Looking on the Bright Side – Dymocks Newmarket

Dymocks Newmarket is a big, bold and brave bookstore.

Big because it is just under 400 sqm, and apart from small selections of magazines and cards, it is all book stock, with the shelves at the rear of the store as well stocked as ones you’ll find right up front.

Bold because they are making no concessions to any industry downturn. Anne Whelan, the franchise owner of the store, believes you’ve got to have stock to sell it.

IMAGE: Dymocks Newmarket is huge and well-stocked.

“It is our job to have a really good in-depth offer there in the first place. In more difficult times, it is easy to say 'let’s reduce that'.

"But if you don’t have the selection and the stock, all you are doing is driving customers into the arms of internet sellers. And imagine what our cities would look like if we bought everything online? There would be no stores to browse in and make your own discoveries.”

IMAGE: Anne Wheelan ringing up another book deal.

Brave, because if buyer Gail Woodward, Anne and the rest of the team believe in a book, they are confident they can sell it.

Dymocks is really looking forward to the next few months.

“We’ve got NZ Book Month – we've already had an impressive number of vouchers presented! It is an excellent idea and a great promotion and we’d love to see it succeed, which is possible - even in the circumstances we’re in,” says Anne.

Plus the team believes there are lots of great new books in the March and April lists and say, “We won’t be starved for titles!”

When God was a Rabbit, a late-March release, gets its first mention here, along with Daughters-in-Law by Joanna Trollope, fantasy The Wise Man’s Fear and the new Alex Rider, Scorpia Rising.

IMAGE: The New Zealand Post Children's Book Awards promotion.

The store is proactive with promotions – The New Zealand Post Children’s Book Awards poster is up at the entrance on March 1, and there’s already a major interior display featuring all the titles (pictured above).

It is certain the nominated titles have already been on the shelves of their extensive Children’s and YA section. There’s an instore display too for Auckland Cup Week, which is sponsored by the active Newmarket Business Association.

IMAGE: The relatively narrow street frontage of the store has not proved a handicap, and in fact is turned to advantage.

The left hand shelving in store is concentrated on Our Choices – a wide and varied selection of current titles and the store’s favourite backlist contrasted with the top 10 selections and new releases on the opposite wall.

IMAGE: The tunnel of love: staff recommendations on one said face the bestsellers on the other.

Then the reading recommendations come thick and fast. "The Discoverer of Witches!" says Gail.

“I never thought I would find a witch and vampire book that would appeal to – um, the well-read woman, but this is fantastic.”

Interposes Anne helpfully “She means literary snobs.”

Gail’s reputation for picking intelligent reading over literary genres is unsurpassed, so The Read trusts her on this.

IMAGE: Gail always has a great book recommendation.

Anne’s reading is less literary – over last weekend she motored through a reading copy of the new Jeffrey Archer, Spencer Quinn’s To Fetch A Thief ‘a doggone it mystery’, and the darkly humorous When God was a Rabbit by Sarah Winman. “This is my book of the year so far. It’s a stunner for all ages," she says.

Despite being an acknowledged contemporary literature authority by her colleagues and customers, Gail Woodward’s enthusiasms range much more widely.

Want to know the latest cooking memoirs, or gourmet cookbooks for that matter? Ask Gail. Want to know the best biography of the recent crop? She’ll come up with suggestions of titles that might not have made the reviews but which she knows Dymocks Newmarket customers will appreciate.

Dymocks is handselling journalist Ann Leslie’s memoirs Telling My Own Stories and William Fiennes’ The Music Room. Fiennes writes a gentle tale of growing up in a 14th century castle that’s part history and part a touching story of his epileptic older brother.

What’s more, this amazing bookie with a fund of recommendations is also a fan of good detective and spy literature. Gail has realised crime is no longer a sufficient category to hold the current crop of great spy novels coming on to the market, so they’ve added space and named it Spy Thrillers.

So who does Gail think is the next action hero who will replace Jack Reacher? 

Last Chance to Die by ex FBI agent Noah Boyd is the book, Steve Vail is the character.

If you like Donna Leon’s set-in-Venice crime novels about the gentle introspective Commissario Guido Brunetti, Gail has the equivalent perfectly pitched series set in France’s Dordogne to suggest for your next read – Bruno, Chief of Police by Martin Walker. (She will also tell a customer that Martin Walker has written a well reviewed book on contemporary Soviet society and politics.)

IMAGE: books as far as the eye can see.

Other spy crime writers to watch: Henry Porter (The Dying Light where power is abused and the role of parliament is lost to cabinet control) and Philip Kerr whose charismatic, cynical Bernie Gunther is the investigator in a total of eight novels to date.

Even The Read’s writer, who thinks she knows a thing or two about well reviewed books and contemporary writers, is experiencing a dazzling masterclass by a consummate bookseller!

Non-fiction? Has The Read read The Brain that Changes Itself by Norman Doidge and Quirkology by Richard Wiseman?

Children’s? Back to School Tortoise has an unexpected twist that guarantees laughter, quirky Violet Mackerel’s Brilliant Plot for six to nine year olds, On the Blue Comet, Rosemary Well’s captivating junior fiction blending history and  ime travel.

IMAGE: Fun with books for kids at Dymocks Newmarket.

And back to the business of books…
Dymocks have decided to exchange any Whitcoulls or Borders customer’s loyalty card to their own Dymocks one, with starting bonus of 1000 points. With that many points on the card, it is not just a cynical marketing ploy but a generous offer. Why?

  
IMAGE: Dymocks will swap REDGroup loyalty cards.

“We’d like to let their customers know that we do reward them and that there is another, better, book buying experience out there,” says Anne Whelan.

“And they will learn Dymocks Newmarket sticks to the publishers recommended retail and does not mark up prices.”

Anne knows the next few months trading will not be easy. Her tactics? “Back to basics. Control expenses, become more customer driven, and enhance the experience of staff and customers in store.

“Shelf talkers are contributed to by all staff. The emphasis is on the reader’s reaction to the book, not retelling the plot.

"Our children’s section is well known and one of the store’s strengths. And customers love to find a book that they would not otherwise have known about.”

The very full-service bookstore is open every day until 5.30pm and is staffed by a team of 14 including casuals and part timers. They are only closed for the four and a half days of the year that are major holidays. Busiest days of the week are Thursday and Saturday.

Dymocks loyalty card Booklover program is also valued by shoppers.

The plus side for Dymocks Newmarket is their location in a prestige shopping area with a well-regarded mall and specialty stores as neighbours. They are also surrounded by high demographic suburban areas.

As Anne concludes: “Our customers still love books, and we have a very large and expanding range of loyal booklovers.”

And they have ordered a large number of copies of When God was a Rabbit!

Member profile written by Jillian Ewart, writer for The Read.

Disclosure: The Read writer Jillian Ewart worked for Dymocks in a part time publicity and group book order role around 2000-2004.