Waterstone’s Woes
I have recently discovered that all is not well in the land of Waterstone’s and this upsets me for all sorts of reasons. As book lover. A customer. A future author (fingers crossed, touching wood and looking out for a lucky number of magpies… oh and writing copious amounts on a daily basis!)
Back in the late 80s my big sister would have loved a job at Waterstone’s. A decade ago when my friends and I started to look for part time jobs, Waterstone’s was the best of the best. Where could be better than a shop that sold books, with personality and passion. How can it be that in the past decade Waterstone’s has gone from the place where bookworms love to one they loathe?
I admit a majority of my book buying activity is now through Amazon. But not all of it. I can still spend an hour or more browsing through the shelves of Waterstone’s and buying more books than I’m going to get through in a year (considering I have two shelves already packed to the brim with books that I’m still to be read!) Amazon is quick and easy when you know what your looking for, but it can never compensate for the experience of standing in a bookshop and browsing.
In my naivety I honestly believed that Waterstone’s was still one of the good guys. One of those businesses that had enough passion and innovation to adapt and survive through the changes to retail. When I was living in London I wasn’t that surprised to see the second Oxford Street store close. I thought the business may have to shrink. But done with responsibility and an understanding of customers it would still be a great business that would come through the other side.
But this week my attention has been drawn to an article in The Bookseller. And things aren’t good. It is regarding something called ‘The Hub’ which is a new(ish) distribution centre. It doesn’t seem to be working and there are some unhappy customers. What’s more worrying is the hundreds of comments in response that highlight just how unhappy Waterstone’s staff are. The people that were passionate, committed and motivated to do their jobs are pissed off. And if their comments are to be believed, the best staff are leaving in droves.
It’s one thing that makes me incredibly angry is bad management. People who are after profit at any cost, and often it can’t be done in a sustainable way. There are exceptions to this rule. Some big boys survive whilst treating their suppliers, staff and customers pretty badly, but most companies fail if they treat people this way for a long period of time. The ones who do get away with it are those who offer the cheapest products with the most convenience. Something Waterstone’s will never be able to do.
Waterstone’s fall into the bracket of companies who have/had a fantastic brand and great customer service. The can’t compete on price, but they can compete on ‘customer experience’. It seems that the management of Waterstone’s need to go back to basics and learn a thing or two about business. It’s simple – treat your staff with respect, invest time in them and give them responsibility. In turn they will look after your customers and make you profit. Waterstone’s staff used to have respect and responsibility, it seems that has been lost.
I really hope that someone somewhere steps in soon and brings Waterstone’s back to it’s former glory, before all the best staff leave. Much as I love the convenience of Amazon, I’ll be sad to lose the opportunity to browse and buy on a Saturday afternoon.
Of course I couldn’t keep my mouth shut and my thoughts to myself. I had to comment on the article itself…
As ‘The Bookseller’ has been banned in Waterstone’s I’m guessing Gerry Johnson won’t be reading this… but I’d hate to see them [Waterstone's] disappear off the high street so:
1) Reinstate ‘The Bookseller’ access to staff
2) Listen to your staff. They KNOW your customers better than you do. You have thousands of experts out there. Invite them to tell you how to improve and give you ideas. Speak to them face to face. You and your top managers need to listen, accept, learn and move on!
3) Listen to your customers. They pay your wages and will decide whether Waterstone’s will live or die. Ask them what is going wrong. Then get it right (see point 2 for how!)
4) Listen to your suppliers. What is their biggest gripe? What do you get right? Rebuild relationships.
5) Stop trying to make as much money as you can by the end of this financial year, or next. Play the long game. Gradual improvements. Start with the aim of surviving. And tell your shareholders if they don’t like it now, they might not have anything to not like in a few years time.
6) Capitalise on your USP. Don’t try to compete with or emulate Amazon on what they do well. You won’t win. Find what you do well and sell on that.
Helen, great post. Waterstones should hire the both of us as consultants to sort out their problems.
Consultants? I think I need to take over from Gerry Johnson as MD!!! Ha ha ha ha…
There is now an article on The Guardian website about this story http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/oct/09/waterstones-removes-access-to-bookseller-website
I used to love Waterstones like you and I guess there might still be branches out there worthy of my love. But my local branch seems to only employ people who are totally clueless about books and literature. Once I asked about a book that had just received a double spread in the Sunday Times a few days before. They didn’t have a clue. I asked about history books for children and (in a completely empty shop) was just pointed offhandedly towards the children’s section of the shop. And I could go on. Besides, when Waterstones are always much more expensive than Amazon on new releases (or any other releases for that matter) and only deliver to your nearest bookshop, what on earth stops anyone from shifting to Amazon? I’d love to have a quality bookshop in my neighbourhood. I used to have that in Copenhagen and bought lots of books there in spite of the fact that I could get them a lot cheaper through Amazon. I liked the woman who owned it and her choice and recommendations of books. That’s a bookshop. No matter how big it is.
I have to disagree with your comment “that Waterstone’s was still one of the good guys”. As a company, Waterstones have pursued a relentless policy over a number of years taking over their quality competition and rebranding them into yet more Waterstones. They now predominate in their sector of the High Street to such an extent that their true competition has all but disappeared in some areas of the country (I don’t class a stationer and magazine seller who dabbles in the odd book such as W H Smith as a competitor, although I understand that Waterstones does when arguing they do not have a monopoly).
What’s happened, for example, to the chains of Ottakers and Dillons that they took over (never mind the smaller enterprises such as the SPCK University shop in Durham or the wonderful Mawson, Swan and Morgan by Grey’s Monument in Newcastle).
Waterstones is just part of a media chain – HMV Media. Their stock selection and promotion policy controls what we have access to when browsing and therefore read. By eliminating local competition they have already provided a form of censorship to the bookshop browser – you have to travel a long way now in many areas of the country to find a serious bookseller with a wide variety of stock that isn’t a Waterstones. Censoring the information that their own staff have access to is just another step along the road.
The Guardian have published another article about Waterstones… it’s a month since I wrote this blog and it doesn’t look like anything is getting any better.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/nov/10/waterstones-high-street-bookselling
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