Attention Book People! Looking For Opinions: Used Book Store Set Up

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I know we have book lovers here on CC!

I’m going to be volunteering my time to help a non-profit near and dear to my heart in my community re-organize, “fresh start” their decades old used book center.

The book center (as it’s called now) has operated very shoestrings. Pre-Covid the center was open daily, people could drop off books anytime, volunteers sorted and roughly shelved books. Community could come and on the honor system via a drop box in the center, donate $ with “suggested amounts” posted (something ridiculously cheap like .25 cents paperback, $1 hardcover, .10/magazine) Some of the profits would go to a local literacy org, some would go to an outside non-profit who would be the “volunteers” for a quarter (4 months). The on location org didn’t take much $ if any.

With COVID things have changed and it’s an opportunity for a fresh start! They are “remodeling” shelves and such and revamping the book drop off, cash system, etc.

I’ve been hand picked to help with the re-organizing/re-opening. I’m thrilled! I’m a book lover at heart and am actually involved in children’s literacy in my day job.

So before I meet with the org next week, I thought I’d reach out and get some input from the book crowd here. When you visit a used book store - or any book store - what is helpful? What kind of set ups do you NOT like? Are you willing to pay more for nearly new books or more current titles? (say 25% of retail cost?)

Do you like books arranged by author name? Like a library do you prefer “sections”? Gardening books, cookbooks, biographies, etc.??

Do you tend to only visually look through the shelves at eye level or just above/below? Are you likely to NOT look on a bottom shelf? It is helpful to have a book basket? A rolling stool to look for books on a low shelf?

What else should we be thinking about as we set up to make the READER/BUYER experience better? The org will be thinking about handicap accessible and things like that. I’m looking for sorting options, what makes the experience more positive or negative.

I may come back after my first meeting and ask more questions! TIA!!! :slight_smile:

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I like books sorted by the type….so cookbooks, travel, biography, mystery, self help, novels, humor, etc.

For mysteries and novels and other fiction, it’s nice to have them then sorted by author last names. These types of books should be together, and not on the same shelves as travel, cooking etc.

Where I volunteer, we have a couple of shelves that can be used when folks donate whole collections….like Grisham, or Steven King. We get whole collections and we put those together.

Children’s books….sort baby board books, picture books, beginning chapter books, young adult (Young adult can also have its own section)….and then a section for children’s non-fiction.

We also have a permanent Christmas book section which contains anything related to Christmas.

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Really great endeavor @abasket! I wish you success.

As a fellow book lover, here are my responses to some of your questions:

Yes, absolutely

I would prefer arrangement by section or subject area - history, travel, fiction, technology, etc.
and then by author for fiction

I try to look at as many shelves as I can but probably not the bottom shelves.

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Super helpful, thank you. I like the holiday section - just Christmas or otherwise. Also highlighting collections.

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Yeah, I need to do some thinking on how to use that “bottom shelf” space - whether it’s a space or not! Maybe store pull out stools there.

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Former children’s librarian:

Genre, then author if possible but shelf space determines that.

Bottom shelves for kids’ books? Or cover-out best sellers?

I will happily pay 25% off brand new, but for used I am happier with a flat rate per book. I have also really enjoyed a bargain section that is $20/bag, which is a great way to move unwanted stock.

I like used book stores that are more picky about their inventory than a million harlequins and tom clancy, also.

thank you for helping the world be a better place :slight_smile:

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Re: bag sales. We have those from time to time when our inventory of donations gets out of control! But this is not something we do all the time.

We also have buy 1, get 1 free sales every so often too. Again…based on inventory.

Our prices are $2 for hard bound, $1 for paperbacks, $5 for current books (within three years), $5 for “coffee table” books. Children’s books are 50 cents for paper back and $1 for hardbound.

The “current books” are not mixed on with the others. We have a section of “Newer Releases”.

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There is some talk about a process that lightly curates the books donated - so in other words instead of people dropping off 6 boxes of old books from grandma’s dingy basement and walking away, having drop off days and doing quick sort throughs of boxes.

In the past people could drop off whatever and the org staff would sort and take ALOT of books that were just in bad shape to a recycling place. But that option is apparently at a cost now so the org wants to minimize trips to recycle books.

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We do not accept donations of books related to computers, textbooks of any kind, magazines. We just don’t take them.

Our literature says we accept “gently used books”. And please no mildew or damage.

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How large a place is this?
Category as others mention.
Crafts, cooking, decorating
Sci-fi, mystery etc, then by author.
Music, Art. History
Coffee table books.

Yes to rolling stools for lower shelves. Or to see higher shelves
Unless you need every shelf on the bottom use them to display your best books full face. It’ll be seen and acts as an advertisement for what is above.

I don’t mind a real bargain but 25% off retail isn’t it. I can get that brand new from Amazon. Prefer a set price. You can always have a “hot books” section. And bargain basement,

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In the past they have only taken magazines 1 year or less old.

On the grounds of this org is also a pottery studio. Over the holidays they trialed selling some extra pieces of pottery in the book center. It was a big hit! So there is some talk about continuing to have an etagere of pottery and maybe some local art on the wall for sale at affordable prices.

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I identify as a Book Person!

I am a volunteer at my local library and definitely would like to see the books arranged by genre and within that by author’s last name. I don’t need a used book store to use the Dewey Decimal system, but I definitely do not want to waste my time looking through a bunch of unorganized books with no rhyme or reason to them.

25% of retail is a little steep for me unless it is signed or something. I will pay it, though, and have for a gift, but I’m a little on the tightwad side and would prefer to pay less. For me personally to buy the book for myself $8 for a used book that retails for $25 might give me pause, but I probably wouldn’t pause about 20%/$5 for a hardback.

I volunteer in the library proper, but our library also has a Friends group that runs both a store in the library (well, at least pre-COVID they did) and the book sales for deaccessioned titles and donations. I think they have a big book sale every quarter or so. I have helped out a bit with the donations (just placing them on the shelves, not sorting). They definitely get sorted and only the best get kept for the Friends. The second best go to a local thrift store and the really nasty ones get thrown away or recycled. We can just throw them in with our regular mixed stream recycling. Do you not have paper recycling for your region? Another option is a “Creative ReUse Center” if you have one of those locally.

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Are you prepared for folks to use you as their National Geographic recycling center?

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Oooh, I like your store!!!

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That has not been a problem in the past. This spot is in a smaller community and kind of a “best kept secret” - so it’s not like a large urban drop off spot.

They have a history and a handle of what they will take.

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I understand you don’t want “grandma’s books from the basement” but don’t go the route of consignment with appointment days etc. You are looking for donations, not giving money back.

In this case just make your guidelines very clear like Thumper mentioned, It can be very specific if you’d like–magazines–we take craft, cooking, hobby specific magazines but not weekly periodicals. (Most of those really have no expiration date on interest and can be expensive)

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Count me in as someone who likes books organized by category. Our local used book chain (Half Price Books) sells the newer/better books for, well, half price lol.

As for those bottom shelves you could display a couple of books on stands…it’s a lot easier to glance down and look at an entire cover than it is to bend over and look at the spine, sideways.

As for curating drop offs, hm. Since these are donations, asking the donors to come only on specific days, or wait around and take anything unusable back with them might not work. Do you have those book donation drop off boxes in your community? (Of course I guess you would have to figure out where the unusable books from those go…if its to the landfill, you’ve just made a useless trip).

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Did the book store get a commission of some sort from the sold pieces? Or is it a win-win situation? Do you have books about art and crafts in their studio spaces?

Can you have a small hanging space for artist business cards? Charge a small fee for artists to have their cards in your shop? Or not charge and have discount coupons in the artist part for your shop?

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It will be up to the org to continue to decide what and how they will accept donations. My role - right now - is to help organize the set up as they refreshing the space.

They are building some new bookshelves. They in the past have had several smaller bookshelves on wheels for the center of the space so that they can wheel those to the side when they want to use the space for meetings, classes, etc.

The person who got this added to her task list is not super book or library savvy. I hope to help in terms of organization and ease of use. Families will use the center but honestly there are a lot of older people in the community who love it.

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The pottery pieces were just donated. Extras people didn’t want or practice pieces etc. Things like small bowls, mugs, not perfect vases.

I’ll take all these ideas down!