Wendy and Michael Bumsted of Whodunit? Mystery Bookstore in Winnipeg, Man., fielded five questions from BookNet Canada. Among our favorite exchanges:
What attracted you to bookselling?
Wendy: Bookstores themselves. The way that the spaces become so much more than just a shop, but, when run properly, can become hubs for culture, for connection, and for social change is something that's not unique to bookstores, but is certainly rare to find in other kinds of retail spaces.
Michael: This is not, I must admit, where I expected to find myself. However, there's a beauty in matching customers to books or authors. The feeling of satisfaction that comes from selling a customer a book that you love is great, but it's definitely surpassed by finding a book that's perfect for the customer but might not necessarily be a favorite of yours.
What is the most pressing issue facing bookselling today?
Wendy: Supply chain. Particularly in a smaller store, the tension between not overstocking, or understocking is very real. Even with the advanced data that we collect (or have access to via BookNet), there are still occasions when a book disappears more quickly than we can order it (and we lose sales to other vendors) or a book we thought would do well languishes on our shelves for no clear reason. This is particularly true of books in long-running series, as sometimes the seventh book of a series will fly off the shelf with no particular reason or track record, or the ninth will not go at all. The time that it takes to adjust to these trends, and the time it takes to re-stock when you have a run on a title, is something that we always struggle with.
Michael: Perception. This is probably particularly noticed by us as we have just made the move to expand our store, but nearly every day we have someone who remarks on how surprised they are not just that we still exist, but that we felt it necessary (and possible) to expand. The idea that "young people aren't reading books anymore" or the question "Doesn't everyone just read on their Kindle?" aren't borne out in our experience in the shop, where our customers are getting younger and a fair number of our older customers who eschewed us for digital have come back to reading paper books for a variety of reasons.