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Daunt reintroduces centralised buying at Waterstone's
21.07.11 | Graeme Neill and Lisa Campbell
Waterstone's is reintroducing central buying for both new books and replenishment but m.d. James Daunt insisted store staff would be able to order the books they want, when they want.
Managing director James Daunt made the announcement to staff in an email this afternoon, seen by The Bookseller. The announcement is understood to have been brought forward because of a story set to appear in the print version of this week's The Bookseller on Friday morning.
Daunt met a selection of shop managers in York on Tuesday to discuss the new buying system. In the company-wide email, Daunt said: "It is clear . . . that our talent and creativity is stifled by process; complicated buying procedures, duplication of tasks, a multitude of promotions, excessive returns, all done with more paperwork and data-capture than seems possible, let alone sensible. This all gets in the way of doing what we should be doing—curating our shops and selling the right books to our customers."
Daunt said Waterstone's will talk to publishers about how it buys books and ensure each store sells the widest range of books appropriate to each shop. "The current strait-jacket of a uniform offer, a centrally imposed campaign that treats Romford and Morpeth as identical book buying communities, is patently ridiculous."
It is unclear how the new buying system will work, or when it will be implemented. Daunt said he does not accept the inherent contradiction of central buying for a local offer and added: "We will make sure that we order the books you want, in the quantities you want in order to allow you to display and sell them in the way you want. Ask for 10 copies of Norwegian Wood and we will send you 10 copies, in one go, and let you put them wherever you want." He said this new system would cut the "massive duplication" involved in the current system.
The Bookseller understands Daunt has been in talks to install the same American system he uses at Daunt Books—WordStock—into Waterstone’s. Currently Wordstock is used mainly by independent booksellers, although larger chains such as Hudson Books in North America also use it. It is thought Waterstone’s would be one of the largest retailers to install the system, costing the business around $2,000 (£1,240) on average for an annual subscription per branch. Many have testified the systems at Waterstone’s are in need of replacement, with one source describing them as “antiquated” and “hopeless”, with the catalogue ordering system Phoenix referred to by another as a “living nightmare”.
In today's email, Daunt said the chain's success in using this new buying system will depend on publisher support, communication between each shop and head office buying team and how well the hub performs. He added: "Above all, how you, the booksellers, supported by your regional managers, grab your shops by the scruff of the neck and make them great, stimulating, irresistible bookshops for your book buying communities."
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Reps ? Do they still exist ?
Hi Julian, when you say "bloated with stock" do you mean that the booksellers will be unable to get their ordering correct?
If that is what you mean, then yes, I'm sure there'll be some wobbles as we use muscles we haven't for a while. But largely I think we're quite good at what we do.
We have a more detailed eye at ground level to appropriately stock our shops by ordering, from the buying team, what we want, when we want it.
If the new EPOS system works well it will help us manage this.
I'm sure there'll be teething problems. I'm just glad we're growing teeth again.
So we can order what we like BUT it is all centrally ordered?
Huh!?
I posted earlier with some concerns about our past subscriptions not arriving. This crossed with a helpful email from Waterstone's responding to one of mine indicating how this issue could be resolved. I am entirely satisfied with their response.
I am hopeful of the future, but would really like the shops that told our reps they would be teleordering x copies of our June and July titles to be able to send in their orders - direct, through the hub, a wholesaler, anybody. Meantime our June/July titles are not in Waterstone's. Our reps are now being promised orders for our autumn titles... will they come?
Clever use of words to motivate staff.You will have limited freedom to order yourself.Everything else will be centrally ordered and hub dependant.By the way let me say that W booksellers kid themselves on the depth of their book knowledge.Most are under 30 and they do not have true book reading experience or indeed life experience to assist many customers.They are totally computer reliant for info.
Let's not even talk price!..
Give it 6-9 months before 300 stores becomes 250 and so on.
Most are under 30 and they do not have true book reading experience or indeed life experience to assist many customers.They are totally computer reliant for info.
Interesting. Describes a few Saturday workers and Xmas temps I've met but not my "average" colleague. I'm 42, have two kids, worked for the frontline NHS for nearly twenty years, have been an active SF fan for nearly thirty years (running cons, writing for fanzines etc) and now I run the SF section at our branch. This kind of background is pretty standard for the staff I've met.
Exactly how much real world experience and book knowledge do you expect to get?
Oh and *psstt* ....if you're going to weigh in and rail about most booksellers under 30 (of which I am not one, but I cherish them deeply) about their lack of life and reading "experience" you'd better make sure your spelling and punctuation is spot on. Otherwise, well, hmmn, take a look at the bullet in your foot.
Yeah, let's party like it's 1995.
AMEN HappyBookyBird!
Totally agree, I much needed voice of reason for us today, I feel like someone opened a window to all that "fresh cooling air".
Happybookbird, it is not so much the abilty of local buying it is local buying AND central buying combined which is always really difficult to manage in a large chain . I always struggled at Dillons because although we scaled stock sensitive to store size and type it was rarely exactly correct, with stores ranging from Gower St to Inverness and back to the Barbican .
Visiting a store with the question "why are you 20% above budget on stockholding ? " was often met with ... " because you scaled us 50 copies of all these books on the front tables ..........!"
Happybookbird, it is not so much the abilty of local buying it is local buying AND central buying combined which is always really difficult to manage in a large chain . I always struggled at Dillons because although we scaled stock sensitive to store size and type it was rarely exactly correct, with stores ranging from Gower St to Inverness and back to the Barbican .
Visiting a store with the question "why are you 20% above budget on stockholding ? " was often met with ... " because you scaled us 50 copies of all these books on the front tables ..........!"
Sorry saved to quickly
Yawn - you don't have a clue. Why oh why do people insist on posting opinion as fact. What is true book reading experience anyway? It’s that sort of arrogant attitude , and bookseller with 20 years service (no not all of them) thinking they knew better that anyone else put so many bookshops out of business.
Please offer opinion as such and don't offer it as fact.
Wordstock!
Yer 'aving a larf!
The way that this is described I am certain that the chain will be bloated with stock within a year and there will be problems as a result .
However - James is far too smart to embark on something with that outcome. But it must be remembered that it is MUCH harder to control stock in a large chain with branches all over the country , than a small chain in London, where it is easier to micro manage . In the meantime publishers will be popping their bottles of Fizz in celebration .
"...our talent and creativity is stifled by process; complicated buying procedures, duplication of tasks, a multitude of promotions, excessive returns, all done with more paperwork and data-capture than seems possible, let alone sensible. This all gets in the way of doing what we should be doing..."
Is that a chorus of angels I hear? I think I may be weeping a little. Thank. You. Mister. Daunt.
Before everyone gets their knickers in a twist anticipating a hub/buying team let-down. Lets just for a moment, luxuriate in the blissful sound of those words coming from the top.
99% of problem solving is identifying the cause of the problem. For the love of all the is good in this world, how often do you hear your BOSS say "I know you're more talented than these spreadsheets suggest. You've got too much paperwork to be creative in what you do. Let me help."?
Do I care where I order my books from? - publisher, wholesaler, hub? No. I just care that I get what I want, when I want it, at an appropriate margin. Maybe the hub won't deliver - let's deal with that if that happens. But please, please - let's just enjoy this announcement for what it is - a lovely breath of fresh cooling air - without bitterness.
Aw, bless you yawn. "Most" of our particular shop staff are well over 30 with more "life experience" than I'd care to expand upon here.
"Clever words" hmmn, if he's simply lying to us it will backfire spectacularly when found out. De-motivation of the highest order. Counter-productive.
"Fewer stores"? You're probably right. Were I not such a cheery bird I might point out that bulk isn't everything and were your life experience what you imply it to be, you might already know that...go on, crack a smile, it'll feel nice, promise!;)
Yawn - you don't have a clue. Why oh why do people insist on posting opinion as fact. What is true book reading experience anyway? It’s that sort of arrogant attitude , and bookseller with 20 years service (no not all of them) thinking they knew better that anyone else put so many bookshops out of business.
Please offer opinion as such and offer it as fact.
What a considerably silly thing to say. In our branch, most of the staff are under 30, including myself. We are a highly motivated bunch, and between us have read a considerable depth of books. Our customers comment to us often how knowledgeable our staff is, and we are incredibly proud of our local reputation.
'Life experience' does not negate the amount of books read by any member of staff.
Please take your ill-informed, badly thought out opinions somewhere else.
You do know Daunts own stores are all centrally bought with very very limited store imput don't you?
The way that this is described I am certain that the chain will be bloated with stock within a year and there will be problems as a result .
However - James is far too smart to embark on something with that outcome. But it must be remembered that it is MUCH harder to control stock in a large chain with branches all over the country , than a small chain in London, where it is easier to micro manage . In the meantime publishers will be popping their bottles of Fizz in celebration .
Hi Julian, when you say "bloated with stock" do you mean that the booksellers will be unable to get their ordering correct?
If that is what you mean, then yes, I'm sure there'll be some wobbles as we use muscles we haven't for a while. But largely I think we're quite good at what we do.
We have a more detailed eye at ground level to appropriately stock our shops by ordering, from the buying team, what we want, when we want it.
If the new EPOS system works well it will help us manage this.
I'm sure there'll be teething problems. I'm just glad we're growing teeth again.
"In the meantime publishers will be popping their bottles of Fizz in celebration"
Your snidey anti-publisher asides are becoming immature and tiresome Julian. That enormous chip on your shoulder must be getting quite heavy. We are a small publisher but we are very active at branch level while being largely ignored by WS HQ. We certainly aren't popping any fizz. Doing what our reps and the booksellers do together simply cannot be achieved by someone sitting behind a desk in Brentford.
"...our talent and creativity is stifled by process; complicated buying procedures, duplication of tasks, a multitude of promotions, excessive returns, all done with more paperwork and data-capture than seems possible, let alone sensible. This all gets in the way of doing what we should be doing..."
Is that a chorus of angels I hear? I think I may be weeping a little. Thank. You. Mister. Daunt.
Before everyone gets their knickers in a twist anticipating a hub/buying team let-down. Lets just for a moment, luxuriate in the blissful sound of those words coming from the top.
99% of problem solving is identifying the cause of the problem. For the love of all the is good in this world, how often do you hear your BOSS say "I know you're more talented than these spreadsheets suggest. You've got too much paperwork to be creative in what you do. Let me help."?
Do I care where I order my books from? - publisher, wholesaler, hub? No. I just care that I get what I want, when I want it, at an appropriate margin. Maybe the hub won't deliver - let's deal with that if that happens. But please, please - let's just enjoy this announcement for what it is - a lovely breath of fresh cooling air - without bitterness.
AMEN HappyBookyBird!
Totally agree, I much needed voice of reason for us today, I feel like someone opened a window to all that "fresh cooling air".
Clever use of words to motivate staff.You will have limited freedom to order yourself.Everything else will be centrally ordered and hub dependant.By the way let me say that W booksellers kid themselves on the depth of their book knowledge.Most are under 30 and they do not have true book reading experience or indeed life experience to assist many customers.They are totally computer reliant for info.
Let's not even talk price!..
Give it 6-9 months before 300 stores becomes 250 and so on.
Most are under 30 and they do not have true book reading experience or indeed life experience to assist many customers.They are totally computer reliant for info.
Interesting. Describes a few Saturday workers and Xmas temps I've met but not my "average" colleague. I'm 42, have two kids, worked for the frontline NHS for nearly twenty years, have been an active SF fan for nearly thirty years (running cons, writing for fanzines etc) and now I run the SF section at our branch. This kind of background is pretty standard for the staff I've met.
Exactly how much real world experience and book knowledge do you expect to get?
The trouble is that the Xmas temps are often kept on. We had so many last year that most of them stood around with their hands in their pockets and most enquiries still ahd to be handled by an experienced member of staff becasue the 'kids' simply didn't know where to look or how authors or book titles were spelled. To employ these innocent lambs however was the policy of W'stones as theywere desperate for 'street cred' and thought the only way hthey could look good was by having the same sort of staff as HMV - tattooed, pierced etc.. Our branch however has a very large proportion of mature customers, at least 65-75%, who buy the more expensive books and a lot of hardbacks. They are completely alienated by this type of staff and sometimes roam the floor to find someone more trustworthy who look like they might answer a question knowledgeably.What is needed is not only book reading experience, but life experience to detect what a customer needs/wants.
We have around 30 staff, but only about a quarter of these are really proper booksellers. And we are not the only store like it.
I think it will take years to change this - that and the linksave-obsessed managers. Our regional managers still pretends that our store is HMV - a Highly Mediocre Vending machine. How can you turn someone like that around to become a Daunt-ist? You can't and unless he commits some gross outrage he won't be fired either. So we are still at ground zero.
Aw, bless you yawn. "Most" of our particular shop staff are well over 30 with more "life experience" than I'd care to expand upon here.
"Clever words" hmmn, if he's simply lying to us it will backfire spectacularly when found out. De-motivation of the highest order. Counter-productive.
"Fewer stores"? You're probably right. Were I not such a cheery bird I might point out that bulk isn't everything and were your life experience what you imply it to be, you might already know that...go on, crack a smile, it'll feel nice, promise!;)
Oh and *psstt* ....if you're going to weigh in and rail about most booksellers under 30 (of which I am not one, but I cherish them deeply) about their lack of life and reading "experience" you'd better make sure your spelling and punctuation is spot on. Otherwise, well, hmmn, take a look at the bullet in your foot.
What a considerably silly thing to say. In our branch, most of the staff are under 30, including myself. We are a highly motivated bunch, and between us have read a considerable depth of books. Our customers comment to us often how knowledgeable our staff is, and we are incredibly proud of our local reputation.
'Life experience' does not negate the amount of books read by any member of staff.
Please take your ill-informed, badly thought out opinions somewhere else.
You speak as if computers are a bad thing... So I do sneak into the over-thirty category, and my entire working life has been bookselling, I'm well-read and widely-read, but you know what? Sometimes customers want a book I've never heard of.
My google-fu is strong, there are books I find that the customer comes in already convinced they will never get. Some distant but fondly-remembered children's book, a book they read the first two pages of on holiday, something a friend recommended to them over a year ago... And this isn't an occasional or rare thing.
The internet is a great boon to a bookseller; there are vast, musty caverns of knowledge in the depths of my mind but, compared to the internet, they are shallow alcoves...
And we need young booksellers... they're the first stage in the life cycle of the experienced booksellers we all love and cherish.
what's wrong with motivating staff?
are you going to define "book reading experience"?
we're all waiting with baited breath.
Yawn - you don't have a clue. Why oh why do people insist on posting opinion as fact. What is true book reading experience anyway? It’s that sort of arrogant attitude , and bookseller with 20 years service (no not all of them) thinking they knew better that anyone else put so many bookshops out of business.
Please offer opinion as such and offer it as fact.
Happybookbird, it is not so much the abilty of local buying it is local buying AND central buying combined which is always really difficult to manage in a large chain . I always struggled at Dillons because although we scaled stock sensitive to store size and type it was rarely exactly correct, with stores ranging from Gower St to Inverness and back to the Barbican .
Visiting a store with the question "why are you 20% above budget on stockholding ? " was often met with ... " because you scaled us 50 copies of all these books on the front tables ..........!"
ah yes, I totally agree with that. But i had understood in this case we would choose which campaign strands we do/don't run and which scale outs we will/won't accept. Quite possible I've misunderstood in my excitement that JD has publicly acknowledged we're faffing around with too much stuff.
Happybookbird, it is not so much the abilty of local buying it is local buying AND central buying combined which is always really difficult to manage in a large chain . I always struggled at Dillons because although we scaled stock sensitive to store size and type it was rarely exactly correct, with stores ranging from Gower St to Inverness and back to the Barbican .
Visiting a store with the question "why are you 20% above budget on stockholding ? " was often met with ... " because you scaled us 50 copies of all these books on the front tables ..........!"
Sorry saved to quickly
Yawn - you don't have a clue. Why oh why do people insist on posting opinion as fact. What is true book reading experience anyway? It’s that sort of arrogant attitude , and bookseller with 20 years service (no not all of them) thinking they knew better that anyone else put so many bookshops out of business.
Please offer opinion as such and don't offer it as fact.
Wordstock!
Yer 'aving a larf!
Yeah, let's party like it's 1995.
better than 1976!!
I'm sure the old IBID terminals are still in storage somewhere.
You do know Daunts own stores are all centrally bought with very very limited store imput don't you?
I am hopeful of the future, but would really like the shops that told our reps they would be teleordering x copies of our June and July titles to be able to send in their orders - direct, through the hub, a wholesaler, anybody. Meantime our June/July titles are not in Waterstone's. Our reps are now being promised orders for our autumn titles... will they come?
Reps ? Do they still exist ?
Yes Daphne, those publishers with some enterprise and imagination still use reps. We employ a large team and they are driving our business into new territory every day. Waterstone's is only a small part of what they do - they are in everywhere else you can imagine in any given town placing our books. Only the lazy-thinking publishers will send their reps down the job centre because of this.
Reps are a thing of the past. 20 years ago, in the thick of things myself, my view would have been completely different. But the twin, symbotic, industries of bookselling and publishing have moved on as has technology and, regretfully, I have to say its time for the last few remaing publshers reps to hand in their keys. Sad times.
So we can order what we like BUT it is all centrally ordered?
Huh!?
I posted earlier with some concerns about our past subscriptions not arriving. This crossed with a helpful email from Waterstone's responding to one of mine indicating how this issue could be resolved. I am entirely satisfied with their response.
Given Waterstone's used to have a 24-hour turnaround on customer orders (call Bertrams, Bertrams sends stock to branch), and then moved to a 72-hour one (call Hub, hub calls distributor, distributor sends book to hub, hub sends book to branch), how is this new "central buying" a good idea? Surely it just adds yet another step to an already ridiculously cumbersome and slow ordering process? If we get the books we want anyway, as Daunt suggests, what is the rationale behind this decision?
If I want to order 10 copies of a book that only sold one copy last week (for a themed dumpbin, display, etc), will "central buyers" let me? If so… then why can't I just do it via the hub? If he really wants to cut out wastage, then he should be taking a look at stockturn more regularly and get a grip on returns.
As for Phoenix - it does its job. It's not pretty but there are other pressing matters to address. Like, for example, customers have got used to the discount-heavy FOS brand of Waterstone's over the past 10-15 years. If he wants to destroy this then he'll only be sending customers Amazon and Tesco's way.
Is this Daunt guy for real? Does he think WordStock is the platform to enable Waterstone's to keep up with the digital explosion happening around books?
Maybe he has been very poorly advised but this smacks of someone being out of their depth.
Or maybe you are putting too much store in some gossip being reported by the Bookseller.
No, JD loves Wordstock. For Daunt the differences between the early 21st century and early 20th century are entirely superficial. Maybe he has a point? Technology changes but people don't. That's why the net is full of porn and gambling sites. Customer service, retail display, supply issues, inventory management - all these key things are pretty much the same now as in 1910.
Forget about silly T-Shirts with Ws on - you guys should prepare for starched collars and bonnets!
let's celebrate the older bookseller. I have worked with books for many years (take note 'yawn') and also worked in other fields where, because of extensive travelling i had lots of time to read many different genres. I have worked extensively with children's books and am currently looking after crime and scifi in my store. We have many regular customers who love to talk books with our many knowledgeable booksellers. I do not recognise your description of booksellers at all. Considering the little amount most of us are paid it is a job we do for love, passion, satisfaction. For me, that is introducing a customer to a new author, having someone call and tell me how much they enjoyed my recommendation, seeing customers come back regularly and ask about what new books are in that we have liked! All of our booksellers read constantly and across all genres which means we have lots of experience to call on when a customer wants a specific type of book (i.e. history}. I, for one, am excited about the plans for Waterstones, i do wish people would be more positive and stop moaning. As someone already said we need to grab our stores and make them wonderful places for customers to visit, browse, buy. The booksellers where i work are already doing that. Let's be positive about the changes and focus on those customers.
How are 'we' going to grab our store and make them wonderful with the same regional manager breathing down our necks? This person has NO ideas, except in how to bully not only staff, but he also tried it on customers at Xmas with us watching as the customers told him where to get off. One thing he doesn't understand is that the book buying public cannot be approached in the same confrontational manner as passers-by are approached by those T-shirted kids with their loud-mouthed slogans on the High Street - OK so we've been given the loud T-shirts. Our customers absolutely shrink from that approach, but he thought that was the RIGHT way to sell - sell - sell.
let's celebrate the older bookseller. I have worked with books for many years (take note 'yawn') and also worked in other fields where, because of extensive travelling i had lots of time to read many different genres. I have worked extensively with children's books and am currently looking after crime and scifi in my store. We have many regular customers who love to talk books with our many knowledgeable booksellers. I do not recognise your description of booksellers at all. Considering the little amount most of us are paid it is a job we do for love, passion, satisfaction. For me, that is introducing a customer to a new author, having someone call and tell me how much they enjoyed my recommendation, seeing customers come back regularly and ask about what new books are in that we have liked! All of our booksellers read constantly and across all genres which means we have lots of experience to call on when a customer wants a specific type of book (i.e. history}. I, for one, am excited about the plans for Waterstones, i do wish people would be more positive and stop moaning. As someone already said we need to grab our stores and make them wonderful places for customers to visit, browse, buy. The booksellers where i work are already doing that. Let's be positive about the changes and focus on those customers.
Could someone do me a big favour and give me a "for dummies" explanation of what exactly centralised buying is? Maybe I'm misinterpreting something but I'm having trouble reconciling the idea of "centralised" with the idea that the new system will eradicate "the current straight jacket of uniform offer". What exactly is the change causing all the controversy?
The Bat says: Hi Newbie, I think what they're trying to do is supply/maintain/update core stock (Dictionaries/theory test books etc - say 70-80% stock-holding)centrally from the Hub to every shop, and then let each individual shop order Specials/customer orders/promotions/local/small press titles (Say 20% stock-holding) as they need them...ideally from the Hub and if not available there then from other sources....to give every shop a certain level of autonomy...and local flavour...and to take a lot of the grind out of stock-turn.
Appalled that Daunt believes introducing central buying will help in any way at all. It is the booksellers IN STORE that know what stock is most needed, what is running low, and what their customers like. Another major flaw in this, is that Watertones phoenix system is often wrong; when books have been stolen/lost/damaged etc, the central hub can never have a 100% accurate idea of how much stock the store actually has of any given book. With any luck it will go completely pear-shaped, prove to him what an idiotic idea it was, so that buying is left to the booksellers again. There will always be returns, funnily enough, some books just don't sell, and they're usually the books that have only been ordered by the central hub in any case.