Retailers discuss daily trading in much the same way that strangers on the train discuss the weather. The word on the street is that despite the strength of Australia’s economy, retail turnover for many traders in Melbourne is down– in some cases way down. Over last few years, opinions about the underlying causes for the current state of play have been uncannily similar to those of the weather watchers – global change is to blame.
Retailers though are a hardy lot and do not tend to make fickle changes in the focus and nature of their businesses quickly. This makes general book selling chain Angus and Robertson’s recent decision to narrow their list of suppliers (thereby narrowing their list of available book titles) a rather strange one. Also remarkable was there decision to implement a “What’s In It For Me?” commission sales system for their retail sales assistants in order to push specific units on an unsuspecting public. The story caused quite a scandal in the book world for a minute or two.
If a major chain store is making rash decisions in order to try and improve their bottom line, where does this leave single shop front, specialist independent booksellers like TPI? In an increasingly competitive global marketplace we rely on our ability to source and sell as many classic, eclectic or unusual photographic titles as we can. Likewise, we encourage our staff to cultivate and develop an interest not just in books but in all things photographic as this is a crucial way of providing the best quality service to our customers that we can.
We hope that our customers understand that the costs involved in operating a retail shopfront are built in to the recommended retail price of the books. It seems silly to make a statement like that however many customers are now accustomed to the prices offered by discount outlets, ebay and amazon. TPI can not compete with the bulk buying power of larger chains, with warehouse traders selling online or with individuals getting rid of gifts they have no use for!What we can do is continue to offer the best range of photographic books in Australia – and we will offer them with the best service and the best prices that we can. If we do this, then we will continue to attract the best range of customers – those people as passionate about books and photography as we are.
[...] Filed under: Editorials — printedimage @ 4:18 pm We have weighed in recently on the various changes afoot in the book trade as regular readers of this blog would know. In the interests of balancing [...]
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