With the death of Books In Store president and founder Jerry Peacock last November, booksellers are facing uncertainty about the status of the 28-year-old POS inventory system designed to be used by booksellers by the former bookseller and computer programmer.
According to Robert Moore, owner of Oregon Books & Games in Grants Pass, who is working with several other BIS customers on the West Coast to find an alternative point-of-sale system, it’s been hard to get calls or e-mails returned. Moore spoke with Peacock’s son Brad, earlier this year, which is how he learned of Peacock senior’s passing, and has received little support for an issue he’s been having since August, 2013: difficulty sending and receiving orders to Ingram, Partners West, and Baker & Taylor.
Brad Peacock didn’t respond to PW’s own queries by phone and e-mail about his plans for the Houston, Tex.-based company, one of the first to offer a POS system for booksellers in the country.
Booksellers who continue to use BIS have been forced to create their own workarounds to export to Above the Treeline and use Edelweiss. One Oklahoma bookseller, who has done so, said that she hasn’t relied on BIS’s customer service in a decade and has hired a local business to help her with software issues when they arise.
The resources on the BIS website might be a bit old, but the company continues to update data from the Ingram database. And one bookseller, who is also looking to find an alternative POS system, noted that Brad Peacock did call when he had an emergency. The bookseller also commented on how “incredibly supportive” Jerry Peacock was of independent bookstores. “Jerry was fiercely determined to give us the tools to succeed,” he added.
Still, the question remains, how long will Brad Peacock continue to operate BIS—and when will the last customer leave?
