One of the smartest and most innovative approaches to book retailing that we've heard about lately comes from Seattle, Wash., where a new store called Pages: Books, News & Web, opened in May, aiming to be, as co-owner Matt Fikse put it, "a community hub that happens to be a bookstore."
It's also a store competing aggressively with Web booksellers and others who have been challenging independent bookselling in the 1990s. In particular, Pages wants to finish off the "mythical assumption that you spend less on books on the Internet," Fikse said.
The store focuses on offering entertainment and information that appears on pages (hence its name), whether they are pages from books, newspapers, magazines or the Internet. The 2400-sq.-ft. store offers some 5000 book titles and a slew of other publications as well as four iMac terminals with high-speed Web access.
Relying on a nearby wholesaler that stocks 40,000 titles, Pages boasts of "having" many more titles than are on shelves in the store. Since it receives two shipments a day of orders -- with service so fast that books ordered in the morning are delivered to the store in the afternoon -- it is touting itself as a cheaper and faster alternative to Web booksellers, particularly Amazon, whose main office is not far away. As Fikse explained, "We don't want to be Amazon; we just want to be Amazon for this ZIP code."
Pages uses Ingram and Baker & Taylor and also d s out-of-print searches. Some 30%“40% of its business is in special orders. "Our experience so far has been really positive," Fikse told PW.
Fikse estimated that about 80% of Web book orders are for one or two books and most books ordered on the Web cost less than $20. Thus, shipping costs of an average $4.90 for the first book in a shipment inflate the effective cost of most books so much that they negate Web sellers' discounts.
The store promotes its speedy service and favorable effective prices in-store and at the cash register. It also matches any Internet price. "People just bring in their printout, and we show them how much we can save them," Fikse said. "If our price is higher, we match theirs." The store also promotes its service and knowledge.
Pages has no backroom or receiving area; orders are shelved immediately on arrival. The titles on the shelves are "rated" and have to prove themselves to earn a place in the store. Pages will soon open its own Web site, called goodbooksfast.com.
Fikse is a former museum store manager and a retail consultant who sees the current bookselling situation as a "marketing challenge for independents. It's a time for free thinking. You can't be complacent."
One way Pages has avoided complacency is by offering digital subscriber line service to customers across the country. DSL provides high-speed access to the Internet (although DSL service is not available in all areas).
Store manager David White said that the store aims to "support the free flow of ideas and information, so for us to extend this by making Internet technology more accessible and comfortable for our customers makes incredibly good sense."
Technical support will be provided by Speakeasy Network, while installation and service will be provided by Covad Communications.
Customers who sign up through the store will earn a $25 gift certificate for use in the store. Customers can sign up by visiting the store or e-mailing orders@pagesnet.com. The process takes only a few minutes.
Fikse said the store is trying to "humanize" technology. "Instead of making people deal with huge corporate bureaucracies and forcing them to wait on hold with distant and impersonal telephone operators, we develop strong relationships with our customers and work to make cutting-edge technology usable to them. These customers are also our neighbors, so we make a point of taking great care of them."
