quote:

For Lorem Ipsum founder Matt Mankins, it’s innovate or die.
After nine years of embracing the marriage of a digital world with a brick and mortar store, the owner of the Inman Square shop is reimaging a way to pull the used book business from red to black.

Mankins, an MIT grad, said he never shied away from the vast world of online retail, but embraced it right from the beginning by listing all of the books online as well as in the store. But just a few weeks ago on Nov. 25, Mankins put out an appeal on a Hacker News discussion forum for someone else to take over the struggling business.

“Lorem Ipsum benefited from a custom-coded inventory system that automatically listed our inventory for sale at other online partners like Amazon.com. It was fun to use, efficient, and worked,” Mankins wrote on the site. “For a while there, it looked like the dual-listing was the answer to the bookstore’s problems. Then supply-ballooned [sic], demand remained the same, and prices dropped.”

Mankins said the store needed a “radical change in thinking” to re-imagine the bookstore of the future. To do that, Mankins said he’s prepared to ask his customers to subscribe, turning the store into part-library, part-traditional bookstore.

“We’re going to focus on some of the experiential parts of the store – the things that make it special,” Mankins said. “The content is still special, but it’s more than that now.”

Repeat customers will be able to choose from three different pricing models: a “Netflix” tier priced at $7.99 per month where customers would be able to check out books as if from a library; at $25 per month, customers can check out as many books as they want but also receive a percentage off books they decide to keep, and would receive a discounted rate for in-store events; and at $100 per month, subscribers would also give access to a “writer’s room,” or a daily writing session along with an unlimited pass to all of the in-store events.

Mankins also said the store would focus on the events to make them “more premium.” If it works, Mankins said he hopes to take the model and allow other bookstores to join in with an “I-believe-in-bookstores” campaign.

Lorem Ipsum volunteer-turned-employee Mitch Broesder said the store already had a steady following of regulars who frequent the shop.

Al! posted:

i keep trying to read this article but every time i get to lorem ipsum my brain assumes its a fake article and stops

got dat wmd posted:

led lightning

Werthog 95 posted:

CALLING ALL BOOK LOVERS, SUPERHEROS, AVENGERS

quote:

Break it down for folks in more detail:

$23,300 goes to back rent.

quote:

If we don't reach our entire goal, we will use the money for rent.

quote:

I started Lorem Ipsum Books 9 years ago with the belief that bookstores were an important part of our community--and that they needed to innovate in order to survive.
Freshly out of graduate school at MIT the bookstore was started with the notion that integrating Internet-sales into a traditional brick-and-mortar bookstore was the way forward for small retailers. Rather than run from technology, we were going to embrace it to provide a new sales channel. With a group of friends I built this new way forward, creating Lorem Ipsum Books in Inman Square, Cambridge.

Lorem Ipsum benefited from a custom-coded inventory system that automatically listed our inventory for sale at other online partners like Amazon.com. It was fun to use, efficient, and worked. For awhile there, it looked like this dual-listing was the answer to bookstore's problems. Then supply-ballooned, demand remained the same, and prices dropped.

We tried many things, but were unable to get the store from red to black.

They just deleted our Wikipedia page, citing progress as being 'unremarkable'. Clearly something has to be done...

It's time to innovate again.

The bookstore needs fresh ideas, a radical change in thinking, and a reimagining of the role of the bookstore in the future. I don't want to shut the store down, but may be forced to. Instead, I'm looking to pass the store to other keepers--other innovators--hands.

I write to Hacker News to ask if anyone knows anyone in the Cambridge or Boston area that would be interested in this project?

Al! posted:

i keep trying to read this article but every time i get to lorem ipsum my brain assumes its a fake article and stops

Ian McLean posted:

Statpedia will be successful, and then once it is, I am going to build humanoid robots where people can upload the skills to an iStore and sell them on an online market. Then I can eat a different dish every day of my life because Google cars bring the materials to my robot. If everyone is buying everyone else's food dishes on this iStore, not to mention any other type of skill, it will create a new global economy of people buying other peoples robot skills.

Install Gentoo posted:

JawnV6 posted:

can someone explain what ian's whole plan was with the python script?

like did anyone dig in enough to fine some coherent chain of thought or are we at the victor/how!! equilibrium of effort:pathos?

Install Gentoo posted:

Cryin Burnigan posted:

kinda figured i was being "trolled" still gotta try though cause untreated mental illness really upsets me

Sweevo posted:

since when did 50% count as "apocalyptic"?

pretty sure the only change you'd even notice would be slightly less traffic

NevergirlsOFFICIAL posted:

i believe in ian mclean

Werthog 95 posted:

ian owns gently caress the haters

Olivil posted:

Its me im Olivier Lapicque

Sweevo posted:

since when did 50% count as "apocalyptic"?

pretty sure the only change you'd even notice would be slightly less traffic

TOOT BOOT posted:

So if ian's a troll what was the all the statpedia kickstarter poo poo about, either that part was real or he was gonna bounce with $20k if he got funded

TOOT BOOT posted:

Bookstores are going to be a thing of the past before long

Retail bookstores charge like 30-40% more than Amazon for the same book (even assuming you're buying a physical copy for some reason), and used bookstores try to get 40-50% for someone's dogeared old book so

TOOT BOOT posted:

Bookstores are going to be a thing of the past before long

Retail bookstores charge like 30-40% more than Amazon for the same book (even assuming you're buying a physical copy for some reason), and used bookstores try to get 40-50% for someone's dogeared old book so

poty posted:

you could say this about any kind of store

TOOT BOOT posted:

So if ian's a troll what was the all the statpedia kickstarter poo poo about, either that part was real or he was gonna bounce with $20k if he got funded

MORE CURLY FRIES posted:

Maybe it's really him but he was making fun of us making fun of him makes you think

Sparta posted:

also, ty mods for my av :]

polpotpi posted:

if ian is a troll i love him even more now considering he got 500 bucks out of it from kickstarter

the best troll is a profitable one