Author: Book Depot

Customers shop for bargain books at annual book outlet box sale.

Retail Store Event Feature: Annual Box Sale

April 21, 2017

Every year on the March break, book-loving customers come from far and wide to visit our retail store location and participate in the Book Outlet Box Sale. Tables upon tables are filled with damaged product or slow selling/excess titles that are accumulated over the year from our warehouse location. About a year goes into preparing the 24,000 sq ft warehouse to become a veritable candy factory of books, lined with overladen tables. It has become such a popular local event that our marketing was made easy by the enthusiasm and involvement of the customers, proving day after day that they look forward to this year-round.

Box Sale 2017

This year’s sale proved to be one of the very best in several regards. The product we procured over the year was a big driver of sales. We were selling books by Emma Donoghue, Stephen King, Jeffrey Archer, Ken Follett, Oliver Jeffers, Sandra Boynton, Julia Donaldson, and so many more! It’s no wonder our customers came in chaotic droves first thing in the morning to rush in and peruse the tables. In past years, we have been accustomed to a line up at the door and rush when we open, but this year was an exceptionally busy year, partially due to the excellent social media campaign that got our customers so excited for this event. As well as visual teasers and daily advertising, we ran a number of new and thrilling contests for our customers, such as hiding boxes in the store and having people rush in to find them, hosting coloring and writing contests for the youth, and a Facebook Like & Share post that reached over 218,000 people, all with the enticing prize of a free box at the sale. Perhaps the most exciting promotion we ran throughout the sale was our Golden Ticket promotion, where we hid a number of shiny tickets within the stacks of sale books, which also entitled the customer who found it to a free box of books at the sale. As a result of all of this incredible dedication and effort from the store staff, we exceeded our past sales results, making this year the best Box Sale ever at a total of 3536 boxes in three days.

We hope this might inspire you to run your own exciting sale in your store that garners a lot of attention! Do you have more questions about the sale and promotions leading up to the event? Please comment below.

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The Life Cycle of a Bargain Book

January 13, 2017

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Wooden arch filled with books in book outlet store.

Book Art: Get People Talking About Your Store

December 5, 2016

Book Art

Creating something interesting in-store for people to talk about can increase foot traffic and chatter around your business! Book Art is a great way to achieve this!

Gerry Wikkerink, retired father (and avid woodworker!) of Book Depot CEO Wilf Wikkerink, built this book arch which serves as the entrance to our 40,000 square ft. retail store in St. Catharines, Ontario. The arch has become the subject of many social media posts, contests, and creates an amazing impression for first time customers to the store. We also started a hashtag gallery that can be viewed here, in which customers who visit the store are encouraged to share their picture under our #bookportal.

Check out some other book art below that may seem a little elaborate at first, but use your creativity to see how you could install something on a smaller scale to your store and get your customers talking!

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Robotic sorter machine in Book Deport warehouse, Thorold, Ontario.

Press Release: Book Depot Betting Big on Its Returns Business

April 20, 2016

Originally posted on Publisher’s Weekly on April 19, 2016 “Book Depot Betting Big on Its Returns Business“

By Judith Rosen

One of the largest bargain book wholesalers in North America, Book Depot, continues to be bullish about its returns business. The Ontario, Canada-based company is completing a $3 million project to add a large-scale mechanical sorter, robotics, and supporting technologies that will enable it to make book returns easier for publishers and retailers.

With the new equipment, which will be in use by May 24, Book Depot said it will be able to sort through the books that arrive at its warehouse—excess inventory and returns shipped by publishers—at the fastest pace in its 30-year history. The new equipment will enable Book Depot to sort more than 100,000 books per day, and free up 70,000 sq. ft. of warehouse space.

“While some bargain book wholesalers have scaled back or shuttered operations,” said Book Depot CIO and managing partner Bill Van Vliet, “[we] continue to invest in people and operations.” He went on: “As our tagline states, ‘The largest selection pays,’ and we are intent to over-deliver on that promise.”

Book Depot is the first company in the bargain book business to use state-of-the art automation to sort incoming inventory. The new equipment will enable the company to offer more publishers the option to outsource their returns processing to its facility.

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