Sunday, June 20, 1999
Local bookstores go online
By Sara Eaton
Staff Writer
In the past few years the internet has pushed its way into many new areas. While some small business may be pushed out by the Internet, a few local bookstores are paving their own way on the Internet.
"If we didn't have the Internet, we wouldn't have anything," assistant manager of My Bookhouse, 27 S. Sandusky St., Matt Ellas said.
He explained that there are very few walk-ins today like there were in years past. My Bookhouse went online about 4 years ago, he said; now 85 to 90 percent of their business is through the Internet.
"If you don't go online, then you won't really sell much," Ellas said.
Other local bookstores are online, too.
Owner of Books and More, 113 E. Perry St., John Teeters said 95 percent of his business is through the internet.
In fact, Books and More doesn't even have open hours for the public. Teeters comes in for a few hours in the morning, checks his e-mail and takes care of business, then he is done for the day.
"Local people can't support a bookstore," Teeters said, explaining that books are sold everywhere now which makes too much competition for the bookstores. He cited grocery stores and pharmacies as two examples.
Owner of Paper and Ink, 98 S. Washington St., Dave Koehl said bookstores do have a lot of competition from places which are not simply book stores.
At Paper and Ink, the majority of sales are not books, but magazines, according to Koehl. He offers a selection of more than 1,500 different magazines.
After the first year of working full days and only seeing one or two customers, Teeters decided it was a waste of his time to have open store hours.
However, if someone wants to come in, he is willing to make an appointment.
"The Internet has helped my business. I almost had to go out of business a few years ago," Teeters said.
He said he actually got the idea and help from My Bookhouse.
Both My Bookhouse and Books and More sell rare, used and out-of-print books. They also sell new books; however, for both the majority of sales are not the new books.
My Bookhouse offers 7,000 books online, Ellas said.
"Out of the millions out there, at least one person will want that book," he said.
He explained that while a certain type of book might not sell on the shelves, there is probably someone somewhere who will like it and buy it.
My Bookhouse employee and owner's daughter Hollidae Griffin agreed.
"You can sell anything to anyone anywhere," she said, explaining the good aspect of the Internet.
Teeters said he has sold to people in Guam, Italy and France.
Not only does the Internet allow a larger pool of customers, but it also speeds the transaction up for everyone involved.
"We don't have to wait to build up clientle. A lot of buying on the Internet, I think, is impulse buying," Griffin said.
Teeters agreed, saying that in the past it would take an hour to finalize a deal, but now it only takes three minutes with the Internet.
Ellas added that as long as people have access to a computer, they can buy a book from anywhere; they don't have to drive to the store.
Koehl is excited to have 24-hour customer service when his website is up and running. He said he is joining in a program started by the independent book stores in the U.S. He simply pays a fee to have the site, and part of his book sales.
The warehouse, which will keep tabs on the site, will actually have the customer service representatives, not each individual store, Koehl said.
One setback of being on the Internet is often people forget they ordered a book or change their mind after it is already on hold, according to Griffin.
Although many think the big chains like Barnes and Noble and Amazon.com are pushing out small, local bookstores, that is not the case in Tiffin for all the stores.
Teeters explained that his books are all on the barnesandnoble.com website.
Griffin said the large chains actually give My Bookhouse business because they buy a lot of out-of-print books, which a customer is searching for.
Even though books are usually cheaper on the Internet, Griffin says that is not the case.
The books they sell are the same price as those in the store, she said.
The books start out cheaper, but after adding shipping and handling fees, the price works out to be the same or sometimes a few dollars more.
Griffin said the price of the book includes the shipping and handling, rather than added on after the final price.
While not all local bookstores are feeling a strain from large chains or Internet sites, Paper and Ink is.
"While I am going to have a website, I'm not able to lose money indefinitely like they can," Koehl said, explaining that companies like Amazon.com can afford to lose money until they push the little stores out of business.
Rather than just have an Internet site, My Bookhouse auctions some of their materials.
Ellas places 20 to 40 books on e-Bay, which is an Internet auction Griffin said. Sometimes books sell for a lot more than they are expecting.
"You can sell things you couldn't sell before," Griffin said, explaining that e-bay allowed My Bookhouse to expand book areas they were not able to in the past.
Griffin estimated that My Bookhouse sells about half of what it puts on the auction site.
Even though the Internet offers different options to small business and the chance to expand, still not all the stores are able to compete with the large chains.
Koehl said Tiffin City Schools just made an order through Amazon.com rather than with him because they were able to offer a lower price.
"I can't even purchase the books with my wholesaler's discount at the price they were given," he said.
He explained that Internet sellers like Amazon.com do the same thing as he does to get books for customers. He orders the book from the publisher.
He is not too worried about Internet competition just yet, as he said that only two percent of all book sales are through the Internet.
"It's really frustrating," Koehl said, explaining that he does so much more for the community through taxes than Amazon.com does.
Not only does a local business add to taxes, but also they can offer advertising or help to the schools when needed, which Koehl says is the most frustrating.
While the Internet can provide expansion for a business, small local stores may still be pushed out of business.