 |
PERIPHERAL ATTRACTION
Drugstores have long carried spinner racks filled with children's books, cards and wrapping paper featuring storybook characters, but Lyndall Otto, co-owner with her husband Ron Otto of Hillside Pharmacy (Manhattan Beach, Calif.) have turned these drugstore sidelines into a main attraction.
Books and cards make this 50-year-old family-owned and operated business -- Otto's husband and stepdaughter both are pharmacists, and Otto d s all the buying for books, gifts and cards -- just as much a destination as a place to refill a prescription.
"I've always loved children's books. I'm an artist myself," Otto explained, adding that she ranks teaching children to read right after "keeping your kids healthy and well-fed" in importance. Therefore, it's no wonder that at Hillside Pharmacy children's books occupy so much space -- roughly 2800 square feet. "We carry 1500 titles that run the full spectrum from baby to age 13," Otto said. "Eighty-five percent of my collection is hardback. You'd probably find the books here that you'd find in a good children's bookstore." She also stocks 35 lines of greeting cards, as well as gift items from around the world.
Hillside gets its book customers, according to Otto, "pretty much through word-of-mouth. I have people who come in because a neighbor told them about it. I have a lot of adult collectors that come in." There are also a lot of new mothers and new grandmothers in the surrounding neighborhoods.
As with traditional booksellers, Otto has found that sidelines can increase business significantly; though the pharmacy is the primary part of Hillside, she noted, peripheral items add considerably to income. Otto estimates that as many as "75% of the people who come in come in for the peripherals." Even so, Hillside hasn't made any concessions on hours to grow book sales. The store closes at 2 p.m. every Saturday afternoon and is closed on Sundays.
THE PLAY'S THE THING
Barron's (Longview, Tex.) is one of the few bookstores with its own restaurant, gourmet food section and dress shop. Now it is about to grow its children's section by 30 to 35 percent and add a performance space, which will seat at least 50 kids, according to children's manager Susan Malone. Later this summer the children's section will take over 1200 square feet currently occupied by the dress shop, which is becoming a free-standing boutique in the same shopping center.
Malone hasn't had to pull too many strings to get another dramatic change attached to the expansion project -- a puppet stage. "I want to be able to use it to go out to schools," explained Malone, who also plans to use the stage in-store to help boost sales of the already popular Folkmanis marionettes and Manhattan Toy finger puppets Barron's carries.
For starters, Malone reported, "We're going to do a puppet making workshop, and I'm going to make some of my own puppets. The thing about puppets is that they come alive, and when you put them on your hand, you can surprise a child." She is hoping to incorporate that element of surprise in book readings at the store and during visits to area schools.
