The Five C's of Bookstore Success
CHARLOTTE SUN, MAY 23, 2021. PUNTA GORDA. by Sue Wade [excerpt]
Character and characters. Punta Gorda's whimsical and magical Sandman Books, named after author Neil Gaiman's fantasy comic-book series, has plenty of both.
A silver dragon slithers across one bookshelf, a light-up fairy princess hovers over another. Costumed dressmakers' mannequins appear (surprise!) where you least expect them.
Bookstore rescue cat Kitty-Wan Kenobi prowls the aisles, dispensing good luck, meowing for treats and hopping into welcoming laps.
An entire corner is devoted to a David Sussman gallery and gaming section. Co-owner Heidi Lange sometimes appears in costume - most recently as Wonder Woman.
"A lot of people thought e-readers would kill books, but people still love to hold abook and escape into it," she said. "So, we survived 2020 with curbside pickup, free delivery, and online sales."
"During the pandemic, people switched to gaming, things you can do at home with your family," her husband, co-owner Scott Hill, added.
"Our jigsaw puzzles sold out in three days," Lange said. "Bookstores had to change. Community involvement and things like our lectures are huge now."
Their renewed Bookshop Lecture Series recently had a talk about tabletop gaming (with online viewing option) that discussed fantasy roleplaying games like Dungeons & Dragons.
Since opening in 2009 on Burnt Store Road with an inventory of about 15,000 books, Sandman's shelves now hold nearly ten times that number in a new 5,400 square foot store on Duncan Road. It stocks 100,000 books, 80% used - not counting those that Hill used to construct their famous, now-double Book Arch.
They don't pay cash for gently used books here, but offer Book Exchange Coupons applied to customers accounts. The old store's Book Exchange once rattled along a Rube Goldberg conveyor, jacked up at one end with a stack of books. Books in paper sacks tumbled off the other end to be sorted.
The new store's system is more automated, but the conveyor remains as a treasured steampunk artifact.
They don't pay cash for gently used books here, but offer Book Exchange Coupons applied to customers accounts. The old store's Book Exchange once rattled along a Rube Goldberg conveyor, jacked up at one end with a stack of books. Books in paper sacks tumbled off the other end to be sorted.
The new store's system is more automated, but the conveyor remains as a treasured steampunk artifact.
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