In February 2022, the lease of Wild Grass Bookstore expired and it moved away from No. 117 Chengfu Road, more than 600 meters from the east gate of Peking University. More than a month ago, the news that The Wild Grass Bookstore was about to close offline has been spread in the circle of book friends. At the end of December 2021, the "Reading Space" edition of the Peking University BBS forum appeared with a post titled "Farewell to Weeds".
"After looking for a house for a month, I haven't met the right one, the rent is very expensive, I can't afford to rent, so I'm ready to move to the warehouse first. Many people think that the weeds are going to go out of business, rush to see, books have sold a lot, weChat friends have also added more than 2,000. In fact, it is not as serious as everyone thinks, and you can continue to sell books online, and you have not done it since then. Zhao Liang, manager of Wild Grass Bookstore, said.
Since the owner did not renew the contract, the clothing store and stationery store in the same basement as The Wild Grass Bookstore at No. 117 also began to clear their warehouses in January 2022, and it took a little effort to find the "Wild Grass" sign with the handwritten notice of "Takedown sale" of other stores on the window with the handwritten notice of "Takedown sale" on a white background.
"Hidden" in the "weeds" in the store sale.
Zhao Liang, 42, has 4 mobile phones, 7 WeChat accounts and more than 50,000 WeChat friends. Before the offline closure of Wild Grass Bookstore, the weChat QR code was posted on the bookstore collection counter for many years, but the WeChat signal has gradually developed from "A Zhao Liang 1" to "A Zhao Liang 7". Every day, Zhao Liang updates more than a dozen pieces of book information in the circle of friends, including book photos, discounted prices and content introductions.
According to Zhao Liang, a considerable number of WeChat friends are teachers and students of Peking University, "many people I can't name, but I recognize them as soon as I look at them, all of them are readers accumulated when they opened stores at Peking University."
Zhao Liang at the Wild Grass Bookstore.
From 2004 to 2017, Wild Grass Bookstore existed for nearly 14 years on the basement floor of Wumart Supermarket on Peking University Campus.
Referring to the "Wumei period" of the wild grass bookstore, Zhang Lijing, a graduate of Peking University in 2013, can recall some details, "At that time, going to the weeds to buy books is a very daily thing, the general process is like this: after noon class, first go to the snack stall in front of the Wumart supermarket to buy a cool skin, and then walk down the stairs to buy something in the life service area, by the way to the weed bookstore in the corner to walk around, see if there are any textbooks and reference books recommended by the teacher in class, usually there is, the price is still very cheap, Each book is tagged with a very thin green label that says a few discounts, and turning them over one by one is like a treasure hunt."
"Cheap is the last word" was once a signboard posted by the Wild Grass Bookstore outside the Wumei store, compared with the "literary and artistic fan" bookstore that emphasizes the atmosphere, the Wild Grass Bookstore only sells humanities and social science books, no coffee area, no cultural creation, and does not pursue the sense of store design, and even the aisle floor is piled with books.
"The books were all collected by my brother-in-law Li Hongguo from the warehouse of the publishing house. He is a college student, and has more than 20 years of experience in book selection, knows some tricks, such as professional bestsellers a few years ago, for various reasons backlogged in the warehouse, the new version is printed, the price of the old version is low, but the content is still very strong, this kind of book can be selected. For example, I don't read much, I am responsible for selling books, and if you ask me which book is in the bookstore and where, I will definitely find it for you. Zhao Liang said.
During the operation period of Peking University, in addition to selling special books, textbooks were also a major business of Wild Grass Bookstore.
"Staying in the school for a long time, slowly you can know what students need, like an unpopular professional book that has been printed for many years, there are more students to ask, we simply contact the publishing house directly to print, and the book can sell two or three hundred copies as soon as it arrives." However, as soon as the bookstore moved, many students were reluctant to go out of school to buy teaching materials, and Weed stopped this business and specialized in special books. Zhao Liang said.
After a failed bid in June 2017, Zhao Liang moved the Wild Grass Bookstore to the basement level of Jintai Supermarket, No. 113 Chengfu Road, near the Dormitory Area of Peking University Teachers. After the lease expired in 2019, Wild Grass Bookstore "moved" to the basement level of 117 Chengfu Road nearby.
"Bookstore moving is a big taboo, once you move, you will lose some customers, insist on staying in Chengfu Road, also because it is close to teachers and students." Zhao Liang said.
Shortly after moving to No. 117 Chengfu Road, the new crown pneumonia epidemic broke out, and the Wild Grass Bookstore began to lose money.
"It has been profitable before, even if you move out of the school, as long as the bookstore is open, it will not be affected much, but when the epidemic came, the bookstore was closed for several months, and even the big signs were torn down from the outside and put in the basement." After the resumption of school, students are out of school, they can't read books as often as in the past, and there is no profit in 2020 and 2021, and the big signs are never put back. Zhao Liang said.
Entering 2022, the owner will not renew the contract, and Zhao Liang can no longer find a house with a suitable rent, so he has to temporarily leave Chengfu Road.
"In the future, when I open a physical bookstore, I still hope to be closer to Peking University." Zhao Liang said.
Source: China Youth Daily client