Do brick and mortar bookstores really make most of their money on coffee and birthday cards? Why not just stop selling books entirely?
A friend of mine owns a brick and mortar store, and I couldn't help wondering if such stores usually make money selling coffee and birthday cakes ? Like why would they not just sell coffee and birthday cakes instead then?
Answers ( 2 )
Because no one is going to brag to their friends about shopping in a "Coffee and Birthday Cake" store. Bleh.
Many restaurants make a lot of their profits from beer and wine sales, but if they stopped selling food they'd lose a lot of their business: people who say, "Can I take you out to dinner?" would not usually prefer to say, "Can I take you out to a pub?" (With some exceptions.)
Don’t confuse high profit items with giving customers a reason to go through the trouble to visit an establishment. Selection is an important reason to go to a topic specific seller. Inexpensive items often have a large profit built in, but you have to sell a lot of these things and provide a bigger reason to go to the establishment.
Office supply stores make more money on pencils, paper, staples and ink cartridges for printers, but they offer business machines, office furniture and numerous office supplies to give customers a better chance to get lower sales volume, lower profit items that they need, and a wider selection than they can get at a non-specific seller.
Some of those same pencils, paper and ink cartridges can be purchased at a pharmacy (often for a slightly higher price) where people mainly go to get medicines and first aid supplies. The office supplies, infant formula, drinks snd snacks are sold for convenience and high profit, not as a reason to go to that store.