It's not Easter, but We've Sold Nine Copies of "I am a Bunny" this Month

It's not like we didn't sell I Am a Bunny before, but 9 in the month of June seems a bit much, for us at least (it's all relative).

But it isn't, because it's selling off our impulse table. People pick up this board book version of the Little Golden Book by Richard Scarry and they want it. They haven't seen it everywhere before, or maybe they have, and finally there's a call to buy that compels them to complete the purchase.

It's something we brought over from the Schwartz Shorewood location, literally, a small square table. It's not great fiction or a soapbox thesis on changing the world. It's right by our busier register--facing the front of the store, it's the one on the right. I was shocked to find out when I started working here that more than 90% of our sales go through this register. Am I such a novice retailer that I couldn't guess where most customers would head?

Here's the current makeup:
1. Stuff White People Like
2. Baby Mix me a Drink
3. I Hope they serve Beer in Hell
4. Was Superman a Spy?
5. Little People in the City

And a few other assorted odds and ends. .

When I worked at our Iron Block store downtown, we called them counter books (they still are, of course), and they worked. But the problem was they were fighting for space with each other and the customer, who wanted that space to get out their credit card or (now, rarely) write a check.

Then Schwartz brought in a sidelines buyer, and they took over most of that counter space. It was a fair argument--the books might sell somewhere else, but the stuff, unlikely. It was also more likely to be stolen out of site of the front desk.

This arrangement makes peace in the war between book and nonbook--the treaty of the impulse table.