Jimu news reporter Xu Ying
Borges once said, "If there is a heaven, it should be like a library." "For a bookstore that holds the feelings of readers, it should be the same." Bai Yansong, a famous host of CCTV, also said a memorable sentence when he came to Wuhan Optics Valley Book City 6 years ago, "It is difficult to imagine what it would be like if a city only had high-rise buildings and shopping malls, but no bookstores." ”
Bookstores are recognized as a small-profit industry that needs the support of the whole society, especially after the test of the epidemic, the news of the closure of a number of bookstores has fiercely stimulated the nerves of book lovers. In the face of difficult competition, the market reshuffled: on the one hand, from 2020, Wenhua Book City closed the Han Street store, Wuwai Bookstore closed the Hankou store, Wuhan Optics Valley Book City closed its doors and other news frequently, making book lovers regret; on the other hand, some bookstores played a "group combination fist", deep integration with shopping malls, parks, or the cooperation of official institutions, libraries and other departments for the whole people to continuously expand their territory.
The first "black label store" in Central China, Sisyphus, landed in Wuhan and is also the 345th store in the country
On October 29, Sisyphus Bookstore's first "black label store" in central China settled on the basement floor of Wuhan Mall, which is the 10th store opened by Sisyphus Bookstore in Wuhan in recent years; on October 26, Hubei Xinhua Bookstore opened a new "Double Reading Bookstore" campus store in the Nanhu Campus of Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, which is the eighth campus store opened by Xinhua Bookstore in recent years; Wuhan "Shijianlu Bookstore" has also gained momentum in recent years, following the first store in Ma'anshan Forest Park in East Lake, and in Hankou Jiefang Park. The DSM Shopping Center on Zhongnan Road and the community on Hanyang Fangcao Road have been lined up, and new stores have opened this year.
On the morning of October 29, jimu news reporters walked into the Sisyphus bookstore and felt full of emotions and leisure.
A brief opening ceremony was held on site. Flowers, books, champagne, coffee, desserts, in the 880 square meters of bookstore space, exude the atmosphere of literature and art. The reporter saw that when a female reader walked into the storefront, the clerk wearing a strap apron immediately stepped forward to recommend a book list for her, and opened the new book to introduce the content for her.
The reporter learned that the bookstore has 25,000 kinds of books on the shelves, mainly children's, life, art, social science, and management. In the coffee leisure area, people from the business, publishing and bookstore industries who came to participate in the opening ceremony sat in the coffee area, ordered a cup of coffee, and discussed the idea of holding a cultural event.
This store is also the 345th offline chain bookstore in Sisyphus, according to the positioning of commercial entities in different cities, Sisyphus branch has refined the standard line (black label / green label / red label), theme line, customized line three major store-type product lines. This black label bookstore, the only one in Wuhan and the only black label store in central China, is positioned as a high-end city, nearly twice as large as other green label and red label bookstores in Sisyphus, and the coffee leisure area, meeting the reading and leisure needs of white-collar workers in Wuhan. Ms. Shi Weihua, general manager of the commercial center of Sisyphus Bookstore, told reporters.
Compared with the green label shop featuring dark green decoration and the red label store featuring red decoration, the decoration style of the black label shop is mainly high-end pure black. Some readers said that because of these unique decoration styles, Sisyphus Bookstore has a recognizable degree and has become an Internet celebrity punch card.
The reporter learned that such a recognizable decoration style originated from the standardized production line of Sisyphus Bookstore, assembling a new bookstore, and the shortest time can be completed in just a few days.
Sisyphus shares successful experiences, and the development of bookstores must also conform to the development of the market
Survival is difficult, years of losses, inability to support high rents... This is the most heard by reporters from bookstore practitioners. But since Sisyphus First Entered Wuhan in 2015, the bookstore has bucked the trend, and the first store opened in Wuhan at that time was the 32nd branch of Sisyphus in the country; in just 6 years, Sisyphus has opened 345 stores across the country.
When Sisyphus first entered Wuhan, the bookstore manager once told reporters that the name "Sisyphus" originated from "Greek Mythology" - the god punished the King of Corinth, Sisyphus, for pushing a boulder to a steep mountaintop, which always rolled down when it reached the top, but Sisyphus would still try to push it up again and again. This moving story is also like a metaphor for the bookstore people.
With what strength and angle can you push this boulder a little higher? Shi Weihua shared their successful experience with reporters. "From the business model, we only choose to cooperate with commercial centers at present, and the development of any brand is based on the market, and the development of bookstores must also conform to the development of the market." In the past, our way of consumption was to go to the mall to buy clothes, go to the vegetable market to buy vegetables, go to the cinema to see movies, and now people are going to large shopping malls to solve one-stop solutions to eat, wear and entertain. Based on business change, Sisyphus chose such a strategy. ”
Shi Weihua said that after more than ten years of research and exploration, Sisyphus has today's more mature bookstore business model, and there have been many difficulties in this process, "For example, commercial centers need to consider rental returns, and the reading market is still in the cultivation period, so many large areas of stores are the most efficient? Through our attempts, we found that the store efficiency of 480 square meters to 520 square meters is the highest, and the bookstore operation is mainly three: books account for 75%, coffee accounts for 20%, and cultural creativity accounts for 5%. As for the selection of books, there is a team of more than 40 "buyers" who are doing this, and they will also do some research on reading topics, directly purchase from hundreds of publishing houses across the country, and share writer resources to achieve a win-win situation.
Xinhua Bookstore extends the reading tentacles of the whole people to universities and communities
On the afternoon of October 29, after the reporter interviewed the Sisyphus Black Label Store in Hankou Wushang Mall, he rushed to the "Double Reading" Campus Store of Xinhua Bookstore in Hubei Province at the Nanhu Campus of Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, and saw a completely different style.
Unlike Sisyphus settled in a large shopping mall, providing cultural formats for shopping malls, so as to obtain low rent support from shopping malls, the overall commercial style; "Double Reading" campus store settled in colleges and universities, Zhongnan Caida Nanhu store is under the student dormitory, serving college students, bookstores have convenience stores, fast food, drinks, tables and chairs, etc., many students with computers, reading and writing homework in front of the seat, such as bookstores are also like a small library.
The "Double Reading" campus store, which opened on October 26, is the eighth "Double Reading" campus store built by Xinhua Bookstore in Hubei Province.
Guo Bingcheng, the relevant person in charge of the operation department of Xinhua Bookstore in Hubei Province, said in an interview with reporters that the construction of the "Double Reading" campus store is one of the important measures for the innovative development of the provincial Xinhua Bookstore, as a state-owned enterprise, the Provincial Xinhua Bookstore bears the responsibility of promoting reading for the whole people, the bookstore is currently in a state of loss, and the group uses other businesses to subsidize the bookstore business. The reporter learned that through cooperation with the Hubei Provincial Reading Office for All, Hubei Provincial Library and other departments, the bookstore business has also been expanded.
On October 29th, it was the first day of the "You Choose Books, I Pay" activity held by Xinhua Bookstore in Hubei Province and Hubei Provincial Library. Readers only need to hold their valid identity documents, go to the designated bookstore to select the books they want, hand them to the bookstore staff, handle the borrowing procedures, and return the books at the borrowing store within 30 days, and the returned books will be paid by the Hubei Provincial Library and included in the collection.
The relevant person in charge of the organizer of the event said that for the library, the bookstore readers were mobilized to "recommend books" for the library and enrich the library collection; for the bookstore, the book business was increased; for the readers, they enjoyed the dividends of the government's promotion of reading.
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