Lorem Ipsum Bookstore

Bookie McBook flowers (and other merch) just arrived at Lorem...

Tue, 22 Dec 2009 21:54:00 -0500

Bookie McBook flowers (and other merch) just arrived at Lorem Ipsum in time for the holidays. Stop by today for your last-minute present. Made with actual book parts, these flowers are an ideal pick-me-up for your book-loving friends (or you!). We also have fun book-stickers and necklaces too.

But on to the serious news: We believe the bookstore will survive another year, as we’ve procured a new space for the store. A big sigh of relief. An incredible outpouring of support from our customers has been both touching and energizing—we couldn’t have gotten here without you.

We’ve had a tumultuous few weeks here at Lorem Ipsum. We’ve been somewhat reluctant to publicize the inner happenings of the “move saga”, because they seem to change on a daily basis. Perhaps this wasn’t the best of strategies in the age of updates, but it was the one we chose. We’re still not 100% sure that it is going to happen—checks haven’t been exchanged, nor have agreements been signed—but today passed the point where it looks most likely.

In the days to come we’ll get a better idea on what’s to come, and will be sure to pass along the information sooner, rather than later. (Thanks for the gentle nudging on this issue.)

Thank you again.

Black Friday Anti-Sale

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 10:48:43 -0500

Everyone like’s a sale, right? But does anyone like an anti-sale? We hope so!

What’s an anti-sale, you ask? It’s when nothing in the store is on sale. We’re proud to announce that none of our items are on sale, instead they are for purchase for regular price. We think it’s ground-breaking.

This year as an extra special bonus, we’re allowing customers to pay more for the books than the sticker price should they like. More in the full press release.

We’re open 10-7 this Friday and Saturday, so come on out.

Help Lorem Ipsum Out For the past 6 years, our small independent...

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 14:12:00 -0500

Help Lorem Ipsum Out

For the past 6 years, our small independent bookstore in Inman Square, Cambridge has been a place for books, community, and innovation. We now face a difficult hurdle in a difficult industry in a difficult economy: the store must move—or close.

Luckily, we found a better space (more books! room for events!) but we need the funds to make it happen. Maybe you’ve sold books when you’ve had a cash crunch — well, that’s exactly what we’re looking to do now, only on a bit bigger scale:

Ten days. Five thousand books.

That’s right — selling five thousand books in our inventory (of 19,000) will raise the cash we need to fund the move, hire staff, and set up bigger and better than before in a new location a few blocks away. (Don’t worry, still in Inman Square area, and we’ll bring the Chicken Machine with us.)

Here’s how it works:

Buy certificates online via Google Checkout in handy $10 amounts.

Starting December 1, redeem each certificate for any book (priced at $20 or less — see what an awesome deal this is?) at the store or online.

» Participate by visiting this page which will take you to Google to buy the certificate. We’ll email you the certificate soon after your order is processed.

We don’t have much time, so help us get the word out!

Please spread the word—in order for this flash sale to work, we need as many people as possible to know about it. Once you purchase your certificate, please spread the word by telling your friends about us. Use Twitter, Facebook, semaphores, or any other form of gossip to get the word out.

Many thanks for your support,

Lorem Ipsum Books

Photo

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 14:42:00 -0500

Hello World (again)

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 13:15:23 -0500

Hello World, it’s Lorem Ipsum Books (again). This is blog number three for us. Three blogs, six years. It’s hard to believe that it’s been six years since we opened, but if you do the math (like we did), you’ll see it’s true. With your continued support, we will be here sixty more years—we have our fingers crossed.

State of the Store

I’ll be honest: the bookstore is in a hard period. We’re in our teenage years as a business and are still trying to figure out the best way to bring our unique blend of books and technology to the public. Oh yeah, and if you hadn’t heard, we’re in a recession and small businesses like ours are suffering. Big time.

Over the years we’ve tried numerous strategies, and while they’ve all resonated to some degree, we think we can do better. We’re on a mission to keep community bookstores relevant, and one thing is clear, this means innovating and engaging with our community, both locally and internationally, but especially locally.

In looking back at our last three years, the most dramatic change for the bookstore is the decline of the profits from our online business segment. Even with all of our fancy computerized inventory management systems we cannot eek a profit out of a book that is selling for a penny on Amazon. This shift away from Internet selling may surprise some of the people that follow us, but if we are to survive another day, we must be realistic and adapt. To be clear, we’re not planning on stopping our online sales—we’re just going to shift resources to other programs, giving them a chance to grow.

For example, the wealth of cheap books online is great for book buyers, and so we’re going to become buyers of books on the Internet as much as we are sellers of books. We hope to be able to curate an environment that meets the needs of our local community, sourced from sellers online. Over the next year we will introduce several programs that will allow our customers to be more in control of the books that are for sale in their store. But more on that in a bit…