Tuesday, March 01, 2005
Returns Discussion
There's a conversation about book returns going on at Mad Max Perkins and an excellent response at Robert Gray's Fresh Eyes. Both places asked if anyone knew how returns started.
My understanding was the returns policy was instituted to encourage booksellers to promote a new lead title with a big initial buy. Later it morphed into covering all books all the time when publishers realized booksellers would take more chances on unknown authors if they could return them.
I don't know if this is the origin, but the one reference I've found was in The Bookseller's Art: Carl Kroch and Kroch's & Brentano's, a tribute book published by the Library of Congress about Carl Kroch, owner of the historical bookstore Brentano's in Chicago. I'm paraphrasing from what I remember in the book...In the 1930's he told publishers that he could sell more books if they let him order a huge returnable stack to fill his window and display tables than if he ordered a smaller nonreturnable quantity. The publishers went for it because it was more efficient to let him order big and run the risk of returns than to pay for extra signage for new books. It became standard practice because sales did increase when there was a large display of stacked books.
Kroch was also the bookseller who ran ads in Chicago papers with the guarantee that if anyone read the book advertised and didn't like it, he'd give them their money back. He was a merchandising genius because he had to be. He competed against Marshall Field's (when it was owned by Mr. Marshall Field himself) and other department stores in downtown Chicago.
I'd love for anyone to correct me with an earlier returns point of origin, but this is where I think it is.
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My understanding was the returns policy was instituted to encourage booksellers to promote a new lead title with a big initial buy. Later it morphed into covering all books all the time when publishers realized booksellers would take more chances on unknown authors if they could return them.
I don't know if this is the origin, but the one reference I've found was in The Bookseller's Art: Carl Kroch and Kroch's & Brentano's, a tribute book published by the Library of Congress about Carl Kroch, owner of the historical bookstore Brentano's in Chicago. I'm paraphrasing from what I remember in the book...In the 1930's he told publishers that he could sell more books if they let him order a huge returnable stack to fill his window and display tables than if he ordered a smaller nonreturnable quantity. The publishers went for it because it was more efficient to let him order big and run the risk of returns than to pay for extra signage for new books. It became standard practice because sales did increase when there was a large display of stacked books.
Kroch was also the bookseller who ran ads in Chicago papers with the guarantee that if anyone read the book advertised and didn't like it, he'd give them their money back. He was a merchandising genius because he had to be. He competed against Marshall Field's (when it was owned by Mr. Marshall Field himself) and other department stores in downtown Chicago.
I'd love for anyone to correct me with an earlier returns point of origin, but this is where I think it is.
