During the holiday season, Harry W. Schwartz Bookshops' buyers and corporate staff work in the company's five stores in and
around Milwaukee, Wis., both weekends and weekdays with at least one shift in each
store. Not only is it reinforcement for harried store managers, said
v-p and COO
Mary Catherine McCarthy, "it makes us much smarter in the office. We can actually see
what's selling."
One strong performer is This I Believe: The Personal Philosophies of Remarkable Men and Women, a collection of essays based on the NPR series of the same name. "It's one we've been chasing," McCarthy said. Amy Sedaris' I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence is also doing well. "I think she's funny," she said. "It just never struck me this book would really take off like that."
Popular pictorial tomes include A Photographer's Life: 1990-2005 by Annie Leibovitz, Bird Songs: 250 North American Birds in Song by Les Beletsky and Monkey Portraits by Jill Greenberg. Monkey Portraits, noted McCarthy, is another title Schwartz has had difficulty keeping in stock, and Schwartz is out of Bird Songs. The run on these two books may be due to McCarthy's recurring appearances on local radio.
The second Friday of every month, McCarthy shares reading suggestions on the Milwaukee Public Radio show "Lake Effect." Along with the Greenberg and Beletsky titles, other gift-giving picks she recommended on-air this month were The Intellectual Devotional: Revive Your Mind, Complete Your Education, and Roam Confidently with the Cultured Class; Don Winslow's thriller The Winter of Frankie Machine; Roger Angell's autobiographical essay collection, Let Me Finish; and the novels The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield and Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen.
[To listen to McCarthy's segment on Milwaukee Public Radio, click here. She shares gift suggestions for children, college kids, history buffs, mystery fans and reveals who she thinks in the funniest writer at work today.]
Monkey Portraits has garnered a following among Schwartz booksellers, as has The Thirteenth Tale. "I love the idea that the main character is a bookseller," McCarthy told the radio show's listeners about Setterfield's tale. Another favorite read of McCarthy's is Water for Elephants, which she described as "gloriously written . . . It's such a pleasure to put this in people's hands."
A Schwartz initiative this year resulted from a conversation McCarthy had with friend and fellow bookseller Roxanne Coady of R.J. Julia in Madison, Conn.--giving the store's gift guide prominent placement on the company's Web site. "The amount of merchandise we've sold online because people have been looking at our gift guide is incredible," said McCarthy. "What we normally sell online are autographed books."
Two themed packages created by Schwartz are featured in the gift guide and sold both online and in stores. A copy of The Night Before Christmas is paired with Gund's Storytime Bear; the critter is holding a miniature copy of the classic in its paws. The book and bear are discounted and packaged in a festively decorated box. The second assortment contains the 2007 Car Talk Calendar, the Car Talk Road Trip Journal and Maintenance Log, a Car Talk CD, and coasters for use in automobile cup holders.
For the past several years, Schwartz has discounted children's hardcover titles 20% from Thanksgiving to December 31. "It's a huge thing for us," McCarthy said. The End by Lemony Snicket, Cookies: Bite-Size Life Lessons by Amy Krouse Rosenthal, Tails by Matthew Van Fleet, Flotsam by David Wiesner and Pirateology: The Pirate Hunter's Companion are some of the leading kids' books. But the biggest holiday seller for the younger set is Dori Mae and Her Friend Billie by Wisconsin author Doris Alaimo-Melillo. "We're selling that like crazy," McCarthy said. "It's our one really big local book this season." The story is based on a radio character, Billie the Brownie, who debuted in 1931 and for more than 20 years read Midwesterners' Dear Santa letters on the air.
Penguin mania has taken hold of Schwartz customers, and the main draw is a three-foot-high stuffed bird from toy manufacturer Melissa & Doug. "We can't keep them in stock," said McCarthy, who was expecting another shipment of 50 stuffed penguins this week. For grown-ups, the Pride and Prejudice and A Christmas Carol board games are favorite choices.
December sales are on target, noted McCarthy, following a somewhat soft November. The next few days are crucial, she added, but the Schwartz stores are also gearing up for a post-Christmas onslaught. "It's a very good week for us, and it gets stronger every year," McCarthy said. "I think the big reason is because our gift card business continues to grow." One example is the customer who purchased 540 gift cards at $25 each (to distribute to employees at a local hospital), most of which McCarthy expects will be redeemed the week between Christmas and New Year's. "That week now is really in some ways more critical than the first week in December," she added. The company sells Book Sense gift cards branded with the Harry W. Schwartz logo, 99.9% of which are redeemed at Schwartz stores rather than at other independent bookstores.
Working on the sales floor the last few days, McCarthy observed that shoppers appear to be less frenzied than in prior years, perhaps due to the day before Christmas falling on a Saturday and allowing some breathing room for last-minute shopping--or to the unseasonably warm Wisconsin weather. "If people stop shopping tomorrow, we're in trouble, but it doesn't appear they will," said McCarthy. "It has been an unusually pleasant Christmas."--Shannon McKenna
One strong performer is This I Believe: The Personal Philosophies of Remarkable Men and Women, a collection of essays based on the NPR series of the same name. "It's one we've been chasing," McCarthy said. Amy Sedaris' I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence is also doing well. "I think she's funny," she said. "It just never struck me this book would really take off like that."
Popular pictorial tomes include A Photographer's Life: 1990-2005 by Annie Leibovitz, Bird Songs: 250 North American Birds in Song by Les Beletsky and Monkey Portraits by Jill Greenberg. Monkey Portraits, noted McCarthy, is another title Schwartz has had difficulty keeping in stock, and Schwartz is out of Bird Songs. The run on these two books may be due to McCarthy's recurring appearances on local radio.
The second Friday of every month, McCarthy shares reading suggestions on the Milwaukee Public Radio show "Lake Effect." Along with the Greenberg and Beletsky titles, other gift-giving picks she recommended on-air this month were The Intellectual Devotional: Revive Your Mind, Complete Your Education, and Roam Confidently with the Cultured Class; Don Winslow's thriller The Winter of Frankie Machine; Roger Angell's autobiographical essay collection, Let Me Finish; and the novels The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield and Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen.
[To listen to McCarthy's segment on Milwaukee Public Radio, click here. She shares gift suggestions for children, college kids, history buffs, mystery fans and reveals who she thinks in the funniest writer at work today.]
Monkey Portraits has garnered a following among Schwartz booksellers, as has The Thirteenth Tale. "I love the idea that the main character is a bookseller," McCarthy told the radio show's listeners about Setterfield's tale. Another favorite read of McCarthy's is Water for Elephants, which she described as "gloriously written . . . It's such a pleasure to put this in people's hands."
A Schwartz initiative this year resulted from a conversation McCarthy had with friend and fellow bookseller Roxanne Coady of R.J. Julia in Madison, Conn.--giving the store's gift guide prominent placement on the company's Web site. "The amount of merchandise we've sold online because people have been looking at our gift guide is incredible," said McCarthy. "What we normally sell online are autographed books."
Two themed packages created by Schwartz are featured in the gift guide and sold both online and in stores. A copy of The Night Before Christmas is paired with Gund's Storytime Bear; the critter is holding a miniature copy of the classic in its paws. The book and bear are discounted and packaged in a festively decorated box. The second assortment contains the 2007 Car Talk Calendar, the Car Talk Road Trip Journal and Maintenance Log, a Car Talk CD, and coasters for use in automobile cup holders.
For the past several years, Schwartz has discounted children's hardcover titles 20% from Thanksgiving to December 31. "It's a huge thing for us," McCarthy said. The End by Lemony Snicket, Cookies: Bite-Size Life Lessons by Amy Krouse Rosenthal, Tails by Matthew Van Fleet, Flotsam by David Wiesner and Pirateology: The Pirate Hunter's Companion are some of the leading kids' books. But the biggest holiday seller for the younger set is Dori Mae and Her Friend Billie by Wisconsin author Doris Alaimo-Melillo. "We're selling that like crazy," McCarthy said. "It's our one really big local book this season." The story is based on a radio character, Billie the Brownie, who debuted in 1931 and for more than 20 years read Midwesterners' Dear Santa letters on the air.
Penguin mania has taken hold of Schwartz customers, and the main draw is a three-foot-high stuffed bird from toy manufacturer Melissa & Doug. "We can't keep them in stock," said McCarthy, who was expecting another shipment of 50 stuffed penguins this week. For grown-ups, the Pride and Prejudice and A Christmas Carol board games are favorite choices.
December sales are on target, noted McCarthy, following a somewhat soft November. The next few days are crucial, she added, but the Schwartz stores are also gearing up for a post-Christmas onslaught. "It's a very good week for us, and it gets stronger every year," McCarthy said. "I think the big reason is because our gift card business continues to grow." One example is the customer who purchased 540 gift cards at $25 each (to distribute to employees at a local hospital), most of which McCarthy expects will be redeemed the week between Christmas and New Year's. "That week now is really in some ways more critical than the first week in December," she added. The company sells Book Sense gift cards branded with the Harry W. Schwartz logo, 99.9% of which are redeemed at Schwartz stores rather than at other independent bookstores.
Working on the sales floor the last few days, McCarthy observed that shoppers appear to be less frenzied than in prior years, perhaps due to the day before Christmas falling on a Saturday and allowing some breathing room for last-minute shopping--or to the unseasonably warm Wisconsin weather. "If people stop shopping tomorrow, we're in trouble, but it doesn't appear they will," said McCarthy. "It has been an unusually pleasant Christmas."--Shannon McKenna