Just a few thoughts

Simon
So, i've been in bookselling since 1984. I started in Bristol at a shop called George's Bookshop. It was spread over 6 different shops in Park Street, one of the main shopping streets in Bristol, and although owned by Blackwell's, sensibly kept the name it had started with when it opened in 1837. It was the only real bookshop in Bristol. I used to shop there when I was a little fella, and although I was a snotty, awkward and miserable 16 year old when I started working there, I loved it. I was on a YTS (youth training scheme), an initiative introduced by the Tories which meant that school leavers worked in places decided by someone else, earned £25 a week, and therefore didn't show up on the unemployment figures. I was lucky, because I found myself in an environment that suited me, but the majority of the other people on the scheme with me either worked on the tills in Supermarkets, or were used as cheap labour in various warehouses. Anyway, I digress. In 1986, a Waterstone's opened in Bristol. It wasn't big, and the bosses at George's ignored it. Then another opened on the University Campus, and things started to go very very bad for George's.
They started losing sales and were forced to close one by one of the shops on Park Street. What the big W was doing was listening to it's customers. It offered good service, interesting books and passionate booksellers. George's rested on it's laurels, thinking it knew better. It's since lost it's name and is now a Blackwell's trading from a single store. Waterstone's had landed.
I joined this exciting company in 1990, and back then Waterstone's was exciting. The staff enjoyed their jobs, were given responsibilities, the promotions were smaller and the customers appreciated the fact that there were 50 (50!) books in the shop that were 3 for 2. And there was a Book of the Month. This was introduced to promote a new author, or raise the profile of a book that wouldn't otherwise get the publicity. Books like 500 Nations, an illustrated history of Native American Indians was one of the more memorable successes. I can't honestly imagine a book like that being chosen nowadays!
Happy days (not I hasten to add, With the Naked Chef), and there may be a certain rose tinted reminiscing going on here. The thing is, what made working in Waterstone's exciting has all but gone (unless you have a very understanding area manager). The staff at Waterstone's 'look after' sections or departments, but this is to ensure that the supertier is faced out, or that the books are stickered 3 for 2. The flexibility to be creative, certainly in London, is almost non-existent, and definintely not rewarded. This year the 'in thing' at Head Office is Local Marketing. There's a competition to find the region that has the best local marketing. Points are awarded for adding books to a code on the computer which is monitiored at head office (it doesn't matter what the books are). Points are awarded for filling in an event feedback form and returning it to Head Office. Points are awarded for writing reviews and putting them on the Waterstone's website. Points are awarded for letting your area manager know if a customer thanks you for your service. You are encouraged to produce your own promotions in store, but only as long as you stick by the 'Brand Guidelines'. No points for this though.
This brings up a number of questions
1. What has any of this got to do with local marketing?
2. What does this say about the state of Waterstone's that it has to introduce an initiative to encourage creativity?
3. If you're closing 10% of the shopfloor space and close down branches like the one in Wood Green, how can you even think about understanding what Local Marketing really is?

Let me say at this point, there are also additional points available at the end of the year, where each region submits a presentation outlining what it's done to promote Local marketing, and there are also templates for newsletters and table signs (all maintaining the brand), which will give those branches with the staff who care enough a bit of help.

But, it's decision time up there in Brentford Towers. Waterstone's Head Office should work out what it's message should be. Isn't it time it bit the bullet, and admit that it's too big to be a local bookshop?
It probably is about time it left 'Local' up to the independents, who survive precisely because they understand the what Local means....but what do I know?

Now You See Them.......

Tim

1. Enter the caption competition
2. Enter the 'Give the Bookshop a Name' competition
3. Hit the Donate Button

Do it now, you know you want to

Caption Competition 1

Simon
48 Days since the Waterstone's in Wood Green closed
and still no sign of anyone in there.

entries already recieved

'I wonder if they've changed the locks.'
'Tim had been holding that sheet of glass for 3 hours now'
'Well our bookshop will be this big'

all entries in by the end of September. The winner will recieve something light enough to post, but cheap enough that we can afford it.

Good Luck!

All Quiet on the Bookshop Front

Simon

There are some days when you don't think much is happening, and then you realise that that you've actually achieved loads. Today's been one of those days. I took back 'how to open your own shop' and 'business plans in a week' to the library (I would have bought them if there was a bookshop in Wood green, but.....), and then decided to send a few e-mails.

Tim and I, as we've mentioned before, are letting the residents of Wood Green decide what to call the shop, in a competition. We've sent out the forms to all the local schools now, and Tim got in touch with the local paper today. We wanted to persuade them to put the competition in there as well, and realised that, as next week was National Children's Book Week (i wonder if the chains have any plans for advertising this), we could combine the two things. So we got together a pitch where local residents and people interested our quest would let us know what their favourite kid's book was, and why. The paper loved the idea, so i've started to contact a few people that have a Wood Green connection, and I also asked our 'facebook' group to respond .(Please feel free to contribute to this). I'm still waiting for a reply from Gerry J, but so far, so good and we'll be putting the list on the blog as well. It may also become one of our first in-store promotions.

I've also been getting in touch with a number of publicity departments and literary agents to see what they could do for us (and what we could do for them), and i've had a fantastic response from that too.

We had a call from the bank this morning, and although we don't want to count our egg producing domestic fowl, things look pretty good. We should have some confirmation very soon. The leaseholder of the shop has gone AWOL, which is delaying things a bit, but, all in all, it's been a very productive day.

Our Visit To The Bank

Simon;
We had an 11am appointment with the bank, and at 10.55am, we were in a well known stationers using a hole punch to put our business plan into a shiny folder. We'd scrubbed up nicely, and for the first time in 2 years I was in shirt and trousers. When I say this, I don't mean I walk around in socks and pants all day, you understand. Anyway, the visit was shorter than we'd expected, although fairly encouraging. The Small Business Advisor had a look at the business plan and we seemed to have covered all the questions she had.
We'll be getting a call today/tomorrow to let us know the outcome. The only slight downer was the timescale. It'll probably take around 4-5 weeks to get the loan, so it's going to make opening in November a bit of a challenge. But we're going ahead with the purchase of the lease at the same time so it's still possible.
I did an interview with an online arts website called artsub.co.uk which will appear on Thursday or Friday.
Tim's been thinking of some rather interesting marketing ideas, which we may 'perform' a week on Saturday, and he's also trying to get us in the local paper again with a couple of different stories. Hopefully more on that later.

On a different note, THANKYOU for all you calls, letters, emails, messages etc. of support and advice. These things help so much, and as Earl Hickey would say 'Do good things, and good things happen to you', so you're doing yourselves no harm either!

You May Consider Me A Little Cross

Tim;

Just a little.... after all my years on the planet I have found that it is a real waste of energy to get really cross. Especially about things over which we have no control. Like the closing of a shop, for instance. Just an example I picked at random, you understand.

But - and like Vanessa Feltz, it's a big butt - when you are given only 9 days notice, you might get a little moody.
And then your team work their preverbial butts off (leaving a butt shortage in Wood Green that only the magnificent Ms Feltz could fill) to get the stock packed up and sent off. One might be forgiven for feeling a tad grumpy.
AND THEN THE SHOP STAYS EMPTY FOR THE NEXT MONTH!!!! Well, yes, actually I am quite cross about that.

OK, I don't know whether it was Waterstone's or H&M paying the rent, but I am sure that we could have stayed there a little longer. Maybe by trading for a little longer we may have been able to soften the blow to both the staff and the customers. A week wouldn't have hurt, would it? or two?

To add insult to injury, our last window (Painted by the fantastic Cally) with it's ironic Harry Potter message "How Will It All End?" is still in place. Both a question, and an answer. It all ends with an empty shop. Bare walls and concrete floors, tails of wires hanging from the ceiling and specially imported dust gathering in the corners. (Why specially imported dust? Because we left it clean, that's why!)

Having got quite cross, I told Simon, who laughed and said that yes, actually he was quite cross too. And he raised the question "Who is paying the rent?" Well, as I said before, there are only two choices. So we clenched our little fists, screwed up our little eyes, and made a little wish.

Can you guess who we wanted to pay for an empty shop??? Well, can you?

About a Bookshop

Simon

I managed to get my hands on a copy of the new Nick Hornby yesterday. I've always enjoyed his writing. I remember when Fever Pitch came out in 1992. I was a bookseller in Bristol at the time and I used to go to watch Bristol City for every home game. There was nothing like it at the time, which, considering the plethera of football books around now, is hard to imagine. Hornby managed to change the perception of the football obsessive, and I imagine that there were loads of blokes around the country forcing this book on to their girlfriends/wives and saying 'please read this book, it explains why i'm like I am'. It was a phenomenon at the time, and I devoured it. Then came 'My Favourite Year', a collection of football writing, with Hornby himself writing a great piece on Cambridge United, and a brilliant short by Roddy Doyle on Ireland's world cup rollercoaster.

When his next book came out 'High Fidelity', I loved him even more. Does this man live in my head?, I thought, because it seemed he was writing his books with just me in mind. It remains on of my favourite ever books.

I've been lucky enough to meet him a few times, most recently when he did a 'tour' with a band called Marah in April last year. It was an interesting concept. Nick would read a piece about a band or a time period in his life, and then Marah would blast out a four minute song to compliment the reading. And Phil Jupitus was comparing, and also in attendance was comedy legend Bob Mills (In Bed With Medinner, Win Lose or Draw...genius).

Anyhow, Slam promises to be another gem, and I'm really looking forward to reading it. It's out soon, and as luck would have it, our shop will be open (hopefully) soon after that.

We've been pulling together an events programme for the period between opening and Christmas, and this seems like a great soapbox for some shameless request. If you happen to be in a position of influence in the publishing industry, or maybe the music industry, and have an author/band that you think would like to visit the mighty Wood Green in November, and appear at a most exciting new bookshop , my e-mail address is in my profile.

By the way, were off to the bank on Monday to ask for cash. The business plan is complete, and if I were a bank, i'd lend us the money, so that's alright then isn't it?

Tales of Suspense, and Tales to Astonish....

Simon

AND , INDEED

Well we won't leave you in suspense any longer. They've accepted our offer, so next stage, operation 'Get the Money'. We had to go a little higher than the £28000 we originally offered, but everybody's happy, and we have got ourselves 25 free computers into the bargain. That's a little clue as to what the shop is at the moment!
We sorted out a solicitor to look after all the fancy stuff, and as the ingoing business we have to pay all the legal fees for all parties. We knew this already so it wasn't a big surprise. So that's £3000 + VAT.
We've got an appointment next monday with a bank to sort out the loan, so we've pulled all the strands of the business plan together. The plan's going off to the small business advisor at Haringey Council, and also to a prospective investor to check out and make sure we haven't missed anything obvious. Once that's all sorted, I might go and buy a tie...and a shirt....oh, and maybe some smart shoes...and possibly trousers that aren't jeans, for our visit to the bank.
Tim's put together a floorplan of the shop and we're going through a few possibilities on the layout. There's plenty of time for that though.


I should be getting my redundancy money tomorrow. I hope they haven't forgotten.

Image is Everything

Tim

I am not sure about the way I am being portrayed in this blog. I seem to come over as a cowboy hat wearing, door barging, DIY doing, begging drunk.
OK, all of the above is true, but there is so much more to me........ I think.

After leaving the Regeneration Team meeting (see Simon's entry below) I stuck my nose through the door of the Chocolate Factory 2. This is an industrial estate full of artists of all shapes, sizes and persuasions. I was just interested in launching a competition for painters to do their thing on one of our outside walls (second prize is to paint a mural on the front of the counter, third prize to do portraits of Simon & I to hang over the office door.... Hmmm, may have to re-think the third prize)

The door was locked, and the intercom/door openy thing was labelled with all the artists names, but nothing obviously officey or receptiony (Overuse of the 'Y' thingy) Luckily there was a chap sorting through the post just outside the door and - after his initial surprise at being addressed by a man in a grey stetson - he let me in and took me to an office on the second floor.

The office was quite the unfriendliest I have ever seen. Not the people, they seemed fine - Ritta in particular, but a little more about her later. No the office itself... bare concrete floors, unplastered walls, battered timbers, quite high ceilings (I didn't notice if they actually had a ceiling or if it was left open for the pipes and ductwork to be seen) The desks were divided by temporary screens, which afforded some privacy, but other than that it was as if someone had just plonked a load of office stuff in the middle of a building site. It must get really cold in winter.

Anyway Ritta was very nice, and showed interest in the project, so I took her details and will email her the competition stuff when we've decided exactly what we want... and what we can offer as prizes.

More advice from a couple of the lovely mums in the playground of my boys' school (I am meeting a lot of lovely mums at the moment, they all look at me with a certain amount of pity. Maybe because I don't have a job... maybe its the hat?) 'Get the local youth service to send some graffiti artists.' said one. Hmm, I thought, that's a good idea. Very urban, very 'Wood Green'. 'Oh yes,' agreed the other. 'My son had his friends 'Graff up' his room. It looks like some one broke in, but he likes it.' Oh dear god.

Anniversary today. Julie (the wife who I am not allowed to write about) bought me a suede jacket. "In keeping with your new cowboy theme," she said with an evil grin. It doesn't have a fringe, but I guess I can sew one on. Sorry Simon

and now we wait........

Simon

so off we went to the Estate Agents this morning to put the offer in. I walked, Tim moseyed ( yes, he was wearing his cowboy hat). As we walked in, the piano player stopped and everyone turned and stared. There was an awkward silence, as we slowly moved towards the desk and took our seats.

'£28000' we said, 'that's a good offer'.
'yeah, it sounds good' came the reply.

we exchanged contact details, got a bit more info on the property, and left. We were either going to hear today or tomorrow, and as it's 6.45pm as I write this, it looks like it's tomorrow. It's difficult to think of anything else right now.

We had an appointment with the Haringey Regeneration Team this afternnon, and they were as helpful as they could be (no money, but lots of advice). They're going to go through our business plan to make sure it covers everything, and it's pretty clear they're very happy about the new shop. The closure of waterstone's was a big kick in the teeth for them. It's difficult trying to improve an area, and encourage new business etc, when one of the most respected ones ups and leaves.

Tim called some of the primary/junior schools in the area. We are having a competition to name the shop, and we're going to get all the schools in the area come up with ideas for names. The winner will get to unveil the sign and get some free stuff, so it should be fun all round. I was listening in to the phone calls, and it sounded pretty hard going on a couple of occasions

Tim ; 'Hello, my name's Tim West, and I was the manager of the Waterstone's in Wood Green that recently closed down. The reason i'm phoning is we're......................yes, that's right...........about a month ago..................yes it is a shame, anyway the reason i'm.....................well that's the reason i'm phoning, we're opening a new bookshop in the area, and we're having a competition for the children to name the new shop.......no it won't be called Waterstone's, it's a new independent bookshop..............so can you put me through to her then................OK, i'll call back tomorrow.'

I haven't used my Waterstone's loyalty card yet.