sales and a greater desire on their part to return to a friendly, ‘bookish’ environment.

Talking to staff

It will be vital for management to keep in constant touch with staff so that they are closely involved in the running of the book store and are kept up to date about current developments - in the book world; in the fortunes of the store; in any matter that might effect their performance.

Staff meetings

These need to be on a regular basis, preferably once a week, first thing in the morning, when the shop may open say half an hour later. Whilst this is a good time for staff training, the most important aspect of any such meeting is the possibility for staff to talk about and listen to discussions about the current book trade situation and aspects of the bookshop operations and management. Issue based discussions can often lead to creative collective decisions and can contribute significantly to the team spirit. Care must be taken to ensure that part time or shift working staff are not cut out by this method of communicating however.
 

Written Communications

External communications

Care must be taken to ensure that all letters, cards etc. go out on the official stationery of the book store and adopt the correct style. Letters should be concise but friendly, concise but fully informative and correct in both spelling and grammar. Individual staff members are not to be encouraged to use written communication unless using predetermined forms.

Internal communications

As indicated, verbal communications are preferred, unless the communication needs to be formal: terms of employment, disciplinary notice etc. Memos between staff are to be discouraged if not banned.

Notice boards and staff notices 

Short and clearly laid out notices can keep staff informed of essential facts - health and safety requirements, staff rotas, holiday schedules etc. Notice boards should not be used for lengthy documents nor for confidential data e.g. suppliers terms of supply - which belong , more properly, in the operations manual. Statutory notices must be prominently displayed.

Record keeping 

It will be important to ensure that proper records are kept and the management must become aware of statutory requirements in this respect - staff or customer accidents for example.
 

Telephone

The telephone must always be answered promptly (arrangements for a member of staff to be particularly alert to do so, can be helpful) and a carefully worked out response used. If a query is to be answered then it is helpful if the customer is spoken to at each stage in the enquiry (a running commentary whilst using a screen driven bibliography is helpful). If a message is to be taken then a pro-forma message pad should be used that ensures that all the right questions are asked and answered. Telephoning customers about specially ordered books arriving is a valuable way of making the bookshop reach out to its customers.

Fax

Given the high cost of Telecoms, it would be advisable to train staff to use the fax as an alternative to telephoning, provide that the hit rate for successful faxing is sufficiently high. Pre-prepared fax forms that require minimal intervention by the person dispatching the fax should be made available, and faxing orders should be carefully checked since the tendency for faxes to disappear into ‘black holes’ would not be helpful to the book shop’s reordering routines. EDI transfers should always be preferred.

E-Mail

Since the bookshop will probably have modem access to telephone links it makes sense for the additional software to be added to the computer system to allow for e-mail communication, especially since many suppliers can be best reached by this means. Academic customers are increasingly open to e-mail correspondence, as are libraries. Considerable economies in telecom costs can be achieved by the use of e-mail, with consequent greater efficiencies.

The World Wide Web

A watching brief on this form of selling and informing customers should consider when it would be a strategic advantage to launch the bookshop’s own home page, especially if it can specialize in a particular area or offer students carefully selected study material. Perhaps the most exciting prospect, however, is the use of the Internet (Simon Murdoch How to set up and run a successful Internet Bookshop, Triptych Systems) to sell books to distant customers, whilst at the same time using the web page as a form of publicity, advertizing forthcoming events for example. There are striking examples of this happening already, for example the already famous Amazon site, but realistically this form of marketing is likely to have only minimal impact on any local market in the short term given the thin spread of Net users in many countries. However, the Information Society, with its prospects of a billion more users by the year 2000 (Nicholas Negroponte's Being Digital and various articles in Wired magazine refer) is an area of the book market where the pace of development is tremendous and all kinds of possibilities could open up - not least the concept of a Cyber cafe being part of the bookshop.
 

Contact with Organizations

The bookshop cannot exist in isolation and it needs to establish a firm working relationship with a number of bodies, who may be able to provide useful help, leading to extras sales.
 

National and local government organizations

Most governments have Trade or Commerce Ministries, with a special mission to provide help to the Small and Medium Sized Enterprise sector (the SME's). Sound advice and sometimes even individual consultancy is on offer and a number of schemes exist to give financial support. Local libraries can provide information, as can local government departments. Access to Web pages can almost certainly provide more information.
 

Cultural bodies

Foreign national representatives, such as the Goethe Institut or the British Council are helpful in many ways, notably as a source of information about their country's book trade.
 

Trade Associations

It is usually very important to join the booksellers association, because the membership brings real advantages, especially as a means of accessing professional know-how.
 

Delivery services

Relying solely on the country's postal service can prove expensive as trade to customers further afield increases. Investigate commercial delivery services and find out if the trade association has a special deal with one of them.
 

Computer servicing

Essential. Computers do fail and the business can ill afford to be without them. It may be that the supplier of the hardware can offer a service, otherwise strike a deal with a local specialist.
 

Local repairs & maintenance

Artisans are needed for vital repair work. Make sure that a regular arrangement is put in place, particularly with a plumber and an electrician, both of whom should be available for call out at short notice. It is also helpful to have a friendly carpenter to make any changes to the bookshop beyond the scope of the staff.
 

Subscriptions to trade magazinesand other newspapers and journals

The local book trade magazine is an essential information and bibliographic tool. It is also worth considering subscriptions to the British Bookseller, the French Livres Hebdo and the German Borsenblatt. Journals that provide information about the activities of the film and T.V media re also important and the bookshop should make itself aware of the review pages of the quality newspapers and literary magazines.

SECURITY

The need for security systems in bookselling today

Bookshops are likely to be exposed to a wide variety of threats, some unbelievable a few years ago. By far the most significant security problem is the loss of stock and there is no reason to suppose, human nature being what it is, that the problem of ‘shrinkage’ and ‘defalcation’ will not be as important for the bookshop as for any other retailer. Consideration should be given to a variety of preventive measures, including convex viewing mirrors placed in strategic points in the store, especially in awkward corners; closed circuit television cameras linked to video recorders (although this is an expensive system which requires continuous maintenance) and some form of system of tags that sound the alarm if a stolen book is taken out of the premises.
 

Electro magnetic tagging systems

Probably the most reliable, and certainly the most widely used system in European retailing is the tag that, when passed through an electromagnetic field sets off a high pitched alarm sound. Tags are easily inserted into an assortment of books, especially those most susceptible to stealing (computerized stock control will tell the management which books or series these are likely to be). The customer or thief is usually unable to detect the tags and books that have actually been sold can be easily deactivated by staff at the point of sale. The only problem is knowing whether or not it is possible to affect an arrest once the thief has been caught i.e. avoiding undue unpleasantness or even violence. One solution to this is to employ a uniformed security guard, who will both act as a deterrent to prospective thieves and as a useful ‘policeman’ in the event of an arrest. There are other forms of tag than the electromagnetic, such as that activated by acoustic signals or the radio frequency tag as used in many libraries. The most widely used however is the so-called EM tag. Only one or two companies provide this equipment throughout Europe and it is not difficult to see such a system in place and working in most Western European states (Sensormatic or Knogo and Esselte are known best for EM, and Actron for RF tags).

Source tagging is one further inducement for adopting this methodology is the prospect, now quite imminent, that European publishers will start to place these tags in books at the point of manufacture and this will mean that the tags will be impossible to detect and will be there to catch thieves without any further work by staff in store.
 

Violence and threats

It is a regrettable characteristic of modern retailing, and it seems to be an odd liability for booksellers, that there can be a threat of violence. this can be associated with stock theft, but it can be brought on by what the shop actually carries in stock - a matter of particular concern during troubled political times. Staff training ought to include the full range of protective measures against such threats, including what to do if there is a bomb threat or if there is a fire warning. Evacuation procedures ought to be clearly understood by all staff, however junior. This approach to security may seem to be extreme, but the number of bookshops that have actually been attacked in Europe is surprisingly high and the consequences for staff extremely alarming. Special care is needed with titles that can be targeted by extremists, for example Salman Rushdie's Satanic Verses, which has actually caused a number of outrages and more than one death..
 

Security of premises

The insurers of the business will wish to make sure that the premises are secure and will almost certainly recommend a particular standard of safe (fixed to wall or floor) and locks to a certain standard. Premises security systems that may be needed include grills for front doors, all-night internal lighting, security lighting the fascia etc..

Keys

- since the shop will have sufficient staff to be open for lengthy hours a rota system of key holders will be needed, I.e. a number of staff members will need to be key-holders. This needs to be very carefully controlled and the management must ensure that every last set of keys is accounted for. Especially relevant is the need for keys to be handed back when no longer needed e.g. when a staff member leaves the employment. Certain key holder s will need to register with local police in the event of problems out of hours.

Alarms -

these may be a lease or insurance requirement. they are not necessarily much use 

Combined security cover. If the bookshop is a unit in a Shopping Centre then the centre's own security team have an important role to play, so before signing any lease ask the questions: what are their security services? is there a link with the shop? how can they help? how quickly do they come on the scene in an emergency. In addition some local traders band together to participate in schemes of information exchange when they know that thieves or other threats are in the vicinity.

Closed Circuit Television - investigate this as a possible option, but be aware that it is expensive and unfortunately after a while staff tend to ignore the monitors, but the system is excellent as a means of managers/owners monitoring activity in the bookshop when they, themselves are not in the shop itself.

Timed lighting - local police forces on patrol often prefer to have a shop illuminated from the rear, however simply as a means of inspecting the interior of the shop during the night. It is considered to have deterrent qualities.

Other security features: these will include the installation of panic button by the tills; mirrors placed around the shop to protect blind corners; fire notices and fire equipment (about which there are elaborate rules that vary from country to country; notices to deter.