Customer Types

Many people from all walks of life visit bookstores for many different reasons. In a small town bookstore it is easy to identify the different types that walk through the doors.

We have those in a hurry. They walk in, grab or order what they want and walk out.

Others have no idea what they want, but feel fortunate to have an independent bookseller to help them. These are the customers who are frantic because Sally’s birthday is tomorrow and they haven’t found a gift yet. Luckily, I know immediately from other visits who Sally is, how old she will be and what books she has enjoyed in the past year.

The browsers have yet to realize there is a difference between a library and a bookstore. They plop down in a chair with a stack of books and learn how to bake a pie or build a deck or decorate their house all while sitting in the bookstore. One such patron finished Breaking Dawn in its entirety the week it was released. Every day this high school student would sit in the back and read until we closed. Her friends would call and she would say “Can’t hang out today. I’m at the bookstore. Have you read the Twilight series?” She never bought the book, but I can’t pay for that kind of marketing!

Finally there are the chatters. They stop in every week or every month just to chat. They have never made a purchase and probably never will, but they have to be on top of whatever is happening in town. They stand by the counter or follow me from shelf to shelf complaining about life, their health, the government. They believe if no one is waiting to be checked out I have absolutely nothing to do, so they deserve my undivided attention.

I had one such customer, if they can be called customers, yesterday. Unlike most, this one is only in first grade. He has been coming in to visit since the day I opened over four years ago. By himself! It gives him something to do while his mom is in the bar across the street (parents, be careful what you tell your kids – they will most likely share the information).

In our usual routine he wandered the front of the store chatting away while I nod and say “really” and “hmm” in the appropriate places. Suddenly by the tone of his voice I realized something was different. He was no longer telling me about his day, he was sounding out book covers. This little boy was reading!! He was excited to show off his newly acquired skill, even though he “still likes football more than reading”.

Easy fix. I took him to the children’s section and showed him books about football. There is a book about Brett Favre? He LOVES Brett Favre!! Too many words, though. The Clifford early reader was perfect. We sat at the children’s table as he sounded out each word, using the pictures as his guide. I couldn't come up with a single task more important than that moment. Soon he read the entire book! He promised to return today to read me another story. Maybe as an incentive I will let him keep the Brett Favre book as soon as he is able to read it on his own. No one else in Wisconsin would be interested in it anyway.

Oh, What a Week!

It started last Saturday with a visit from one of our favorite Wisconsin authors, Victoria Houston . Since the publication of the ninth book in her Loon Lake mystery series was postponed a month, her visit was also postponed. This gave customers a whole extra month to reserve copies. Unfortunately the extra month didn’t help. As a small town bookstore, our orders are based on the number of reserved copies and previous sales. Since this is the third year this particular author visited us, we at least had the previous years’ numbers to go off of. We had an excellent turn out this year which proved to be good news/bad news. We had about half a dozen frustrated customers walk away without a signed copy of Dead Hot Shot – all but one were first time visitors from other towns. This is something we felt absolutely terrible about, which almost overshadowed the feeling of glee at selling twice as many as last year.

This has me concerned about tomorrow’s release of Breaking Dawn. Once again based on last year’s sales of Eclipse and the number of pre-orders, we should have plenty of books for all…I guess we will know soon enough.

Hopefully tonight musician extraordinaire, Skip Jones, brings enough copies of his newest CD, Life is Delicious!