We live in a strange world—such a beautiful, lifelong book that we can have at the cost of watching a movie.
- "84 Charing Cross Street"
Wen / Ba Jiu Ling
When school started, many parents were relieved: they could finally send the Chaos Demon King away at home and let themselves be relieved for a while.
In the more than two months before that, many parents who wanted to get a moment of freedom would choose to "store" their babies in a safe place - Xinhua Bookstore.
In the summer, parents take their children to Xinhua Bookstore to study
Xiaoba was not less "stored" when he was a child, but he was still very happy in Xinhua Bookstore, with books to read, cool and cool, many friends, and he could also come into contact with novel literary (wán) utensils.
However, it is strange to say that everyone has been soaking in Xinhua Bookstore for two months, but there are not many people who really buy books, and even if they buy, they will not buy many.
Over time, many people have buried a question in their minds: Xinhua Bookstore air conditioning is free, it doesn't look like much business, many customers still only look at it and can't buy, why has it not closed down for so many years?
Today, the minibus will talk about this topic with everyone.
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In the eyes of many people, Xinhua Bookstore is a retail book store. But in fact, Xinhua Bookstore is a sales network.
Today's Xinhua Bookstore is an enterprise in terms of attributes, but it is born out of a public institution. During the Liberation War, every time the People's Liberation Army liberated a city, it would first open four major units:
Banks: Stabilize finances, protect the safety of people's property, and maintain production
Supply and marketing cooperatives: provide grain, oil and food to ensure people's livelihood
Post Office: Ensure communication between regions
Xinhua Bookstore: Establish a propaganda position and spread revolutionary ideas
This means that Xinhua Bookstore has a supply chain that can cover the whole country very early. Don't underestimate this, Mo said that before the reform and opening up, that is, after the reform and opening up, there are not many enterprises that can have this strength.
In September 1939, Mao Zedong wrote an inscription for Xinhua Bookstore when the store outside the North Gate of Yan'an was opened (Source: Documentary "Xinhua Bookstore")
With such a large network covering the whole country, Xinhua Bookstore naturally occupies a dominant position in the national book distribution business and has a very strong voice in the entire book industry chain.
Suppose a publishing house publishes a version of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", priced at 50 yuan, printed 100,000 copies, and wants to sell it in Xinhua Bookstore, how much can the purchase price talk about?
It is about a 60% discount on the pricing, that is, Xinhua Bookstore buys it at a price of 30 yuan, and then sells it exactly according to the pricing, and each book sold can earn 20 yuan, and the gross profit margin reaches 40%.
So what if the book is not popular with the market and only sells 10,000 copies? Didn't Xinhua Bookstore lose money?
The answer is: 90,000 unsold copies are returned by Xinhua Bookstore to the publishing house at the purchase price – this is called consignment. Moreover, Xinhua Bookstore does not even have to give money and then take the goods, but first take the goods to sell, and settle once in two or three months, see how many books are sold in this cycle, and pay according to the sales volume.
This settlement system makes the seller (Xinhua Bookstore) completely get rid of the inventory risk, but the pressure on the producer (publishing house) increases sharply, which is almost unimaginable in other industries, but the book industry has its own uniqueness:
◎ First, the book has no shelf life, in theory, the book returned by Xinhua Bookstore to the publishing house, or the book at the time of leaving the factory, has not become a second-hand book;
◎ Second, the channel position of Xinhua Bookstore is too strong, and the vast majority of books want to be sold on a large scale, and it is impossible to ignore Xinhua Bookstore.
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Some people will say that there is not only one channel in the market, Xinhua Bookstore, and now that the network channel is so developed, who is willing to buy books at the original price offline? Even if Xinhua Bookstore does not have inventory risk, what about store operating expenses? What about personnel salaries? If sales do not work, how can they be maintained?
The answers to these questions are still hidden in the history of Xinhua Bookstore.
Because Xinhua Bookstore was originally a public institution and related to national stability, its store construction belongs to the construction of public infrastructure, which is located in the core area of the city. Most of these stores have remained in existence for decades.
Small counties do not need to be mentioned, even large cities with little land. Beijing Wangfujing, Shanghai People's Square, Nanjing Xinjiekou, Hangzhou Yan'an Road... All of them are Xinhua Bookstores, and all of them have their own property rights.
In 1951, people lined up in front of the Xinhua Bookstore in Wangfujing to buy books
That is to say, for Xinhua Bookstore, the rent of the store with the heaviest proportion of operating costs is 0, or even negative.
For example, there is a Starbucks at Phoenix Book City on Hunan Road in Nanjing, adjacent to the entrance to the Book City. It seems that everyone is opening the door to do business, you sell books, I sell coffee, and the unit price is also half a pound. But Book City collects rent, and Starbucks pays rent.
Sure enough, the joys and sorrows of the world are not the same.
Therefore, in big cities, even if the customers are all dime-high and just want to come to read books for free and rub the air conditioner, Xinhua Bookstore will not lose money.
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In some economically underdeveloped areas, it is difficult for Xinhua Bookstore to make enough profits by selling books, and the rental income is not much, but will this affect the normal operation of local Xinhua Bookstore?
Still not, because Xinhua Bookstore also has a very important income - the distribution of teaching materials and auxiliary materials in the compulsory education stage.
In the past, the distribution of teaching materials and auxiliary materials was contracted by Xinhua Bookstore. Later, although the state liberalized the industry's access and allowed private booksellers to enter the market through bidding and bidding, increasing competition a little, the leading position of Xinhua Bookstore has long been difficult to shake.
Xinhua Bookstore in Sichuan Province is a subsidiary of Xinhua Wenxuan, an A-share listed company. From its public financial report, we can see how high the proportion of the distribution business of teaching materials and auxiliaries is.
In addition to the difference in quantity, there is also a difference in gross margin.
In fiscal 2020, the gross profit margin of Xinhua Wenxuan's textbook teaching and auxiliary distribution business was 41.55%, compared with the gross profit margin of the retail business of 33.87%, and the gross profit margin of the Internet sales business was only 13.34%.
This is certainly not because teaching aids are more expensive than regular books — in fact, the price of chinese teaching aids has always been known for being cheap — but because the input-output ratio of the business is very high.
Teaching materials are sent directly to the school, the school can also help collect money, distribution, teaching aids do not need to advertise to find customers, customers themselves will find the door, and usually within a few days of school to sell almost, the inventory space occupies very small.
Xinhua Bookstore textbook warehouse staff in the classification of textbooks
Therefore, some shareholders commented that this business is "picking up money".
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There is a strong right to speak in the industrial chain, there is its own property rights paving in the prime location, and it also firmly controls the business of drought and flood protection, these three characteristics make Xinhua Bookstore have the confidence to make steady profits. Even in the face of the price war impact of Internet booksellers such as Dangdang.com, its revenue is as stable as Taishan.
However, the conditions that are too favorable also give rise to new problems.
A few years ago, the managers of Xinhua bookstores in some places found:
Since stores make the same money selling books, why do they have to sell books? Simply rent all the stores to Starbucks, is it not good to lie down and collect rent?
As a result, Xinhua Bookstore in some places has really done just that. Smaller stores are closed, and larger stores only keep a small area to sell books, and the rest of the area is rented.
The bar counter at the entrance of a Xinhua bookstore in Beijing
This behavior was quickly reprimanded by the competent authorities:
Although Xinhua Bookstore has been reorganized into a self-financing enterprise, it must not forget its cultural responsibilities and its identity as a propaganda position.
Moreover, even from the perspective of the market, it is unwise not to open a bookstore and become a "charter wife". The truth is to be found in private bookstores.
Private bookstores such as Yanjiyou, Fangsuo, Zhong Shuge, Sisyphus, and One Direction Space have been expanding in recent years, and it is now very difficult to find a shopping mall that does not open a bookstore. Are the books in these bookstores expensive enough that the profits can cover the expensive mall rents?
Of course not. The truth is that shopping malls provide targeted support policies in order to attract bookstores to settle in, and according to media reports, in mature commercial real estate projects in Beijing, bookstore rents are only one-third of that of catering tenants on the same floor. Shopping malls are interested in the cultural temperament of bookstores and the popularity they can bring.
The most typical example is the Fangsuo Bookstore in Taikoo Hui in Guangzhou. Before the opening of Fangsuo Bookstore, the general public thought that the goods sold in Taikoo Hui were luxury goods, too "tall" and did not want to be close. After the opening of Fangsuo, the passenger flow of Taikoo Hui has increased every year, and once it has become an Internet celebrity punching point in Guangzhou, and you can't say that you have been to Guangzhou without going to Fangsuo.
Guangzhou Fangsuo Bookstore is full of people
This is the value of the bookstore, and it is also worth thinking about Xinhua Bookstore.
In the past, Xinhua Bookstore was bound to books and illuminated the life path of many people with books. Today, Xinhua Bookstore must keep up with the changes of the times and turn to be bound to reading and culture.
It is worth remembering that this road to transformation is not easy and simple. Enterprises that were brilliant in the old era want to adapt to the new era, and there are quite a few challenges in terms of talent reserves and management experience.
It is gratifying that Xinhua bookstores in some places have made progress. It is not that it must be renovated like a private bookstore and become an Internet celebrity landmark, but it is said that we must find a way to integrate into people's lifestyles.
Sometimes, even if you just set up a reading area and provide a few chairs, you can also feel the temperature and culture of the bookstore.
Resources:
1. Although Xinhua Bookstore can also be an Internet celebrity, it really doesn't care
2. There are no discounts and not many people buy books, so why hasn't Xinhua Bookstore closed yet? This has to start with Yan'an
Author | Link | When the value is edited | Li Mengqing
Responsible Editor | He Mengfei | Editor-in-Chief | Zheng Yuanmei