When the smell of books haunts the smell of coffee

Our reporter Chen Jie-shih

At 9 a.m. last Friday, with heavy traffic on Fuzhou Road, Jia Anming, the duty manager of Volkswagen Book Company, went up to the second floor to replace his colleagues who had been working the night shift all day. These days, many people lament that physical bookstores are in decline, and Fuzhou is full of "experts". Why should Volkswagen Bookstore "stand out"? In this regard, Jia Anming was confident and handed the reporter a "Zhongshan suit" uniform: you will know when you are a bookseller for a day.

April is not the first day of school, lack of "rigid demand", near the weekend, bookstores do not have any "entertainment attraction", coupled with working days, business is slow or inevitable. But reporters soon welcomed a wave of "alternative" guests.

In the bookstore coffee bar, the over-aged "old Koehler" Mr. Deng leaned against the round table, gently stirring the latte with a small spoon: "the habit of a cup of coffee in the morning has been going on for more than 40 years." He specially came to the bookstore to have a taste of Shanghai Cafe. When checking out, Mr. Deng conveniently picked up a handmade coffee textbook inserted outside the bar and put it together with the two prose selections he had just turned over while drinking coffee. Jia an smiled brightly and secretly: "this group of 'old Kohlers' are very picky about the quality of service, but they can be satisfied when they come." It is said that the bookstore does not do a proper job of making coffee, but who knows how much consumption can be driven by a cup of coffee? "

Pay attention to the fact that Volkswagen Book Company has done its homework around coffee: the whole bookstore has a green tile gray wall, quite with the charm of Shikumen; the color photos of Shanghai landmarks hanging on the walls contrast with the black and white old photos of the Bund; the background music floats from time to time "Tianya Song Girl", "Night incense" and other old songs; on the lacquer wood shelves, there are all nostalgic works such as Zhang ailing and Lin Huiyin. "Coffee is in tune with the Shanghai-style culture of old Shanghai, and the combination of coffee and book flavor is also very special." At three o'clock in the afternoon, Miss Bai, a girl from Shanghai, met her friends for afternoon tea. she admitted that she used to buy books and visit the online book mall, but the Volkswagen Book Company made her have the impulse to come and walk around often. as a result, she drank a cup of tea for two hours and passed the creative arts and crafts section of the bookstore. I also bought three tea sets "over budget".

With coffee and Shanghai-style decorations, the bookstore has to work on books after all. At 10:00 in the evening, most bookstores on Fuzhou Road were closed, but there was a long queue at the cashier of Volkswagen Book Company, including many college students. Xiao Luo of East China normal University said it was his third visit and needed to review his lessons for the recent exam preparation, but the library closed early and worried about disturbing his roommates in the dormitory, so he liked it here. "I used to be tired of going to the bookstore, first, there were few seats, and second, I was tired of choosing books." In Xiao Luo's view, the variety of books offered by Volkswagen Book Company is less than 1/3 of that of the surrounding book city, but there are still many seats to sit on if you can find what is suitable for you.

Hearing this, Jia Anming nodded anxiously: the competition for homogenization in bookstores is fierce, and what books are best-selling are sold centrally, and they are also greedy for perfection in varieties. If there are more books, the space for buying books will be compressed, affecting the purchasing experience. Volkswagen Book Company has done "subtraction" after decoration, selecting about 3000 kinds of books from nearly 30, 000 kinds of books, displaying only three or four books on average, squeezing out free space equivalent to 2/3 of the business area for customers to walk around and rest. If the heart of the customer is spacious, the willingness to spend will be "spacious".

The 24-hour uninterrupted business model has also enabled Volkswagen Books to dig into an exclusive profit space. even in the early hours of the morning when the reporter originally thought that turnover would fall into the "freezing point," there were still nearly 40 customers in the store, lying or wandering with books. I don't know when a dozen private cars have been parked outside the store. Ms. Shen, who works in the consulting industry, is one of them. Standing at 1: 00 in the morning reading books on management, she has long admired the overnight bookstore: "as a cultural metropolis, it would be a pity that there is no place to study at night." She now spends two or three days a week hanging around here, usually seeing the wee hours of the morning at 8 p.m., and then buying it home to continue to watch.

In the conversation with customers, many people will naturally think of Taiwan's Eslite Bookstore. At present, Eslite Bookstore has developed into a commercial complex that integrates bookstores, galleries, restaurants and theatres, forming a cultural industry cluster with its own charm. Its store decoration and book recommendation have become a cultural attitude that can lead the trend. By contrast, Volkswagen Books still has room for improvement.

"next, we will increase the quantity and quality of in-store lectures, exchanges and other activities, and develop independent brand products in line with the style of Volkswagen Bookstore." Jia Anming told reporters that books should first of all be a cultural carrier, and Volkswagen Book Company will enhance its own cultural heritage through various public welfare services and independent innovation activities, so as to make the "reading economy" more dynamic.

After spinning for more than ten hours, Jia Anming returned to the office at 3 o'clock in the morning on Saturday. The first thing is to click on the computer keyboard to write something: "in the first week of business, the average daily turnover has increased by 40% to 50% compared with that before decoration, and since March 15, the average daily turnover has increased by 10% compared with the past." According to this situation, some physical bookstores can do it! "