When playing a board game, like Terra Mystica, where there are choices I can make, and there are random elements that change from game to game, there's two routes I could go - The first is to play out the plan I've thought about so many times previously, to align the choices I make with that plan as faithfully as the random elements allow. The second, is to completely ditch whatever was in my plan, look at the random elements for this game, and play accordingly. I call the second strategy "Play to the board". The first strategy often means I'll do fine in the game, but will lose out to the player who benefited from the random elements of the game this round. The second strategy provide no such guarantees, but is the only strategy that allows great wins.
In life, people can pick one of three strategies. The first is they can fantasise about what kind of car they want, what kind of job they'd like, what kind of girlfriend they'd have, and then try their best to make these "achievements", often falling short because the world is not fantasy. The second, they observe what kind of random elements the world exhibiting, e.g. "Oh these days accountants make lots of money", "These days Software Engineers have high salaries" and directly translate to mean "I am going to learn programming, even if I don't like it", and then they are playing to other people's fantasy rather than accepting their own strengths or weaknesses. Or thirdly, they can "play to the board" and make the best of what life gives them, at each moment in time.
The bookshop-keeper here, is eking out every single edge he can out of books to operate his shop. Where 30 years ago operating a successful physical bookshop might mean having a large selection available at any time, and frequent events to draw crowds, today, in competition with digital books, operating a successful physical bookshop might mean emphasising the advantages of the physical book, the romanticism attached to physical objects. I get the feeling he is the type who sees what the world is like today, and because he's got experience bookshop-keeper, not a software engineer or tech startup founder, he goes with the flow with what he's got.
Where in a board game, the game board is the entirety of the world, and can be considered by itself, in the real world, our own selves are part of the board - and I can't always do it, but I aspire to do what I can to play with what I've got, like the man depicted in this article.
This is such flat, materialistic comparison. What about going back to roots, hara how its called in Japan, doing one action well, instead of focusing on the amount, focusing on single quality and trying to find beauty in it. I would almost call it practical art. There is something peaceful about it.
> The bookshop-keeper here, is eking out every single edge he can out of books to operate his shop.
It could be, but it could also be the case that he's trying to be 'quirky' and happened to implement this particular idea, picked more-or-less randomly from a set of other quirky ideas. Walking around Tokyo it is not hard to find shops where you really struggle to figure out how they are making money, and often it's the case that they actually aren't and they close their doors after a few months or a couple years.
I guess it's just really easy to get a loan in Japan even if your business plan is utter shit?
> Where 30 years ago operating a successful physical bookshop might mean having a large selection available at any time, and frequent events to draw crowds, today, in competition with digital books, operating a successful physical bookshop might mean emphasising the advantages of the physical book, the romanticism attached to physical objects.
This isn't an accurate description of the current bookselling climate. Two counter-points:
I've imagined this repeatedly. When you can buy any book you want online, physical bookstores become, in practice, galleries—and their clerks become salesmen.
In such times, there's not much point to having a big store stuffed to the gunnels with anonymous tomes that the clerks don't even know they have, let alone know anything about. Bookstores have none of the things that the book-buyer wants (discoverability, recommendation or "match-making", knowledgeability); and, especially in the case of used book stores, the online copy is probably in better condition, too.
When you treat books, instead, like pieces in a commercial art gallery—curated and exhibited for effect, with well-trained staff who can tell you all about them, or guide you to a book that fits your desires, or call/email you when a book you might like comes in—you get something from the physical store you don't get online. And, therefore, you actually might buy your copy from the store—maybe even at premium—because you aren't just paying for the book, but for the whole experience that led to you buying the book.
This seems to be a repeated theme [that I'm noticing] at present which to my mind hints at a particular flaw in capitalist society - that we end up paying for things by proxy.
You want a curated suggestion for what to read but instead of paying for a curator to make those suggestions you pay for a book that poorly hints at the worth that you've received from the curators effort. Or you want a particular piece of software but instead of paying directly [in part] for those who conceive of the software and implement it you pay for a support contract, or [gratis Google software] you pay slightly more for many things the advertising of which in part pays for the software that you use. You want to watch a well written movie, you pay for high-priced drinks and popcorn. Et cetera.
It seems that the value being generated gets removed one or more steps from the point at which the money paid that [poorly] feeds back to the system that you find that thing valuable. To me it seems that we lose a lot of the financial value to third-parties that place themselves at the interstices - the publisher's executives takes a large cut of the book price but did little of value, the 'stars' in the movie take a large cut but any one of hundreds of actors could have done that part, the advertising execs take a large cut but much of the output they direct is antagonistic towards those who are really seeking other things.
Just seems a really weird way to go about improving society.
This Christmas reminded me that as long as there are people like me, who leave shopping for presents to the last minute, physical stores with large stock aren't going anywhere.
But I am definitely waiting for the moment when physical stores turn into a purely advertising space, and draw their revenue from there. In a very near future you might not be able to buy things at a store, you will only be able to look at and try things (books are a good example).
For used book stores, I usually wander in out of curiosity, and often walk out with six or seven books that I didn't realize I wanted when I walked in.
I adopted a similar strategy for Tomotcha: we pick/sell only one tea each month. Most of our competitors send several samples each month, and from a revenue point of view maybe it's better, but I like the ability to give focus to a single tea.
For instance our next shipment is a Genmaicha: it's a combination of green tealeaves and roasted brown rice. The first time I drank Genmaicha I didn't like it much, because it's so different from what I was used to drink. But now I love it. You have to give each tea a try: if you just drink small samples you'll never develop a taste for the more complex ones.
2100 books over 6 months = 350 books per month, or 12.5 per day. Assume the books are $30 - $50, so $375 - $675. Assume a 70% cost of goods sold = $112.5 - $187.5 revenue per day. Tough to make a living unless he can push those numbers a bit. Interesting idea. Hope he can do it.
His previous bookstore had also a gallery space for rent, so it may be the case that this new store's model is actually closer to a gallery---author or sponsor may pay some fee. Just guess; I couldn't find an official document stating so.
It's more of a gallery than a bookshop. The book is on display. The theme of the book is extended into the presentation of the place. Instead of a gallery gift shop you can buy the book the gallery was themed on. It's a nice idea. Gimmicky perhaps, but nice.
It's akin to a musician/artist performing/producing at some minor venue (park, museum, bar, etc just sitting in the side providing ambiance) where just a few minutes experience is enough for some to buy a CD/DVD/book. Give a wandering shopper a reason to drop into the gallery/store and have a remarkable few minutes, and some will buy without planning to.
Zeroing in on one book is crazy. However singling out a single author each week might work.
One week it's Hemingway and the next week perhaps it's Elmore Leonard. You decorate the store and the key is the author has many books and you stock them all. In a place like Tokyo, NYC or London this approach might work.
It would almost be like an art gallery highlighting dozens of paintings by a single artist. You could invite people in to discuss the author and those events would draw in even more people.
I can't really back this up with a source but I read somewhere that this is similar to how traditional Japanese merchants used to operate. They would show a customer a single item, which he could either accept or refuse. Then another item was brought in and so on. By restricting access to the entire catalogue the merchant was able to get better deals out of the customer.
It seems to me almost a given that the authors and publishers are paying or otherwise helping support these endeavors, via some sort of cooperative advertising type model. Some of his comments seem to hint at that.
Either that or he has a trust fund, given Tokyo real estate prices there don't seem to be many other reasonable hypotheses.
The room looks like an art gallery as others have commented. I can remember seeing displays of the catalogue for an exhibition in art galleries - a large array of a single book. The arithmetic implies some form of subsidy, and that room looks lovely. There is a street view here...
I'm wondering if a community will form around the 50 or so titles stocked in a year. A book per week is a reasonable reading target for most educated people. If so, then a coffee shop model becomes possible: a coffee shop stocking one title per week and encouraging discussion while continuing to sell their coffee and food to pay the rent.
It's also open between 1-8pm and, according to that link, events are organised every night, so building such a community seems to be a main part of the concept.
Coffee shop was also my primary idea of how it could work economically. An entirely new hell of "no spoilers" ;)
Other than that, a carefully balanced mix of freely curated selection and occasional paid features might also be a way to monetize some of the attention generated.
I'd buy it. I mean, if the guy's stocking one book, it's going to be pretty good, right? I mean, what is it going to be like that (redacted) book I was reading written in a dead author's name? [1] I was like, wait a second what is this piece of crap - then I was like, ohhh. Yes, that would explain it.
That's not going to happen if I buy this guy's one book.
It sounds like he is trying to capture the attention of a group of regulars to the point that they will all buy every book he displays. That, or every time he stocks a new book the updated store will at least turn heads. Standard bookstores never really change in appearance.
I guess there is also a threat. Buy it now because it won't be here next week.
This is "sell a lifestyle / experience" model like Starbucks and to some degree Apple.
A model, although very successful, I abhor. It purports that you can "buy" happiness. It targets those so affluent and/or so bored that mere ownership of things is no longer enough to make them feel special.
A lot of people are calculating the cost of the book based off of MSRP and discounting it. However am I the only one that thinks he might consider selling the book above MSRP? In a way buying a book from here is an experience.
You can't attack another user like that on HN, even when you think their comment was out of line. Please don't do this again.
(Xixi's comment was fine anyhow. It's good when people talk about what they're working on, and the connection to the OP was a nice one. Sometimes HN users do get excessive or inappropriate about it, but there was nothing of that here.)
On a site like HN you're going to get many people talking about what they're doing. Parent poster didn't post a clicky link, and it's not shoe-horned in - they're doing the same as this bookshop. If people are interested in what this bookshop is doing they're probably wondering if it works online.
Searching for the word tomotcha shows a single submission and a few mentions over the past year.
[+] [-] meric|10 years ago|reply
In life, people can pick one of three strategies. The first is they can fantasise about what kind of car they want, what kind of job they'd like, what kind of girlfriend they'd have, and then try their best to make these "achievements", often falling short because the world is not fantasy. The second, they observe what kind of random elements the world exhibiting, e.g. "Oh these days accountants make lots of money", "These days Software Engineers have high salaries" and directly translate to mean "I am going to learn programming, even if I don't like it", and then they are playing to other people's fantasy rather than accepting their own strengths or weaknesses. Or thirdly, they can "play to the board" and make the best of what life gives them, at each moment in time.
The bookshop-keeper here, is eking out every single edge he can out of books to operate his shop. Where 30 years ago operating a successful physical bookshop might mean having a large selection available at any time, and frequent events to draw crowds, today, in competition with digital books, operating a successful physical bookshop might mean emphasising the advantages of the physical book, the romanticism attached to physical objects. I get the feeling he is the type who sees what the world is like today, and because he's got experience bookshop-keeper, not a software engineer or tech startup founder, he goes with the flow with what he's got.
Where in a board game, the game board is the entirety of the world, and can be considered by itself, in the real world, our own selves are part of the board - and I can't always do it, but I aspire to do what I can to play with what I've got, like the man depicted in this article.
[+] [-] azm1|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] deciplex|10 years ago|reply
It could be, but it could also be the case that he's trying to be 'quirky' and happened to implement this particular idea, picked more-or-less randomly from a set of other quirky ideas. Walking around Tokyo it is not hard to find shops where you really struggle to figure out how they are making money, and often it's the case that they actually aren't and they close their doors after a few months or a couple years.
I guess it's just really easy to get a loan in Japan even if your business plan is utter shit?
[+] [-] krallja|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] galfarragem|10 years ago|reply
strategy 1 = idealism
strategy 2 = realism
strategy 3 = pragmatism
[+] [-] CydeWeys|10 years ago|reply
This isn't an accurate description of the current bookselling climate. Two counter-points:
http://fortune.com/2015/09/23/e-books-digital-publishing/
http://www.slate.com/articles/business/moneybox/2015/12/barn...
Digital e-book sales are on a sharp decline now, and normal booksellers are stabilizing.
[+] [-] bikamonki|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jacalata|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] cpitman|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] derefr|10 years ago|reply
In such times, there's not much point to having a big store stuffed to the gunnels with anonymous tomes that the clerks don't even know they have, let alone know anything about. Bookstores have none of the things that the book-buyer wants (discoverability, recommendation or "match-making", knowledgeability); and, especially in the case of used book stores, the online copy is probably in better condition, too.
When you treat books, instead, like pieces in a commercial art gallery—curated and exhibited for effect, with well-trained staff who can tell you all about them, or guide you to a book that fits your desires, or call/email you when a book you might like comes in—you get something from the physical store you don't get online. And, therefore, you actually might buy your copy from the store—maybe even at premium—because you aren't just paying for the book, but for the whole experience that led to you buying the book.
[+] [-] pbhjpbhj|10 years ago|reply
You want a curated suggestion for what to read but instead of paying for a curator to make those suggestions you pay for a book that poorly hints at the worth that you've received from the curators effort. Or you want a particular piece of software but instead of paying directly [in part] for those who conceive of the software and implement it you pay for a support contract, or [gratis Google software] you pay slightly more for many things the advertising of which in part pays for the software that you use. You want to watch a well written movie, you pay for high-priced drinks and popcorn. Et cetera.
It seems that the value being generated gets removed one or more steps from the point at which the money paid that [poorly] feeds back to the system that you find that thing valuable. To me it seems that we lose a lot of the financial value to third-parties that place themselves at the interstices - the publisher's executives takes a large cut of the book price but did little of value, the 'stars' in the movie take a large cut but any one of hundreds of actors could have done that part, the advertising execs take a large cut but much of the output they direct is antagonistic towards those who are really seeking other things.
Just seems a really weird way to go about improving society.
[+] [-] xixixao|10 years ago|reply
But I am definitely waiting for the moment when physical stores turn into a purely advertising space, and draw their revenue from there. In a very near future you might not be able to buy things at a store, you will only be able to look at and try things (books are a good example).
Clothes are an exception here.
[+] [-] ori_b|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Xixi|10 years ago|reply
For instance our next shipment is a Genmaicha: it's a combination of green tealeaves and roasted brown rice. The first time I drank Genmaicha I didn't like it much, because it's so different from what I was used to drink. But now I love it. You have to give each tea a try: if you just drink small samples you'll never develop a taste for the more complex ones.
[+] [-] listic|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rdlecler1|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] shiro|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] have_faith|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ctdonath|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mruniverse|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rmason|10 years ago|reply
One week it's Hemingway and the next week perhaps it's Elmore Leonard. You decorate the store and the key is the author has many books and you stock them all. In a place like Tokyo, NYC or London this approach might work.
It would almost be like an art gallery highlighting dozens of paintings by a single artist. You could invite people in to discuss the author and those events would draw in even more people.
[+] [-] Grue3|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] CPLX|10 years ago|reply
Either that or he has a trust fund, given Tokyo real estate prices there don't seem to be many other reasonable hypotheses.
[+] [-] keithpeter|10 years ago|reply
http://www.takram.com/projects/a-single-room-with-a-single-b...
...looks to be an exercise in branding/design.
I'm wondering if a community will form around the 50 or so titles stocked in a year. A book per week is a reasonable reading target for most educated people. If so, then a coffee shop model becomes possible: a coffee shop stocking one title per week and encouraging discussion while continuing to sell their coffee and food to pay the rent.
[+] [-] eginhard|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] usrusr|10 years ago|reply
Other than that, a carefully balanced mix of freely curated selection and occasional paid features might also be a way to monetize some of the attention generated.
[+] [-] fengwick3|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] justincormack|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] logicallee|10 years ago|reply
That's not going to happen if I buy this guy's one book.
[1] like this - http://www.avclub.com/article/pay-no-attention-to-the-man-be...
[+] [-] sandworm101|10 years ago|reply
It sounds like he is trying to capture the attention of a group of regulars to the point that they will all buy every book he displays. That, or every time he stocks a new book the updated store will at least turn heads. Standard bookstores never really change in appearance.
I guess there is also a threat. Buy it now because it won't be here next week.
[+] [-] njharman|10 years ago|reply
A model, although very successful, I abhor. It purports that you can "buy" happiness. It targets those so affluent and/or so bored that mere ownership of things is no longer enough to make them feel special.
[+] [-] kaybe|10 years ago|reply
http://www.spoon-tamago.com/2015/09/06/morioka-shoten-ginza-...
[+] [-] DonHopkins|10 years ago|reply
http://hyperallergic.com/65570/we-sell-white-albums/
[+] [-] im2w1l|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jtchang|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tomcam|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] therobotking|10 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] dang|10 years ago|reply
(Xixi's comment was fine anyhow. It's good when people talk about what they're working on, and the connection to the OP was a nice one. Sometimes HN users do get excessive or inappropriate about it, but there was nothing of that here.)
We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10786664 and marked it off-topic.
[+] [-] DanBC|10 years ago|reply
Searching for the word tomotcha shows a single submission and a few mentions over the past year.
[+] [-] tim333|10 years ago|reply
Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated. – Confucius
[+] [-] krapp|10 years ago|reply
[0]https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Confucius#Misattributed
[+] [-] awl130|10 years ago|reply