As soon as the stock is received in our receiving department and the bill checked, each book is plainly marked with the selling price and date when received. Our label is pasted in the inside back cover. This is quite a lot of work considering the quantity of books received daily. But it pays in the long run. The price mark saves many trips to the catalogs and consequent delay. And as for the label, there is no better advertisement than a label in a book.

The next process is to classify the books and distribute them to the various departments. This must be carefully done as it is not always easy to classify certain books properly. After the books are distributed to the different departments the clerk in charge of that department is made responsible for that stock. He makes out a card with the name of the book, author, publisher, price and number of copies received. When the stock of that book begins to run low the clerk marks the number of copies on hand and turns the card over to the buyer, who in his turn marks the quantity of the reorder and sends the card back to the clerk in charge of the book. In this way a constant check is kept of stock and the buyer can learn at a glance the time elapsed between one purchase and another.

The person in charge of classifying also puts aside one copy of all new books. Two cards records are made of each book, one under author and the other under title together with the date of arrival and its classification. This makes it easy for anyone to find out if a book is already published and in what department it can be found. A copy of each new book is also placed in what we call the "New Book Shelf" so that everyone can easily familiarize himself with the new publications. Many customers make this shelf their first stop.

Before Christmas we make some exceptions with books that are more or less of a holiday nature and put them in conspicuous places regardless of subject. In this category falls the so called Gift Books which fortunately are going out of favor. But there are still some people left who consider certain books not to be bought for reading but to be given awav. This, probably, is why so many inscribed hooks are to be found in the second-hand shops.

3. Advertising

We do a good deal of advertising by mail. We generally choose a book that retails for about five dollars and circularize customers that are specially interested in the subject of that book. To show what can be done with mail advertising we can best illustrate

with one striking example of a successful mail order campaign last year of a book that was generally considered a failure. We sold 1150 copies by mail before the book was published, while the store sales did not reach half the mail order totals. The possibilities of selling books by mail have not even been touched.

In the newspapers we advertise only our service which is very effective, altho it is hard to check back, as no direct results can be traced to such advertising.

In Brentano's Book Chat we have, perhaps, our most valuable mail advertising medium. It reaches 85,000 readers, most of whose names were taken from our files. With the coming issue Brentano's Book Chat will go on a subscription basis, at fifty cents a year.

Besides Book Chat we also use the Christmas Bulletin and the Christmas Bookshelf. Some people are so accustomed to these stand-bys that they cannot do their Christmas shopping unless they see the books advertised in these special catalogs.

Now we come to window displays. We have found that altogether too much attention is paid to fiction. And as our window space is limited we have learned from experience that the windows which bring the best results are those that display a group of books on one subject. Art books always make a handsome display which attracts a great deal of attention. Another profitable display can be made with books on business. The field of business books is growing greatly and we always get good results from such a display.

During November and December we utilize our window space with books that can be classed as gift books-illustrated booksbiographies-travel books and children's

books.

Children's Book Week coming the second week in November makes it very convenient for us to start our Christmas displays. Somehow, no window display can be made so attractive as one filled with juveniles. They are just bright and colorful enough, and of good sizes to make a brilliant show. And very often we have customers coming to our store to buy the books for Christmas which they saw in our window during Children's Book Week.

Frequently we tie up our window display with a large display in the very front of the store, with very good results. It never pays to displav dead stock in the front of the store. The publishers are spending lots of money advertising their new books. Why not tie up that advertising with a display where all custome“ can see it?

4 Extra Help

Obtaining additional help for the Christmas season is a very important problem. Naturally enough temporary employees are not as efficient as those that are permanent. The person who wants a temporary job is either an inferior worker who cannot keep a permanent situation or, one who does not need to work but wants to earn a little extra money. Consequently, it is important to choose carefully from the many applicants.

Altho we increase our staff in all departments during the pre-Christmas season, we pay most attention to those we put on our selling force, as they come in direct contact with customers. Often the new employees will blunder for lack of familiarity with the stock but gentle guidance and a little patience on the part of the older employees will benefit the business generally. Since temporary help is a necessary evil, it is urgent to make the best of it. Frequently,

however, we find one or two of the extras who show real ability. These we invariably retain, as in a large establishment some one of the permanent staff must be replaced for one reason or another.

5. Selling

Methods of selling are even more individual than buying. Not only does each store have its own methods, but one salesman's method is different from another. We encourage individuality to its fullest extent. That is how we are able to handle the variety of customers we have. The subject of selling, however, is too big to be handled thoroly in the small space allotted here.

Now that we have bought the stock and displayed it to its best advantage and increased the staff to handle the rush, the advertising all in the mail and the "Please take small packages with you" sign conspicuously placed thruout the store (it seldom helps), the curtain may be rung up on the big show.

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HERE are at least three kinds of stores where merchandising of books is the principal object: the very large and painfully commercial store in which the purchaser is greeted by a seventeen year old girl who asks, "Something for you?", the large but wholly pleasing store where the clerks know their business, and the small store that is generally called a shop where the clerk's greeting is simply, "How do you do?"

The small store is usually opened by a person more interested in books than in merchandise, and that is sad for himself and the publishers alike, for he will have learned nothing of bookkeeping, and nothing of the methods of the larger retail stores. It takes him a long while to understand that a cash register and a bookkeeping system actually save him money.

Kilmarnock Books is of this latter kind. It was started, three years ago, on the principle that at least two bookstores could exist in a city the size of St. Paul. There was no thought of competition; the principal object was the establishment of 2 place where

people could come, sit, talk and-it was to be hoped-buy books.

The scene was a large room on the second floor of an office building, and inside were two walls lined with books, a few comfortable chairs, a fancy book trough that could be wheeled about, and a bright navajo rug on the floor. One partner being a maker of etchings and the other a writer-no matter how indifferent-it was thought that their friends, at least, would climb a flight of stairs whenever those friends were impelled to buy a book.

It was a magnificent success. The friends came, they sat, they talked, they even went so far as to serve tea-but very few of them bought books. And soon the bright idea seemed to have faded as bright ideas usually do. So one of us said to the other: "Here, we haven't sold enough books even to pay the rent. It's so dull up here I have to stick myself to keep from going to sleep." The friends had come until the novelty was no more and then they stayed away.

That fall we moved. It wasn't much of a job. The books and shelves were loaded on a wagon and hauled to the new quarters, a sixty by forty room on the main floor of another office building. It was the book

buying season, and a few strange faces came in now and then. Sometimes, even our friends came, to say "Hello" and to observe whether we had gone bankrupt yet. We hadn't: we had determined not to, altho that determination often weakened when a customer, naturally irascible, would com

Miss So and So, the school teacher, did not like "Winesburg, Ohio," and we were mystified to know why Mr. This and That, who wrote letters to the papers about Americanism, did not like "Prejudices." Somehow, they never came back to give us another chance.

plain that his bill, for the third time, was too much, and walk huffily out of the store.

The next fall we moved again, this time to a much larger place. It was part of the old Minnesota Club and there was an immense window in which to display our wares. There also were four rooms: one for current books, one for children's books, one for fine bindings and one for an office. But what was more important than our moving was our purchase of a cash register, and what was equally necessary was the hiring of a bookkeeper. From morning till night on Thanksgiving day we worked at moving.

Here, our plans somewhat changed. Until this time we had handled only those books that we believed to be fairly good. We sold, say two hundred copies of "My Antonia" to five copies of a more popular author. We sold Dreiser, Mencken, Anderson, not their latest books but some that had been published much earlier, saving "Oh, haven't you read that? It's great. We were very priggish. We wondered why

But in this new place, along with our cash register and bookkeeper, we acquired better sense. We bought books of which we were not particularly fond. We had observed that there were all kinds of people and that it was stupid to try to make a person like a book, to thrust it down his throat. "To the devil with atmosphere," we told each other; "When Mr. Jones asks if the new Zane Grey is good as his latest, tell him 'yes.'" You see we had discovered that if we said we didn't think much of a book that was popular the prospective customer would simply walk out and buy it somewhere else. And we didn't have any more teas. We didn't make any more mistakes with our bills, not so many at any rate.

That fall and that winter we sold twice as many books as we had sold in the other place from which we had just moved. Fewer people came in to pass the afternoon than those that came in and went out soon, with a book or two. Scott Fitzgerald used to come in and say, "Well, you're getting a little

sense. It looks like a regular place of business." Carl Sandburg, whenever he was in town, would look around at the neatly arranged books and tell us that if we didn't look out we would have a pretty good store soon. Sinclair Lewis informed us: "It looks as if you were selling books now." And that is what the salesmen, who, by the way, had counselled the move from the beginning, said to us. "Yes," we said, "but it isn't exactly as it was when we started out; we thought to sell only good books, books that we liked."

The next fall the cash register began to get warm as early as September. And it kept growing hotter until the Christmas season was finished. During the holidays we had a staff of seven, only two more clerks than we regularly employed. We had all sorts of books: Harold Bell Wright, A. S. M. Hutchinson, Peter B. Kyne, the

buy books. And these letters were congratulatory, they spoke of our having supplied the Northwest with something it had always needed, an "intimate" bookshop. The letters spoke approvingly of "our atmosphere."

And now our friends come back again when they want to buy books.

For those readers interested in the facts of the case, I append the following data:

Kilmarnock Books was opened on the 15th of September, 1921, by Cornelius Van Ness and Thomas Boyd. It required three years for it to reach its present elegant and commodious position. Here, only books are carried, in spite of the fact that we were told thousands of times that bookstores could not exist without handling stationery, pencils, pens, ink, rubber tires, sofa cushions, antiques, shoe horns and tea cosies as side lines. It has several gay rugs on the floor,

Emily Post Book of Etiquette, and what's more we sold and reordered them.

We were a little ashamed of ourselves. Who in thunderation had bought all of those books on etiquette, and that silly, ephemeral Auto-suggestion of Coué? It was terrible. And then we began to get letters from customers, from people who had read our monthly pamphlet on current books, from people who had come in the store to

several chairs and reading lamps. Some months ago the two proprietors became so weary of fending off questions about the meaning of the store's name that they got hold of Mr. James A. Gordon. He is the active store manager while the proprietors do the heavy looking on. One of the owners made a resolve not long ago to keep the store going forever tho the heavens should fall.

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NE difference between a good and a poor location is the fact that in a poor location the limit of the market is more easily reached and therefore does not adapt itself to an intensive use. while the good location does lend itself to intensive use and, indeed, the increase in rent may demand such use. One of the first steps in putting a good location to intensive use is the erection of a suitable building. On account of the fact, however, that most of our retail districts are already built up, such new construction is not always possible. It then behooves the merchant to examine the prospective building to see whether it is adaptable to an intensive use whether there detrimental features about it.

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of the business and also the availability of land or buildings to satisfy these needs should be examined, remembering the additional space that might be obtained by the use of a basement or upper floors. These parts of the stores, however, have the objection that it may be more difficult to get people to go there.

Factors pertaining to the interior that are worthy of consideration are: Location of stairways and elevators, departmental com

The frontage of the building adds to its value in giving width to the store and available space for window display, both of which facilitate the advertising of the merchandise to the passing public. The exterior design of the windows and entrance are important. Store fronts are subject to fashion, and hence the structure of the building should be such as to permit easy and economical changes in this respect. Stores require an entrance that will not be easily blocked, and, as a rule, steps either up or down are a disadvantage. There is room for much investigation as to the proper position of entrances into a building, especially when the building is on a corner or occupies a whole block.

Some value may be attached to the construction of a building so that it harmonizes with the ideals of its particular line of business and the particular kind of trade that is desired. Distinctiveness helps to attract attention. The construction of the building in its relation to fire risks is important. Investigation should be made as to the material used in construction and as to the convenience of installations such as fire sprinklers and plumbing. The future needs

municating possibilities, heating, lighting and ventilation. Heating and ventilation are important not only in their relation to customers but also in their effect upon employees. In a building that is poorly ventilated, the clerks are likely to become drowsy and inefficient. Lighting is important in the proper display of goods.

Various costs of the building are to be considered. If the building is purchased, there is the question of the initial outlay of capital. Then, in addition, there are the various carrying charges of taxes, water assessments, probable repairs, insurance against fire, broken windows, water damage, etc.

If the building is rented, there is always the question as to whether a building with a cheaper rental price would not yield more profit. In this connection it is well to remember that profits may be made either by adding large margins to the costs or by turning the stock often on narrower margins. It is the possibility of making few sales at a large profit or many sales at a minimum profit that gives a store site a high value.

Consideration should be given the protective features of the building. Is the police patrol satisfactory? Is the building exposed to fire hazards, either internal or external? What protection is there against hazards, and what are the size and equipment of the fire force? These are questions which may well be investigated.