Satisfying customers, making a profit - Page One Bookstore - Company Profile

They Do It All at Albuquerque's Page One

The following is excerpted from the book, Up Against the Wal-Marts: How Your Business Can Prosper in the Shadow of the Retail Giants, published by Amacon, a division of the American Management Assn., and reprinted with permission. Copyright[C] 1994 by Don Taylor and Jeanne Smalling Archer.

Page One bookstore in Albuquerque has been a model for other bookstores for most of its thirteen-year history. After Yvette and Steve Stout bought the business in 1981, they studied their options and realized their choices were to "lead, follow, or get out of the way." They chose leadership and haven't looked back since. Instead, they have been looking forward from the very first days when they started out in their small, 2,000-square-foot newsstand.

In the mid-1980's they developed a product mix that has since been copied by independents and chain stores across the county. They were among the first in the nation to add CD music and computer software to the traditional mix of books, magazines, and tapes. "I used to say that we had a product mix that no one else in the country has. Now our unique product mix is being modeled by the chains," says Steve Stout.

After expanding the original store several times, the Stouts decided to build a new store across the street. Confident they had a successful product mix, they turned their attention to how to allocate space in the new store.

"We have always been literally among the first to use computer systems to track inventory and purchasing, and we decided to utilize a computer model to determine space requirement for the new store," says Stout. In March of 1993, the Stouts and their 100 employees moved into a bright, airy, attractive 25,000-square-foot store and converted the original store into Page One, Too, a used book store.

Though its sales figures are confidential, Stout is pleased with the company's growth rate and says, "We've always been ahead of the book industry as a whole. Any problems we've had at Page One have been due to rapid growth." Displaying a characteristic sense of humor, he adds, "Either that or poor management."

Albuquerque has its share of independents and chain stores. By Stout's calculations, there are more than twenty book stores in the city including such book industry giants as Bookstar and the first Hastings multimedia supercenter. A new Borders store opened in mid-1994, with Media Play shortly following.

Stout isn't afraid of the competition. He says, "I never even think about them. I'm always embarrassed that I don't go in and check out what they're doing."

Maybe the reason is the competition is busy checking out what he and Yvette are doing. "The chains have always visited our store, making fact-finding trips to Albuquerque like they do all over the country," says Stout.

When they come, what they find is a state-of-the-art book store staffed by friendly employees and filled with a product mix that includes about 200,000 titles. By category, the store sells about 50 percent books, 15 percent computer software, 25 percent music, and 10 percent gifts, novelties, and newspapers.

Stout doesn't enter the price wars with the chain stores, except in the area of hardcover fiction books, which are all sold at a 25 percent discount, a tradition they have had since the newsstand days. "We are trying to hold firm on not discounting anything else because we think that is just an insidious circle," says Stout.

Another war the Stouts don't fight with the chain stores is the titles war. I don't think it's important how many titles are on the shelves," says Stout, "I think in terms of what books we have out there that are hard for people to find."

As a result of that philosophy, Page One takes a lot of pride in sticking to offering from many of the small presses across the county, which, Stout admits, is not a particularly unique approach. "There is a movement by the independents to feature the small presses," he says. "Small presses often don't give chain stores unfair business advantages so independents tend to have a lot of loyalty to small presses."

Stout is quick to point up the fact that they support the small presses more for philosophical reasons than for financial ones. "You can't justify the expense of dealing with the small presses based only on customer visits," he says.

To those people balking at such disregard for the bottom line, he responds, "Yvette and I have never done business strictly to make money. We have never made a decision based on money...because our mission is to give Albuquerque a chance to read what they want to read, to be entertained if they want to be entertained."

Whichever they choose, customers can sample before they buy. Page One invites customers to lounge in any of their seating areas (that can accommodate 100 people) and browse through books and magazines before they purchase them.

At any of the store's ten listening areas, customers can preview any musical selection. The store also has ten stations where customers may preview computer software on topics that range from accounting packages, to games, to word processing programs. "We've always wanted people to listen to music and try out software before they buy," explains Stout. "We thought that we ended up with a lot happier customers and fewer returns."

Having happy customers is a top priority at Page One, and they have strategically placed their customer-service section in the center of the store. Stout says, "We've always thought that customer service was so important that we wanted the customer to walk in the door and be able to look ahead and say, 'That's where I can get help.' Employees try to greet all customers as soon as they walk into the store."

Like many other bookstores, Page One has an on-site coffee house, which can serve fifty customers their choice of drinks, pastries, salads, sandwiches, or desserts, Stout believes having the coffee bar, which is subleased to a restaurateur, has been part of myth more than a coffee house in terms of excitement and activity."

The Stouts build on that excitement and activity by hosting about 100 special events a year, ranging from author signings to poetry readings, musical performances, and software demonstrations. Stout laments the fact that New Mexico isn't a big enough market to draw customers even more appreciative of the celebrities that do come to town.

While other book sellers are rushing to find the magic formula that will help them become leaders in the battles with retail giants, Stout offers this advice:

* Find a business partner who is smart in ways that you're not.

* Don't listen to your accountant.

* Don't listen to your attorney.

* Don't be too preoccupied with the bottom line.

COPYRIGHT 1995 The New Mexico Business Journal
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group