Buying a Bookstore?

External Since: Oct 01, 2004 Posts: 252

I've bought collections in the past but now I have the opportunity to
by a book store in the town where I work. It is a general used
bookstore. The present owner a University professor (not at mine but
one 70 miles away) and his wife have run it for 7 years but only
opened it 3 days a week and closed it all summer. I don't plan to
quit my day job but have a wife to run it and the building is included
with the stock of some 40,000+ volumes (80/20 hb/pb). The store has
never listed on line.

What questions should I be asking and considering when thinking about
this possible purchase?

*******************************************************

""Lord!" he said, "when you sell a man a book you don't
sell him twelve ounces of paper and ink and glue - you
sell him a whole new life....""

"Parnassus on Wheels"
by Christopher Morley

External Since: Jul 01, 2003 Posts: 303

On Sat, 20 Dec 2003 15:26:06 GMT, John A. Stovall
<johnastovall.DeleteThis@earthlink.net> wrote:

>I've bought collections in the past but now I have the opportunity to
>by a book store in the town where I work. It is a general used
>bookstore. The present owner a University professor (not at mine but
>one 70 miles away) and his wife have run it for 7 years but only
>opened it 3 days a week and closed it all summer. I don't plan to
>quit my day job but have a wife to run it and the building is included
>with the stock of some 40,000+ volumes (80/20 hb/pb). The store has
>never listed on line.
>
>What questions should I be asking and considering when thinking about
>this possible purchase?

1. Is the business successful now?
2. If it isn't, why would it be in the future?

However, these two paramount questions are mitigated by advantages
that you have that the previous owner may not have shared... And these
would the questions to ask of yourself:

1. Am I now successful selling on-line and by mail-order?
2. Will this store augment or detract from my current business?

A general used bookstore that seemingly depends upon the student body
is a chancey thing, on the other hand, said student body is probably a
good source of cheap re-stock. Certainly if the cost is low enough and
the store is anyway near self-sustaining now, you could make a go of
it as you have considerable expertise in what to buy in terms of
collections. I may be wrong, but I'm of the opinion that unless you're
on the busiest street of a major city, the only real benefit of a
storefront is that you will get collections brought in by people
unwilling to put in the time and energy to sell their books on eBay.
The caveat here is "Is the store in a population center sufficient to
have such occurences take place on a regular basis and can you
establish your store as THE place to sell books?"

Our own paghat has also written a wonderful essay on the subject,
which I believe is still up at <a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.violetbooks.com" target="_blank">www.violetbooks.com</a>

Cheers,

John