Bookstore treats D&D books like Playboy

[Darth K'Trava]

Barnes and Noble isn't really supposed to be doing that with their product. I worked there for many years before I got out of retail, and I know that unless the material is questionable it should be on the shelves in its own section near Science Fiction & Fantasy, beside the Graphic Novels. Are graphic novels also behind the counter? Is the town notably conservative? There may be some public pressure upon the store to conduct itself like this.

Cheers,
Cam

Our Barnes and Noble has theirs out with the rest of the SF books. And a stand out in the middle of the floor for people to peruse and not be in the SF books section.

Could be just the management....

 

[Darth K'Trava]

Centerfold? Lidda's so short, she'd only need half a page!

That's the zooming in to make it the whole centerfold....

 

[nakia]

I have worked at two seperate Barnes and Nobles in the past. We never put gaming books behind the counter. It's certainly not company policy to keep gaming books behind the counter. Stores are given some lattitude in keeping stuff behind the counter if there are particular shrinkage issues within a given store. One store we kept the few CCG packs we sold behind the counter due to shrinkage. At another, we kept Playboy and other adult magazines behind the counter due to shrinkage as well.

Make it a point to mention your feelings against the change to the staff of the store. There should be a Head Cashier in charge of the cashwrap line. You could ask to check out a gaming book, then mention how it's a pain to keep asking the employees just to look at the latest gaming book.

 

[Psionicist]

Speaking of Playboy, I think this is pretty funny:

http://mirrors.playboy.com/

(Link IS safe for work).

 

[Altalazar]

Have you considered that the above might be the reason?

Not every store wishes to be a "browsing section" so that you can see the books before ordering them from Amazon.com, you know. Moreover, browsers with no intention of buying that which they browse are almost invariably less concientious about damaging the browsed materials than those who browse to buy in the store.

"Shrinkage" occurs not only due to outright theft, but also due to damages incurred by inconsiderate browsing. D&D books seem to have a much higher chance of suffering wear & tear than, say, the latest Terry Goodkind novel. And there are a lot of people for whom the store's investment is nothing more than a free test drive.


RC

No, that could not be a reason in my case, because the only books I "browse" are the ones I haven't already ordered on Amazon - they are the ones I'd likely not order on Amazon - I browse to see if they are interesting, and if they are, I buy them from the store.

And the big chain bookstores are designed for browsing - they have chairs all over the place, along with a lounge, for exactly that reason. Me, I don't like reading a book at the store. If I like it, I'll buy it and add it to my 3,000 books at home and read it at home. My wife, on the other hand, will often read through whole books (or skim) while I'm at the store. So she browses while I look and buy.

If a book store can't handle the fact that people will actually want to handle and sample the merchandise, then maybe they ought to just close up shop and become an online retailer, because then they are eliminating the one single thing they have over an online seller. Which is why now, with the books behind the counter, I've gone from 60-75% amazon for my gaming book purchases to just about 100%. Thus, my comment about them losing my business and losing my money.

 

[Altalazar]

It's almost certainly theft prevention. Back in the 80s, I heard bookstore employees complain a lot about the high theft rate of RPG books. At a few places I went to, employees told me that D&D books were the most stolen items in the store. And consider that at that time, modules ranged from $5-$8, and hardback rulebooks could range from $12-$20.

That's a good reason to put them right in front of the cash register (or somewhere else easily seen) rather than right behind it. Or to tag the books with an alarm. Before someone says that the cost would be prohibitive, the book store in question already does that - just for CDs and DVDs not the books. So all they'd have to do would be to buy a few extra tags - the rest of the hardware is already installed and in place.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Centerfold? Lidda's so short, she'd only need half a page!

Nah, a paragraph.

Mialli gets a margin.

The Auld Grump

 

[domino]

Except that in front of the counter is used for broad demographic impulse buy items, like magazines, coffee, and little trinkets. It's premium counter space, and it would be ineffective to put speciality books there.

 

[jdrakeh]

That would be my guess too.

Edit: My FLGS does this with the newest WotC D&D hardcover releases - they have one copy out on the shelves for display, and you can browse through that. They keep the rest of the stock behind the counter. That way only one copy gets shop worn when the book first comes out.

There was a game shop that I ran across in Bakersfield, CA where theft was so bad that they kept only photo-copied covers of their RPG selections on the shelf, and you had to ask the clerk for an actual copy to browse thorugh.

 

[Quickbeam]

It's probably a theft prevention issue.

That's my initial hunch as well.
Regardless, this thread has a great tagline!