On Thu, Mar 19, 2009 at 12:48 PM, frank theriault <[email protected]> wrote: > On Thu, Mar 19, 2009 at 12:36 PM, Godfrey DiGiorgi <[email protected]> wrote: > >> >> In most of the big book shops around here, finding where in hell they put a >> particular class of titles is incredibly time consuming. If I go to the >> information desk and wait for a salesdroid to come by and provide >> assistance, all they're going to do is look at the same inventory computer >> screen that I look at and tell me whether "RQ-V11.24-FR_T" is in inventory, >> then look up with the same tool where in the store it *might* be, and walk >> me there. >> >> If I go directly to the computer, I do the same thing in half the time. >> >> Small bookshops ... a completely different world. ;-) > > This was taken at one link of Canada's largest chain of booksellers, > Indigo Books. They're horrible places, not just for what they are, > but for their predatory practices - many small bookshops have closed > down due to them. It's getting harder and harder to go into a musty > old place that ~smells~ of books, because they just aren't around any > more.
You mean the predatory practice of stocking a lot of books? Pricing is not set by the bookstores but rather by publishers so predatory pricing isn't an issue. Most of the small shops that have gone under went under because they provided poor service and selection. And many of the 'small bookstores' were Coles and Smithbooks anyways, which are part of Indigo. This is often the real reason big box stores kill off smaller stores, the smaller stores were providing poor service & selection (and in other industries, typically poor pricing as well). > > The thing that gets me about these computerized inventory thingies is > that when they say the book is out of stock, I end up going to the > shelves to check anyway - and sometimes find a copy! If they say > there ~is~ a copy, I go to the shelves. What it's come down to is > that I go to the shelves first one way or t'other; it saves a step > that way. > > cheers, > frank > Stock lists are never 100% accurate. It's just 'what we think we shipped minus what we think we sold'. Generally it runs behind on returns. -- M. Adam Maas http://www.mawz.ca Explorations of the City Around Us. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
