The boss experienced a "sleepless night", and Fang Wenshan cheered him up late at night
City Express reports "Hair? Or, don't send it? In recent days, the idea of whether to publish a book bar "closure announcement" has been frantically circling in the mind of ShengSha, the young owner of the innocent era book bar. He suspected that he was all in a daze, eating, sleeping, driving... There always seemed to be two little people in the body fighting, fighting left and right.
Simply, the heart is horizontal, the eyes are closed, "That's it! ”
Last night at 22:11, looking at the public tweet "Willow County store closure announcement / Although there are many stories that have not yet happened... Three years and 99 days, long love! At the moment of the dispatch, he slumped down in his chair and finally let out a long breath, "Like a big dream has ended."
From its establishment in September 2000 to today, the Innocence Age Book Bar has gone through a full 21 years in Hangzhou. Opened on the Jewel Mountain, facing the West Lake, the innocent era book bar has done countless cultural salons and literary lectures, and has long become a familiar "cultural living room" for Hangzhou people. While illuminating the Jewel Mountain, it also illuminates the literary dreams of countless Hangzhou people.
In October 2018, The Innocence Age Book Bar opened a branch in Willow County. Originally full of confidence, I wanted the book bar to walk down the jewel mountain and into the thousands of households in the community. Who would have thought that in only three years, this branch would be struggling and going to the dilemma of "closing the store".
Seven years ago, after his father Sheng Zichao died in the summer of 2013, Shengsha, a science man born in 1987 and originally studied finance, left the securities industry that was booming at the time, resigned and went home to help his mother Zhu Jinxiu take care of the book. Unlike the Jewel Mountain Shop Book Bar where he grew up and grew up, the later Yangliu County Shop was almost created by him.
It is inevitable that you will not give up.
"Finally, I decided to close the new bookstore that had been open for 3 years.
This decision is impulsive, but it is inevitable to think about it. After 36 consecutive months of losses, I suddenly realized that I couldn't hold on one night, and I might also be laughed at by the reflection arc too long.
Survived 2020, but fell in front of the door of 2022, which is the script of many entities this year. As far as the book bar is concerned, all my savings were spent last year, and this year is full of difficulties. No one expected how a protracted epidemic would continue to adversely affect operations. And when live broadcasting, the meta-universe overwhelmingly occupies the entire social media, the significance of the book bar as a social space for the community seems to be gradually shrinking. Looking back, will I envy the partners who will close early in 2020?
3 years ago, I was a bit arrogant. The venue should be found in a good environment. Rent-free, did not look. The decoration invested a lot of money, and the materials were better than their own home. Now that I'm going to quit, I really can't help it. But what can be done, although I have not regarded the book bar as a business, but the debt platform built in the past 3 years has become the biggest dilemma faced by our small family, and I can't say anything more willfully. ”
Last night, this sad book bar closure announcement quickly brushed the screen in the circle of friends, causing countless Hangzhou book fans to sigh.
Shengsha fantasized about countless versions after the announcement of the closure of the store, but the scene that happened afterwards surprised him.
Just returned to Hangzhou, Cheng Shiqing, the dean of Zhejiang Literature College and director of Zhejiang Literature Museum, who will take office, sent a circle of friends late at night, which made people sigh -
"In less than an hour, more than 100 strangers added me to WeChat, and everyone sent messages to cheer me up and cheer me up!" When Shengsha typed this line out to me on WeChat, across the screen, I could feel his surprise, surprise and loneliness mixed with joy. I thought that I could finally sleep with my head covered after the announcement, but what I didn't expect was a "sleepless night".
At the time, he was telling me how tangled he was in making the announcement.
Information is pouring in like a tidal wave.
Some are neighbors who live nearby, some are regulars in book bars, some are strangers who are vegetarian...
"Some of them were really touched, and some of them came to talk to me about their love for books. Finally, don't forget to add that if there are any difficulties, let's go through it together. Where need help, always speaking. At the end of the announcement, Shengsha added its own WeChat, which was originally intended to facilitate readers of recharged storage cards and book bar veterans, "If there is any problem, you can contact me at any time." When you are closed, you can't give people the feeling of running away, and you can find me at any time anyway. As a result, no one was looking for me to return the card, and everyone came to encourage me to persevere. ”
Some are friends of the book bar, and they collectively propose that they should go to the book bar to brainstorm, plan ideas, and help the book bar survive the difficulties.
Some are peers in the physical bookstore industry, seeing the announcement and sending messages to encourage the book bar to stick with it.
That kind of long-lost and familiar warmth made Shengsha's heart unable to calm down for a long time, "I can't sleep at all, as soon as I close my eyes, it's all the voices and words sent by everyone, which is so touching!" But I am really helpless, until I have to, I will not go to the point of closing the store. I can only say thank you to everyone one by one, really thank you! ”
Until three o'clock in the morning, when I met a stranger who was in love with a message, he also sent me excited and excited to share it from time to time.
The news that the Yangliu County branch of the book bar has closed down has not only touched the hearts of countless Hangzhou book fans, but even overseas netizens have come to Jiashengsha's WeChat.
For example, at 1 o'clock in the evening, this Hangzhou book fan who settled in the United Kingdom -
What surprised Shengsha the most was that Jay Chou yu used as a lyricist Fang Wenshan to see the announcement and immediately sent a message to his mother Zhu Jinxiu in the middle of the night. Recently, Fang Wenshan happened to do an art exhibition in Shanghai. He offered to come to Hangzhou on the 3rd to read books, and specially went to the yangliu county store of the book bar to do a literary salon.
It was an ordinary night, and it was also a special "sleepless night" after the announcement of the bookstore closing.
From the bitter winter of ten years ago and the new bookstores that have been born since then, it seems that they have not escaped the impact of that cold winter. Coupled with the epidemic, since last year, there have been continuous news of physical bookstore closures. Not long ago, the net red bookstore "said a few words", due to the closure of some stores, salary collection incidents on the hot search, Hangzhou stores have also been reduced from 5 to 2.
Where do brick-and-mortar bookstores at the end of 2021 go?
The closure of the Willow County store in the age of innocence, although it is only an individual behavior of a bookstore, it is undeniable that this is also a microcosm of an industry under the tide of a big era.
This "sleepless night", in addition to quietly listening to the story of the "small owner of the bookstore" Shengsha along the way, I also chatted with him about the development of the physical bookstore industry.
1. Why did you suddenly make the decision to close the store? What problems and difficulties have the Willow County store encountered so far, can you sort it out in detail?
Shengsha: Actually, it was not a sudden decision to close the store. The second year after the opening, we were still in the rent-free period (the community implemented a one-and-a-half-year rent-free period for the introduction of book bars). Many people may think that if you open a bookstore, you are rent-free, and you will definitely have no problem surviving. But in fact, there was a loss at that time, and that year it lost more than 300,000 yuan. Of course, this also has a huge relationship with the fact that I didn't know how to run a store at the beginning, and I made great mistakes on the most critical issues of site selection, rent negotiation and renovation investment.
Looking back now, many mistakes were actually not made. In the beginning, there are loopholes, and later, you can only keep working hard to make up for these loopholes.
By 2020, to be honest, the pandemic has had a big impact and disrupted our rhythm. Overall, last year, we had only one thing on our mind – to survive. Last year, we also completed the renovation of the old store in Jewel Mountain, and it is reasonable to say that I am still satisfied with this achievement.
There is always hope for survival. Last year, it was really like this, and I always felt that there would be hope for next year. However, this year, I am not afraid of everyone's jokes, that is, I suddenly have a strong feeling of "can't survive".
This year, in fact, until August, I have been immersed in the illusion that the Willow County store will be flat at the end of the year.
As a result, maybe I'm inherently insensitive to numbers (sorry, I studied finance in college.... ), the result is wrong, go back and count. Only to find that the monthly rent that needs to be apportioned is undercounted, so that by August, we have lost nearly 300,000.
Then until the middle of November this year, because a loan was due, and then I had to re-lend, I encountered some difficulties in the middle. People like me who grew up and never asked anyone to borrow money are faced with the situation of having to borrow money. Therefore, the closure of this store is actually to keep my little family from going bankrupt, because I think that if I continue to open a store next year, I will lose another 300,000 yuan.
To sum up, the store is closed because it really can't afford to lose money, and then continue to open, there is no hope of equality, if you just rely on borrowing other people's money to survive, this is not the original intention of our book.
2. In recent years, the bookstore industry has always been changing. As a bookstore practitioner, what do you think of the current bookstore industry?
Shengsha: The social attributes of bookstores are getting stronger and stronger, and the book bar of the innocent era has emphasized cultural space since its birth, and it was still open at the time of Wensan West Road. In today's terms, we are a standard community store. Seriously, I still miss the time when I grew up in the book bar, which was a real community store.
After opening here in Willow County, my original intention was to build such a warm community bookstore, and I also explored many ways. But to open a store to survive, in fact, business is also a very important part. I made a plan that I thought was perfect. Launched an annual pass for 365 yuan that can borrow books for one year. But in fact, after a year, I found that everyone's card renewal rate was very low, lower than I expected. Finally, after trial and error, I found that this model, in today's era environment, even if it is a community store, is difficult to work.
3. Is it a decision made by you and your mother Zhu Jinxiu to close the shop, and will Teacher Zhu be willing to do it?
Shengsha: Yes, after discussing together, we had no choice but to make a decision. My mom must have been reluctant to do so, so to speak, very, very sad. After all, this store, she put a lot of effort into it.
I am not very good at writing, like the usual previews and event texts in the store, which are written by my mother. She loves to write. Logically, the closure announcement must have been written by her. But when we made the decision, I urged her several times, and a month passed, and she didn't write. No way, I only have to write it myself. After writing it, I put it on for several days before sending it to her. After reading it, she didn't say a word, and for the next few days, it was that kind of sluggish look. From the bottom of her heart, I knew that she was definitely unwilling.
But in fact, my mother has not been very clear about the financial situation of the family in recent years, because I am making decisions like borrowing money and repaying money.
4. What is the current operation status of the old store on Gem Mountain? Will the plight of the Willow County store affect the old store?
Shengsha: As long as the government renews our contract, we will definitely continue to operate it, which is a place where dreams begin for our whole family. How to say it? The abandonment of the Willow County store is actually to preserve the Gem Mountain store, only in this way, it will not affect the old shop over there.
5. Next, what are the plans for the operation of the book bar? After closing the Willow County branch, will it be possible to choose a new location to open a new store?
Shengsha: Just after the idea that the store was going to close here came out, I also talked to others about it one after another. There are a lot of people who have given us an olive branch, including some new future communities now, etc., and many have invited us to open a store. However, in this year or two, I will not open another new store.
Opening a store is not an impulsive thing to shoot at the door, and if you don't do well, you will lose yourself into it. I have to sum up the experience of this failure, how to open a book that at least does not lose money. I had to figure it out for myself before I decided whether to go on or not. In the future, if you are operating, you may try to cooperate with others on some products.
【Source: Hangzhou Network】
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