Book buyers in the Yangtze River Delta are attracted to Taobao, but a book warehouse in a warehouse logistics park in Hangzhou has become popular. Warehouse | Bookstore | Books
There is no special entrance, visitors need to use multiple signs and walk around the building to find it. Outside the door, there is a row of posters for book clubs such as "Kantian philosophy" and "French Enlightenment philosophy". Sometimes, it is necessary to push the crowd outside the door to enter. This is a warehouse, but it is not ordinary. This is widely recognized as difficult to find, but high temperatures still make it difficult for people to find this place hidden in a warehousing and logistics park in Binjiang, Hangzhou. As the book warehouse of a second-hand bookstore that loves reading, a year ago, this place was rarely known and almost no one came to buy books. Nowadays, many readers from Hangzhou and surrounding cities flock to this place, which surprised the bookstore owner Zhao Qingmeng.
Chaos is the only way to discover treasures
In June 2019, book enthusiast Zhao Qingmeng and several partners hit it off and started operating the Love Reader Second hand Bookstore, mainly providing readers with an online platform for selling and buying books. After a period of time, some readers have already made transactions here. But the warehouse was not as lively as online, Zhao Qingmeng recalled: sometimes, I was the only one all day. Until September 2022, a blogger filmed a video and uploaded it to the internet, attracting more attention. Love readers, who have always been mainly online, have gradually become lively in their offline warehouses. After watching videos, many fans specifically run to the warehouses to buy books. Many readers regard this warehouse as a place for treasure hunting.
Hu Song, who has loved reading since childhood, almost always goes into a bookstore to take a look. The most intuitive feeling he has from this warehouse is that it is "chaotic". The books here are neither classified nor placed regularly. On the left of Stray Birds may be Monsters of the North Sea, and on the right of Jieyou Grocery Store may be History of European Literature. This is exactly the state that Hu Song likes. "Only in chaos can we discover treasures, and only in muddy water can we fish. I have a shallow expectation in my heart - to discover some works that shine in front of me." Like Hu Song, Yujia Shuang, who enjoys this treasure hunting feeling, was on his first visit to the warehouse. He only walked a few rows of bookshelves, and his book basket was almost full. "Finding what he likes in the chaos is a quite novel experience."
In the nearly 400 square meter warehouse, there are over 100000 books with a variety of bestsellers, niche books, comics, ancient books, out of print books, and even vinyl discs. The book prices are mostly 30-40% off the original price, and the update speed is fast. Some readers come to the store every one or two weeks and often find that the books on the bookshelf have greatly changed. "Many books are only single copies, and after they are sold, they are gone, so our books update very quickly," said Zhao Qingmeng. Wang Hua, who enjoys browsing second-hand bookstores, is a frequent customer of the warehouse. Compared to last year, she exclaimed that there have been so many people in the bookstore recently. Even as the closing hours approach, there are often many readers in the warehouse, and at this time, Zhao Qingmeng will extend the business hours.
"Discovering Hangzhou Warehouse Bookstore" and "Hangzhou's largest second-hand bookstore found divine books"... This bookstore is becoming increasingly well-known. Once a reader drove from Nantong to Hangzhou and bought several boxes of books at a bookstore, filling their bookshelves at home. Ding Ling, who runs a picture book library in Shanghai, visited iReader three times a month and "browsed tens of thousands of books a day, ultimately selecting several thousand copies."
Replenish inventory
Nowadays, love readers are not just warehouses or bookstores, but nearby people have become accustomed to using them as a living and leisure space. In addition to books, here you can also see handmade works, paintings, blind boxes, etc. sent by readers. Some people will bring their pet dogs into the store, greet Zhao Qingmeng like old neighbors, and then proficiently read, find books, and check out. On the day of the interview, Sun Hao, who lives nearby, went for a weekend stroll with his family. "As a way of leisure, it's great to take his children to read and read together." Sun Hao bought more than 20 books in one go, including out of print books. "Many books have not been seen in other bookstores," he said. In addition, the Hangzhou Philosophy Reading Club is held here every two weeks or so, and book enthusiasts from Shanghai, Nanjing, Hangzhou and other places often gather here.
Most readers who come to bookstores will buy three to five books. "People are willing to come here because such scenes are rare, and readers with different needs can gain something here." In Zhao Qingmeng's view, some readers may not know what books to buy when going to bookstores. "Until they see the books they want, they buy them, which is a fate of meeting books."
Although it is a second-hand bookstore, Zhao Qingmeng adheres to the principle of not selling pirated copies. He spends most of his time reviewing books every day, which requires meticulous and time-consuming work. For a long time, this work has been completed by himself. The piracy characteristics of different books may vary, and many pirated books are audited every day. "Some books may have missing pages, and if one or two pages are torn inside, they cannot be recycled. For books that are damaged, heavily stained, or have incomplete series, they also need to be filtered out." Zhao Qingmeng pointed to the two large stacks of books that were reviewed in half a day and said, "This process consumes a lot every day because we have already paid for shipping when we recycle books."
After a sharp increase in customer base in September last year, Zhao Qingmeng was unable to review and update enough books in time. "He was too busy to restock every day." Therefore, he began to think about how to better operate offline physical stores. Issues such as limited space, remote location, and insufficient review personnel were in front of him. He had planned to find a new home for Ai Du Ke. "If I still focus only on online platform operation, I may not consider changing places, but now I need to consider for customers."
At present, the flow of people in the bookstore warehouse is stabilizing. Although there were only Zhao Qingmeng among the first five full-time shareholders, fortunately, the business difficulties have passed. At the most difficult time, he once wanted to maintain the operation of the bookstore by delivering takeout. For Zhao Qingmeng, from the beginning of his entrepreneurship until now, it has remained unchanged to put the reviewed books on the shelves every day, while continuously increasing the sources of recycled books and sales channels. At present, five to six thousand books are put on shelves in the bookstore warehouse every month. "When the popularity is high, inventory decreases very quickly. Now that the popularity continues, it can just replenish the inventory. Regardless of the number of people, more good books should be provided to everyone," said Zhao Qingmeng.
