In my book work, I have broken the inertia of my thrift store's merchandising plan (plan?) of Put It Anywhere You Can and implemented a new plan:
I mentioned this to a volunteer who was on his knees scrubbing the linoleum. He rolled his eyes. "I used to work in marketing," he said, "but I gave up trying to help here. I just clean. It's easier."
I am still energetic, however, and--with permission and help-- yesterday I moved Children's Books from down the way to right near the Book Room. (You can peek the magazines through the door.)
Also I added pictures & other kiddish things for sale.
The painting of kids blowing a dandelion is a good example of thrift store kitsch--it's bad enough to be good.
I replaced a ugly bookshelves with narrow shelves with a smaller, nicer one for Politics and History Books {below}.
This caused my boss some pain. To him, "empty space is lost money."
I tried to suggest that presentation counts, and sometimes less is more---that the fact that the books look so much better (and fit) on these shelves might help sales.
In fact, a couple books sold the first day:
Breaking In: The Rise of Sonia Sotomayor and the Politics of Justice (2014), and The Witches: Salem, 1692 (2015).
Hm---I see the latter got a bad review in the NYT. But I am not a curator, I am a displayer who seeks to be Fair & Balanced.
You see I have Maureen Dowd standing next to Rush Limbaugh, and Jon Stewart next to Glenn Beck.
Put Things With Similar Things.
I mentioned this to a volunteer who was on his knees scrubbing the linoleum. He rolled his eyes. "I used to work in marketing," he said, "but I gave up trying to help here. I just clean. It's easier."
I am still energetic, however, and--with permission and help-- yesterday I moved Children's Books from down the way to right near the Book Room. (You can peek the magazines through the door.)
Also I added pictures & other kiddish things for sale.
The painting of kids blowing a dandelion is a good example of thrift store kitsch--it's bad enough to be good.
I replaced a ugly bookshelves with narrow shelves with a smaller, nicer one for Politics and History Books {below}.
This caused my boss some pain. To him, "empty space is lost money."
I tried to suggest that presentation counts, and sometimes less is more---that the fact that the books look so much better (and fit) on these shelves might help sales.
In fact, a couple books sold the first day:
Breaking In: The Rise of Sonia Sotomayor and the Politics of Justice (2014), and The Witches: Salem, 1692 (2015).
Hm---I see the latter got a bad review in the NYT. But I am not a curator, I am a displayer who seeks to be Fair & Balanced.
You see I have Maureen Dowd standing next to Rush Limbaugh, and Jon Stewart next to Glenn Beck.
2 comments:
Moving the kids books is a great introduction to the back room and the rest of the books. Looks great!
Thanks, bink!
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