Indiana Forum's Lively Discussions Cover Broad Range

Booksellers from the around the Great Lakes region -- established, new, and prospective -- attended a day-long ABA Booksellers Forum and Education Program, held in conjunction with the Great Lakes Booksellers Association, on Tuesday, April 12, at Mitchell's Books in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

ABA COO Oren Teicher and BookSense.com Director Len Vlahos provided an informative update on association programs and initiatives and led a wide-ranging and spirited discussion of member concerns, focusing on the Book Sense Picks lists; Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act; damaged shipments; POS systems; Book Sense gift cards; the ABACUS study; local business alliances; and BookExpo America 2005.

GLBA Executive Director Jim Dana said, "The seminar and forum were great. We had a good turnout. There were 29 people all told, and we had representatives from every state in the region. We also had a few prospective booksellers. We had a lively forum and discussed a wide range of topics like store ambience, POS systems, and the 13-digit ISBN number."

Vlahos began the ABA program at 10:00 a.m. with the "Cost of Goods Sold 101" seminar, which looks at what the Cost of Goods Sold is, how it affects a bookstore's operating results, and the most accurate way to calculate it.

Dana told BTW that the seminar clarified a technical subject for booksellers. "Len offered good useful information," he said.

BTW spoke to two attendees --one celebrating the 10th anniversary of her store, the other hoping to open this fall -- both of whom found the session extremely useful and enlightening.

Susan Danner, co-owner of Danner Books in Muncie, Indiana, said that Vlahos impressed on her the need to take a physical inventory once a year. If done correctly, she learned, "it would give us a clear way to calculate the cost of goods sold. Our method has not been as precise."

Future bookseller Arlene Lynes, who plans to open Read Between the Lynes in Woodstock, Illinois, by this fall, also benefited from the session. Although she had attended the Booksellers School on Amelia Island, Florida, this past March, she had not learned all of the specifics that Vlahos presented. "He gave a lot of information about taking a physical inventory -- such as establishing firm cutoff dates, not unpacking any new cartons, or doing any returns right before, all to keep the count as accurate as possible," said Lynes.

The ABA Booksellers Forum gave members the opportunity to ask questions about all facets of the association's activities and to express opinions. Jim Huang of The Mystery Company in Carmel, Indiana, had had strong reservations about the Book Sense gift card program, he told BTW. "There were a number of things I was not happy with, but I appreciated hearing ABA's opinion [at the forum]. It was good to have some of [my concerns] cleared up," he said.

Huang, who co-owns the specialty store with his wife, Jennie Jacobson, told BTW that based on the information he gathered at the forum, he is seriously considering adopting the gift cards. "I learned some ways that the cards could be used, things I hadn't thought of," he said. Among the ideas he mentioned as appealing was having cards preset at the amount of a specific book, for example, the new Harry Potter title. "Some of those [gift card] designs for Harry Potter -- they were really tempting. This may be a good time to jump on board," said Huang.

He was also impressed by the disclosure of the dramatic increase in sales of gift cards over gift certificates between the 2003 and 2004 holiday seasons. "Two of the stores [whose figures were presented] were represented at the forum. That kind of thing was very valuable."

Lynes, who is awaiting confirmation on her Small Business Administration loan, had recently experienced the value of the ABACUS study. "I was able to bring the profit and loss statements from the ABACUS report to our bank. They were very impressed, first, because we had done the research, but also because we were using bookseller numbers -- not general retail numbers. It surprises me that not everyone responded to ABACUS. It's so worthwhile."

For Danner, one memorable tip from the forum was not verbal or visual, but olfactory. "Someone mentioned that to improve the ambience of your store, you should have either the scent of oranges or cinnamon," she said. "Our store is next to a candle shop, and I'm going to go in and buy an orange candle." --Nomi Schwartz