[Antoninus]

Maybe they should try following the trends rather than their political biases. Last week, I tried to buy a copy of Ann Coulter's "Godless." The first indie bookstore I went into didn't have it--although they had plenty of old books by Al Franken, Michael Moore, and that ilk. I then strolled over to another independent and found a copy. Of course, it was spine-out, buried on the shelf. At the register, the young lady cattily quipped to her colleague (not to me, mind you), "Is this the only copy we have?"

Her colleague replied with an equally superior tone, "Yeah, I guess he [meaning the owner] didn't even expect to sell that one."

When an independent bookstore owner isn't smart enough to put a top 5 bestseller on the NYTimes list and the Amazon.com rankings in a pile on his front table, he deserves to go out of business.

[weegee]

I support a bookstore or record store to stand on personal taste. But that is a 2 way street.

Niche marketing means you are limiting your audience.

I wouldn't expect a quality bookstore of any sort to stock "Rush Limbaugh Is A Fat Idiot" by Al Franken (I can find dozens of close-out copies at a number of bookstores that sell remained books) but obviously someone bought it at one point in time.

I am perplexed by stores that order 1 or 2 copies of something. Sell them immediately and never restock. This happens with smaller press magazines too (things with a 3 month shelf life can be expected to run out at the newsstand in 1 week). If something is a consistent seller, and you are not opposed to carrying it to begin with, find that right number of copies (or reorder) and meet the demand.

If I have to ask a bookstore to order me a book, often (but not always) I'll price search it myself online (at www.bookfinder.com). I'm already going to have to wait.

Some independent stores will sell promo CDs and sample copies of books they are sent. This may explain some of the "one of these things is not like the other" stocking policies. Or maybe the owner wanted to thumb through a copy but didn't want to buy his own.