Is this simply the latest manifestation of the race to the bottom mentality that is polluting much of the bookselling world or will it prove to be a new way to sell books?
At the newly opened Market Fresh Books in Evanston, Illinois all books and related products are sold by the pound! Yes, by the pound.
Here’s how it works:
Books cost $3.99 a pound
Books on tape $10.99 a pound
Audio CD’s are $24.99 per pound
The store stocks lightly used best sellers and other popular current titles. Nothing old, nothing rare, nothing antiquarian. It also boasts a children’s room, a room dedicated to cookbooks and one focused on non-fiction lifestyle and reference books. And the coffee is free.
Owners Paul and Susan Frischer, who have been selling books online, believe there is room for a brick and mortar outlet that focuses on gently used copies of the books that have become the mainstay of online bookselling; current bestsellers and popular titles at basement prices.
“We’re hoping the store more resembles Barnes & Noble than a typical used book shop for the customer,” says Paul Frischer.
For a little more perspective:
The average paperback weighs in at $2.39
The average Audiobook weighs in at $5.37
A Nancy Drew hardcover weighed in at $2.21
A hard cover copy of Remember Me? by Sophie Kinsella weighs in at $3.99
I trust that most of the books at Market Fresh books can be found online for anywhere between a penny and $1. Though when one adds the shipping charges ($3.99 and up) the model starts to make a little more sense. For those in the Evanston/Chicago area Market Fresh Books just might be the cheapest place around for those books.