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When my Dad started working at the Otto Book Store in 1905, his main drawing card was his large, carefully designed show window displays. The throngs passing his store, mostly on "Market Day," stopped to see what was new and interesting. He never advertised. He formed personal relationships with the small town clientele. He offered free gift wrapping and free delivery and he sold wallpaper and window shades so he could afford to sell books. When the town’s leading dry goods store opened a book department, he thought his business was sure to sink. They had a far better location and four floors of other merchandise to draw them first to their store. But he trimmed his sails and kept her steady as she blows and he stayed afloat. During the depression, he turned all the books face out on the shelves and prayed. He cut his own salary and staff and, with the help of a woman he thought of as an angel from heaven, he came through to calmer seas.
When my husband and I took on the responsibility for what had become the "family bookstore" (supporting my mother and our ten children) our first "sea change" was in the neighborhood. What had been a bustling shopping center in a mid-size town became all but abandoned when Crown America built an enclosed mall boasting two chain bookstores and all the major department stores that had anchored our downtown. (Plus a whole lot more) It became the major shopping location for miles around. But there were still office workers downtown in the county and federal courthouses and in the lawyers’ offices surrounding them and also in the many banks and investment firms that surrounded them. So we hoisted up our flag by way of radio advertising and trimmed the front of our store with new releases in the windows and sale books on the table outside in front of the windows. And we continued to offer free gift wrap and free delivery service. And we weathered the storm.
And then there was "Hurricane Internet." Suddenly the savvy shoppers didn’t have to go any further than their computers to get the books they wanted without paying sales tax. And there were supermarkets and discount chains using books as loss leaders, offering 40% off the hottest titles and 30% off all they can cram in their book displays next to the cash registers. And now we’re told a mighty chain will be opening a bookstore 15 times the size of ours in the mall where our town shops. And buildings in our neighborhood are deteriorating and are being abandoned as banks consolidate and older retailers retire. Oh, what a mighty sea change!
So how are we charting our course to keep our ship afloat? We designed our own website and feature lesser known regional books—books faraway buyers in chains of all sorts might not know about. We stepped up our special ordering so most of our books come in a day or two. We offer Paperback Book Club cards to encourage frequent shopping. We sell fund raising coupons to schools so that their supporters can get $10 worth of "regular price merchandise" for $9 and the school pockets $1. We host "Work Free Book Fairs" where the school or library or club sends out the invitations and every "regular price" item purchased that particular evening that is presented at the counter along with the invitation earns the club 20% of the purchase price. We print up a brochure boasting that we are a "real bookstore" and place them in the 9 nearby hotels and the Chamber’s Visitors Center. We offer discounts to students at two local colleges and supply them with our brochure. We expand our advertising to include TV spots, newspaper articles as well as ads and enlarge our listening audience for our radio commercials. In all our advertising we project the image of knowledgeable staff and caring service. Our radio persona—"Betsy from Otto’s, a book lover’s paradise, in the heart of downtown Williamsport"—has become so well known that invitations come from schools, churches and social clubs for "Book Talks." And so we take our books to where people congregate. We even take books into prisons and keep up steady service by mail with the inmates we’ve met at these sales. We buy tempting remainders and use our large sidewalk for ongoing sidewalk sales that draw shoppers from far and wide. Although the wallpaper and window shades are long gone, we sell sale books now so we can afford to sell regular priced books. And we continue to pray for calm seas and steady breezes.