Small business blog / self motivation / organization / opening a bookstore
Yesterday I went a little overboard on trying to come up with an optimal bookstore / bookshelf organization plan. Already I have new ideas in my head. As I mentioned this will be part bookstore part niche store that I would prefer not to say what it is because I am paranoid and want to stay anonymous.
Let’s just call it a bookstore and a knickknack store. I like the idea of a golf ball display, something to make use of vertical display. Like if you had two bookcases back to back, you then have the side of the bookcases that’s not being used. I like the idea of this item
https://www.etsy.com/listing/502749359/wall-hanging-acrylic-showcase-for
With individual compartments I think it makes things look much more organized. I have some shelves without the dividers and I don’t like how it looks as much. This was also if someone buys something I know exactly what to replace and if all the spots are full I will know if someone stole something. It’s $145.00 with shipping though, that’s almost $1.00 per spot. This is another thing where I don’t know what I have to begin with so I don’t know how many I would need.
The other thing is I don’t want to put expensive things where people can steal them. If customer traffic picks up then there is a greater chance someone will steal. I like the idea of mixing the books and the knick knacks throughout the store. If 1/5 of the product is knick knacks and they are all grouped together it will make it seem like there are less items. I want people to wander around the store, then they forget they see things, they spend more time in the store. When things are separated out I think you also pay more attention to them, you can focus on one area at a time.
But now we have one idea to put glass curio cabinet at the end cap of each bookcase row. For one this will make things look more open, if it’s just wooden bookcases it will look less open. This also means people will have to walk around to view things. Curios might even look good in between bookcases, then people will have to walk down the rows. I will have to see what kind of bookcases I have or need to build though. If I build shelves then they can share a vertical wall. Your typical bookshelf has two vertical boards and then the horizontal boards for shelves. If I am making three bookcases, rather than having six vertical shelves, the middle case can share the vertical boards for the two outside shelves, three bookcases with four vertical boards.
I can probably fit two 150 acrylic display cases on each end cap, 10 end caps, that’s 3,000 spots. Odds are I don’t need that many spots. That would also be almost $3,000, yikes. That probably means some end caps can be curios and some can be display cases.
Once custom shelves get built things will be difficult to change, that’s a little bit why I am so obsessed here. Maybe instead of tying everything together I should try and make things as modular as possible. A curio could go in between the cases, then display cases could still go on the end caps.
Maybe will try some little shelves on the end of the bookcases. Instead I could put the items in their own little boxes or just set them on the shelves. It would be easier to build simple shelves than shelves where things have their individual boxes built in. Each alcove could have one non-book area, or every other, or whatever. The big worry there is the possibility of thefts. Low value items are not as big of a worry but if I have 300 small items priced at a dollar, I won’t notice if any are missing. I could probably put larger items that are more difficult to steal there. But I only have a couple of curios and I am planning on ten rows of bookcases. I should probably just do two trial rows with what I have on hand.
Right now the optimal solution is eight rows of bookcases put back to back, three rows single bookcases, two rows display cases, two showcases, 13 narrow bookcases at the end of each alcove. The 13 narrow cases are TBD in exactly how high and wide. 10 shelves each would fit the most small books, this would be if I have enough books to fill them all (I doubt that I do). I am not sure what margin I should be allocating for future inventory. Probably better to with more space between each shelf, 8 shelves x 8.5” tall vs 10 shelves x 6.75” tall. If that’s the case I don’t need to gather up all the paperbacks as I was suggesting yesterday. 13 cases, 31” wide, 8 shelves per case = 269 feet of shelving. Probably best to do one as a trial run. See why I never get anything done? All planning and no action. Make a plan yesterday and change it today. Who knows if I even know where my drill and drill bits are. I also need my saw and blades. I am a hoarder with the heart of a minimalist, so I pretty much hate myself.