Chapter Eight: Tackling Trades

This week left me feeling even more at home in the store. Here's a look at what I got up to!

Day One

Today I was working with the three other trainees. We were with Heather manning the front information station. Things weren't too busy while we were there but we did get to help an elderly woman find some of the books she needed for her book club and give people books that they had ordered or were on hold for them.

Then, the rest of the crew changed over to back info while I worked on entering used books so that they would have shelving to do. While I was entering, I noticed that a book came up around three or four times while it wasn't in the system at all when the woman from earlier was looking for it. This made me think about the upsides of many of Changing Hands's employees working in various roles because that way, they become more familiar with all of the ins and outs of the store, even down to the specific books that it carries.

Next, I met back up with the rest of the trainees as Sarah gave us a much more in-depth tour of all of the store's sections (and some of the quirks that come along with them). I ended off the day by working yet again on some shelving.

Day Two

Today I got to Changing Hands bright and early a couple of hours before it opened to work with Lauren on the weekly Ingram book order. Ingram is the distributing company where Changing Hands and other bookstores get most of their books. Every Wednesday morning, Lauren goes into Booklog and pulls up what has sold in the last week. Then, she will order replacements based on how well the book has been selling and how many there still are in stock. This is also when she looks at the special orders that have been placed throughout the week as well as any books that an employee marked as "TBO" or "to be ordered". An employee will TBO a book if it is a book they feel like the store should sell because they like it, customers have been asking for it, or a combination of the two. Not all TBO requests end up getting ordered, but it's important to consider them and take into account what books employees are excited about selling. Another thing Lauren does when she is working on the order is go and look at which books are low on the bestseller and staff picks display wall since it is important to keep those displays well-stocked.


After Lauren finished up working on the order, I worked on some shelving until more of the other employees started trickling in (not many people come long before the store opens at 10). Then, once the other trainees arrived and were also tackling the shelving cart, I moved over to the used book counter to tackle the seemingly never-ending shelf of books to be entered (but this time I took pictures!!).

Here's a look at my entering station at the used book counter:

The shelf on the right is where the books I'm entering com from.
As you can see, it gets pretty full when trades get busy!!

The empty cart I started with...the calm before the
storm if you will.

I spent an hour or two entering and creating more and more ambitious stacks of books. Here's what one batch looked like all stacked up:

Things were getting a bit precarious!!

All of the labels for the above books 

After a very successful entering session, I ended up with a full cart and a slightly emptier shelf:

Keep in mind trades were going on and books were
being added all while I was entering. Not too shabby, if
I do say so myself!!

Day Three

Today I spent most of my time entering used books, although the shelf was much emptier today so I was actually able to clear it off completely! However, today my ambitious book-stacking reached its climax as halfway through one batch of books two stacks came tumbling down. Now, things could've been a lot worse: I could've just finished an entire three huge stacks that I would then have to pick up and label, or I could've accidentally banged up some books. Luckily, I was dealing for the most part with picture books (which, now that I'm thinking about it, may have been the source of the problem what with their inherent lack of stability--and apparent lack of stackability) so no books were harmed by my chronic clumsiness. Nevertheless, it was slightly irritating to have to painstakingly search through the roll of labels to find the right one for the now out-of-order books. But we live and learn. I I finished off all of the rest of the books on the shelf, careful now to make more stable stacks. I then helped shelve the books I had entered until it was time for me to leave.

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I'm having such an amazing experience at Changing Hands and can't believe that I'm already halfway through my time there! I'll be back next week with another update, but until then, happy reading!

Chapter Seven: Training to Be the Very Best Bookseller

It was another eventful week at Changing Hands! Here's a look at what I was up to this week:

Day One

Today started off with me finishing up organizing the history section. After a little over an hour of wrestling with the unruly military history section, I finally got it to a point that I was satisfied with.

Next, I went under the guidance of Danny, one of the managers of the used book trade counter. He showed me how to input used books into the store system (a.k.a. Booklog), a very important aspect of running the store that I was extremely excited to be able to help with. Inputting used books involved many of the same steps as receiving new books, gifts, and remainders. However, I had only observed other people performing those tasks, so I had to get the feel for doing it myself. The first thing I did for each batch of books was create a P.O. (or purchase order) for the books to be entered into that indicates that it is for used books. Once I do that, I can begin to enter used books.

Before scanning a book, I had to type a "U"into the ISBN field so that all of the used books that I input will have an ISBN that begins with the letter "U", indicating to employees that they are, in fact, used and not new copies. Next, I scanned a book. Sometimes, it is a book that has been traded before and is thus already in Booklog. That case requires the least amount of work as I don't have to input any additional information. However, if a book has never been traded before, I have to manually input all of the book's data into Booklog. The most challenging part of this is knowing the which section the book needs to be shelved in. When a trader first takes books, they label the book's category and price using a more old-fashioned labeller. On this label, each section in the store is given a three-number code that corresponds to a three-letter section code that I need to type into the computer. I had a cheat-sheet that helped me out, but after a while I began to remember the codes for sections like Literature and Mystery since they came up more frequently.

After inputting almost two carts worth of used books, my day was over.

Day Two

Today I got to work again with Brandi, the Kids Book Buyer. We first put some signed books from an off-site event onto the floor and packed some of them up to be sent to the Phoenix floor. After we had finished that, I got to help her out with doing some actual book ordering. This was probably one of the hardest yet most fun things I got to experience at Changing Hands so far. It was fun because it involved a lot of flipping through adorable picture books. However, it was so hard to decide how I liked each book because they were all cute in their own ways; some books had great illustrations but kinda "meh" stories and vice versa. Brandi has such a strong knowledge of which kids books sell well and what customers will enjoy, something that is necessary when making an order. She definitely didn't need my help, but she warmly listened to my input on certain certain books and took my comments into consideration.

After reading picture books to my heart's content, I finished off my day by sitting in on a training session led by Leah and Joel with three new hires. This session focused on Booklog and some of its most commonly-used functions such as inventory search.

Day Three

Today was also spent training, this time with two of the three new hires and focusing on customer service. First, Joel and Leah sat with us and explained protocols for talking to customers (and even dealing with disrespectful or inappropriate customers) and filling out the store's various forms. Then, we actually went out on the floor and stood at the back info desk so we could practice actually helping customers. The three of us  followed Joel around wherever in the store he went to help customers since we were still being trained, so we were sometimes jokingly called ducklings and even his minions! One of the most rewarding customer interactions I had was when a customer was looking for a book that was in the Military History section. If you remember from my last post, the Military History section and I have spent some time together, so I probably know that section the best out of all the sections in the store. Thus, I was able to walk with the customer right to the shelf and hand her the very book she was looking for! This was one of a handful of customer interactions like it that I got to participate in today, but that one was particularly special since I actually felt like I had a good knowledge of how to help her.

Next, the other trainees and I got to man the front info desk with Leah. Unlike the back info desk, the front info desk must be manned at all times to keep an eye on customers entering and exiting the store and also to help those customers if they need it immediately as they enter the store. We also practiced using the phones to page other stations in the store as well as over the loudspeaker.

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I learned a lot this week, and it's nice to learn more about the store alongside some pretty cool people! I'm sure I'll keep on learning new things next week, and I'll be sure to tell you all about it in my next post, but until then, happy reading!

Chapter Six: Learning the Ropes of Remainders & Shelf Maintenance

I'm three weeks into my internship and I'm still learning new things every day! Here's what I learned this week.

Day One

I spent all of today helping Jason with receiving remainders. As I mentioned in a previous post, remainders are books that booksellers can purchase at a wholesale price in order to sell them at a discounted price. For example, a remainder book might cost Changing Hands $1, so they can mark it up so that it is still less than what it originally sold for. Thus, though Changing Hands might be making less money off of these books because they're cheaper, they are getting a bang for their buck with very large profit percentages.

Receiving remainders is a lot like receiving normal books except remainders tended to come in fives and tens rather than just one or two. Also, remainder books can sometimes be in a little dirty or a little banged up from being transported, but since they are going to be sold at a discounted price anyway, Jason is more lax about condition. Although we did have to wipe a little dirt off of some books, in the same batch we received some books that were still in the box from the publisher and were in pristine condition.

Day Two

Today I was again working with Jason, although he didn't have much to do for remainders. It was kind of a slow day, so he had me help out with shelving for most of the day. Doing this has really helped improve my familiarity with the store, and because of this I've been able to help a few customers find what they're looking for (or direct them to someone else who can).

Next, Jason introduced me to section maintenance. In theory, all of the shelves are in the correct order, but because of browsing customers replacing books in the wrong place as well as incorrect shelving, sections can get a little out of order. I was put in charge of making sure the Philosophy section was in correct alphabetical order. This was only one shelf, but it still took me a good chunk of time. Even when you get all of the books in the proper order, you have to make sure that you fill any extra space by placing some books face-out.

I also got to help Jason replenish the mystery section on the sale carts outside. These carts hold hardcover remainder books that cost anywhere between $5.95 and $9.95. A good amount of these books had been bought throughout the day and there were some holes that needed to be filled. This task did involve a lot of walking back and forth between the outdoor carts and the indoor mystery section, but I still enjoyed it because I got to mix it up and put out some books by different authors rather than another book by John Grisham or James Patterson.

Finally, I got to help Jason out with checking the remainder backstock. The online inventory system that Changing Hands uses shows the quantity on hand (QOH) of a certain book, but it can't tell how many of those are actually on the floor. For example, Changing Hands might have five copies of a book on hand, but if all of those are in the back, they obviously won't sell. The job of checking the backstock is a two-person job, so Jason would call out the title of a book and I would search for it in the store inventory and tell him how many books the store has. He would then decide how many he should put on a cart to be shelved out on the floor.

Day Three

I started out today by meeting with Gayle, one of the owners of the store as well as my site mentor. We talked about some of the projects I could work on when I have down time. She also signed me up for subscriptions to the Shelf Awareness and Publishers Weekly daily newsletters, which contain the latest news about the book industry. From now on, I'll be reading these for around an hour a day as a part of my time on-site at Changing Hands. I'll also be taking notes on any questions that come up so I can ask Gayle. I'm really excited for this because I will receive a lot of information about the book industry that will help me out with my project.

After that, I spent the majority of my day doing section maintenance on the history section. The organization of the history section is a bit confusing because it's split up between U.S. History, U.S. Presidents, Ancient History, World History, Military History, and General History. And to make it more confusing, the U.S. Presidents section is ordered alphabetically by president; the Ancient History section is split between Egypt, Greece, Rome, and General Ancient history; the Military History Section is ordered chronologically by war starting with the American Revolutionary war; and the World History section is ordered alphabetically by country. Finally, on top of that all of the sections are ordered alphabetically by author within the subsections. So it was quite a task. The only part of the section I didn't get to was the Military History section, but I made it through the rest, stopping once to take a break and do some shelving for a change of scene.

Here are some pictures of my handiwork:

It might not look like much, but those shelves are (at least for now) in perfect order, the result of hours of work. It's safe to say I'm now a little protective of these shelves, but had to go through the disheartening experience of watching a customer pick up a book and put it back in the wrong place on a shelf I had just organized.

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That's all for this week! I'll be back with another post next week, but until then, happy reading!

Chapter Five: Culling, Events, and Receiving, Oh My!

After another exciting week at Changing Hands, I've gotten to experience even more than I did my first week. Here's what I did:

Day One

Today I got to experience what it's like when the store opens each morning. It started off with a staff meeting led by Heather, the store manager, in which she discussed specifics for deals the store was offering that day (there was a special sale since it was Leap Day) as well as the event they are having later tonight. After the meeting was finished, all of the employees pitched in to help move the carts of sale books outside.

For most of today, I got to work with Brandi again. She began by giving me an extensive tour of the children's section, which includes the teen section. She also explained what remainders are and how they work. Remainders are books that can be bought in bulk at a discounted price. Changing Hands then sells them at a sale price, but if they don't sell, the store is stuck with them because they can't be returned. 

However, for most of our time together, Brandi and I were culling new books. The process of culling is the same for new books as it is for used books except instead of being discounted like used books, the new books can be returned directly to the publisher. Also, since Brandi is the children's book buyer, she showed me how she looks through the list of books to be culled and sometimes takes books off of the list for reasons such as the author is local, there is an event coming up for a specific author, or she thinks that the book was just put in the wrong section (since some sections tend to overlap). Her extensive knowledge of the books and their authors definitely came in handy for this.

Next, I worked at the used book counter again, this time with Sarah (know affectionately by her coworkers as Buddha). As she worked on some trades that people brought in, she informed me of some of the ways that the process had been sped up over the years, including inputting all used books into the system so that employees don't have to physically leave the counter to check if they already have a copy of a particular book.

I ended off the day working with Daniel in gift receiving. His self-proclaimed job is "opening boxes", and that's what we did. He would check the P.O. (Purchase Order) from a particular company and then make sure that all of the items that were ordered were received and not broken in the boxes. Then, I helped put price labels on the items. Also, since all orders are received at the Tempe location, we set aside a designated amount of each product and packed them up to be transferred to the Phoenix location. I could see how repeating this process could get monotonous, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

Day Two

Today started off with me working with Daniel again.The receiving department was a man short because someone called in sick and they were behind on ticketing merchandise. Thus, I was again put in charge of putting price labels on items, even working around a buggy label printer that Daniel tried to fix a few times to no avail. We did make significant progress, getting through a good stack of boxes. While we were working, Daniel told me about the significance of the gift department at Changing Hands. He explained that there is no way that indie bookstores like Changing Hands would be able to survive without the gift department because they contribute majorly to the their overall sales. This is especially the case around the holidays, but just in general, indie bookstores often offer merchandise that is extremely unique and might be hard to find at bigger stores.

Another major aspect of Changing Hands' identity is its events. I got to help Lauren out with one of these events, a signing for Lita Ford's new memoir, Living Like a Runaway. I not only helped set up, but I also got to work during the event itself handing people's books to Lita for her to sign. I even got to wear an official volunteer badge!

There were three other volunteers who were working the events, all of whom had experience working events at the store in the past, so they were able to talk to me about some of the past events they've gotten to experience, including ones by Ozzy Osbourne, Tyler Oakley, and Lindsey Stirling. Here's a little look at what the event itself looked like:

Since this was a ticketed event, customers received tickets with
a letter that corresponded to one of the signs in the line. This makes
the whole process of lining people up more organized.

Lita in the process of signing books

Overall it was a pretty awesome experience, and although I hadn't heard of her before the event, the receptive way in which the interacted with her fans made me wish that I had.

Day Three

Today I started work bright and early by working with Michelle in book receiving. As we were waiting for a shipment to arrive, Michelle explained to me that after working at Changing Hands for a few years, she has accumulated various different job titles. She used to be one of the store's gift buyers, and now she still is in charge of the lines she brought in, including incense, magnets, and magazines. Since she always has multiple projects on the back-burner for when she's not busy with receiving, her days never look the same and she's always learning something new. Michelle also mentioned that this is an aspect that is unique to smaller stores and would most likely not be seen at a larger bookstore.

Finally, a shipment arrived from Ingram, the company where Changing Hands gets its reorders and special orders. If a customer is asking for a book but it isn't currently in stock, Changing Hands can actually special order it. This adds a layer of customer service that is very much inherently "indie". After inputting the books into the system and putting price labels on them, two more shipments arrived, this time directly from the publishers. These shipments included advanced reader copies (or ARCs) for upcoming releases as well as books for upcoming store events which were set aside and marked with the date of the event.The only thing different about event books is that there is typically more of them ordered since sometimes around 300 or more people will come to events and there is no price label put on them since they are already designated for customers.

After finishing up working with Michelle, I worked behind the back info desk shelving books. I had a little difficulty with this at first because I wasn't sure of all the three-letter shelf designations. However, after starting with the ones that I did know, I was eventually able to shelve most of the books. I was even able to help a few customers find what they were looking for! Slowly but surely I am getting more accustomed to the layout of the store.

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This week really gave me a good look into the sense of community at Changing Hands as well as some things behind-the-scenes that help the store run smoothly. I'll report back with what I learn next week, but until then, happy reading!