Bookstores to customers: No Lounging!
For me, an enjoyable part of going to my local bookstore (aside from being surrounded by books), is the relaxed atmosphere. But according to one article, bookstores may have gotten too relaxed, and now they’re trying to change that.
What’s the problem? It appears that those plush chairs and couches that you can still find in many bookstores might be on the shortlist to get dumped. The problem is, too many customers are lounging away the hours in those chairs, but not "paying their dues" by buying a book or two. The original idea behind installing plush furniture was a noble one:
Just a decade ago, the trend in the bookstore industry was to fit nooks and crannies with big chairs for browsing, which, it was hoped, would spur buying. The idea was to recast the bookstore as a community place or an extension of the home. Out with sterile bookstores where customers stood at attention to check out a book; in with warm, sinking chairs where book lovers could be by their lonesome.
Of course, the Law of Unintended Consequences never fails to make an appearance when least expected:
But now the availability of so-called "soft" seating – overstuffed chairs and sofas – is on the decline at some bookstores, done in by various complications: homeless squatters, overly enthusiastic young lovers, food trash left behind.
I can certainly understand bookstores having an aversion to homeless squatters and the chairs being used as trash dumps. Certainly bookstore employees have better things to do than police the lounge areas for unwanted guests and moonlight as janitors to keep the areas picked up (the case of the "overly enthusiastic young lovers, however, is up for debate).
And there’s also the question of space. Plush chairs and couches take up a lot of room, space that could be used to stock more books, which could mean an increase in sales (although I’m not sure I buy this argument):
In recent years, Borders has cut its soft seating by as much as 30 percent. Backless seating – magazine benches, step stools – no longer takes the back seat. Also, given the choice between book space and seating place, books win every time. As Wood says, "You can’t sell a chair."
Maybe they should start selling their chairs and couches! Heck, selling comfortable reading furniture could be a viable solution to many bookstore’s sagging profits caused by sluggish sales. After all, you go to the bookstore, take a stack of magazines to one of the couches and spend a few hours catching up on your reading. What better why to "test drive" a piece of furniture before you buy it?
Okay, maybe I’m being unrealistic. But I can’t help feeling slightly upset that a few bad apples have to ruin a very good thing for the rest of us. How hard is it to pick up your own trash? Bookstores aside, I always hated seeing people abandon their half-eaten lunches in the lounge I hung out at in college. By the end of the day it looked like a tornado ripped through the place; leaving behind candy wrappers, empty pop cans and bottles, fast food wrappers and an assortment of torn paper and crumbs. Are people really that lazy?
Anyway, sorry for that little rant. But it appears that the new trend in bookstores will be to keep customers on their aching feet as they browse through the endless rows of books. Before long, all bookstores will be turned into a literary version of Wal-Mart, with small and messy aisles filled with screaming kids and parents who leave their shopping carts right in the middle of the aisle so no one else can get through (another pet peeve of mine).
I have noticed that at my local Borders that there are less comfortable places to sit nowadays. In fact, in the Arts & Crafts section, there now sits a large table with hard wooden chairs. Sitting in those things for any more than an hour would render even the strongest customer a cripple.
Maybe one day the pendulum will start to swing in the other direction, and once again we can browse through endless books while propping our feet up on the armrests of a plush sofa. Until then, we’ll just have to go in and get out as fast as we can because our lounging is hurting bookstore sales!
Check out this article from the Baltimore Sun:
Hard facts oust soft chairs at bookstores
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