There are two or three customers on average every day, but there are "big coffees" in the industry who patronize the traffic era. In the era of traffic, the determination is still to only sell books
When opening an archaeological bookstore, she wants to make a "small cake"
The Humanities and Archaeology Bookstore displays some new books
Hong Xia
Age: 34
Occupation: Manager of the Humanities and Archaeology Bookstore
her story
10 years working in an archaeological bookstore
To be "a bookstore that only sells books"
Hong Xia, the 34-year-old store manager, has been in the bookstore deep in Beijing's Sanhuqiao Hutong for nearly ten years.
The two houses, one south and one north, add up to 120 square meters. The east-facing windows in the store are not large, and light only comes in in the morning.
Few people walk into this bookstore, with an average of two or three customers per day, and they often ask, "Can I survive?" Hong Xia just smiled.
She knows that she and this small bookstore are living well. Last year, the bookstore sold more than 5 million yuan of books, and the average monthly salary of the clerk was about 10,000 yuan.
Ten years ago, Hong Xia, who was a graduate student, would never have thought of putting herself in such an unpopular, dilapidated, cramped, or even "isolated" archaeological bookstore.
only to know
"Why hasn't the door opened today? I'm at the door of the store"
The blue-gray hutong brick houses, the red light signs, the creeping tigers "covered" on the store walls in summer also pulled their feet early, and the yellow-brown wattles sparsely hung on the front of the bookstore.
In 2015, Hong Xia graduated from Capital Normal University with a master's degree in historical philology. Including her part-time work at the school, she has worked in this bookstore for 10 years and became the store manager 4 years ago.
Many archaeological materials are large-scale high-definition atlases, a set of which ranges from a few hundred yuan to several thousand yuan or even more than 10,000 yuan.
She is sympathetic to the difficulties of the students, and even does not object to someone in the bookstore taking pictures of the contents of the book with their mobile phones.
A student asked her for help on WeChat, "Please, I can't afford a book worth 860 yuan as a student, and I only need two pages from the gender statement of the tomb owner."
"Gender identification is a relatively important point. Technology identification can't be explained in a few words. There must be a separate directory entry. How can it be only two pages." Hong Xia replied.
In the end, she unpacked the brand new "Anyang North Xujiaqiao Excavation Report 2001-2002" and spent more than an hour - this was originally the time she wanted to sit in the store and read the book. She took 45 pages and gave it to this man Send it to students who have not bought books in the store.
"I'll give you money."
"No need. Write your paper well."
But understanding is understanding. After posting the photo, Hong Xia remembered, "I didn't even earn food money today."
Most of the time, there are only sporadic customers in the store.
Usually the only sound in the store is the sound of keyboards, the sound of sliding ladders to take books, and the sound of sticky tape as books are packed.
In fact, this is a bookstore that is well-known in the archaeology and cultural and blog circles, and there are often archaeological "big coffees" in the store.
Some students met Luo Tai, a professor of art history at the University of California in the United States, and Deng Cong, a professor of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, who has an important academic influence in the field of East Asian jade research.
Once, when Prince Jin, a famous expert on the history of Qin and Han Dynasties, came to the store to buy books, he was recognized by the clerk. Hong Xia quickly found 12 of his monographs in the store and asked him to sign them.
"Archaeological articles come from the fields, and there are a lot of them waiting for those who know them." The real "knowledgers" will whisper in the store, "You actually have this book."
Hong Xia felt that what she was doing was to put together professional books and wait for the "knowledgers" to appear.
The bookstore has a group of regular customers - practitioners in the archaeological industry, most of them are workers and students in universities, research institutions, museums and other fields, and they have a strong demand for professional books.
One winter, a professor of epitaph research came to Beijing's National Library from the northeast to search for research materials. The hotel was located near the Humanities and Archaeology Bookstore, and he stopped by the bookstore to buy books.
At 9 o'clock in the morning, he was standing at the door of the store with a suitcase and a backpack, calling Hong Xia, who had just left the subway, "Why hasn't the door opened today, I'm at the door of the store." After entering the store, he checked inside. data for a day.
Two days later, the professor came over again with the suitcase and said to Hong Xia, "I can't live anymore, I have to leave. I can save money for two days of staying in a hotel, and I can buy a few more books."
upstream
Open a brick-and-mortar store with slow-selling books
"Many books here can be sold for ten years"
It was Hong Xia's childhood dream to open a bookstore.
When she was in her third year, she was recommended by her teacher to be a tutor. The parents of the students were Xu Hong, a well-known archaeologist, and An Yezhi, who used to be a history teacher at Shandong University.
In 2011, An Yezhi wanted to create an archaeological website—a place to gather archaeological information and connect archaeological enthusiasts.
The site "burns" a lot of money very quickly and has little attention.
The thousand or so books that were originally intended to be sold on the archaeological website have also been piled up in a residential house near the Zizhuyuan.
At that time, no one thought that an idea to get rid of the "mess" of the website's failure to start a business led to the birth of a humanities and archaeology bookstore.
Hong Xia, who is in the first year of graduate school, has also changed from An Yezhi's child's tutor to a part-time employee of a bookstore.
In 2012, the bookstore opened at its current address.
Hong Xia, who studied historical philology, became An Yezhi's effective helper.
More than 1,000 kinds of archaeological and cultural-related books are published every year across the country. An Yezhi and Hong Xia are going to get the list of newly published books from various publishing houses, and select books related to archaeology.
Hong Xia remembered that An Yezhi found some books from under the scholar's bed.
An Yezhi was in charge of finding books, finding books, and expanding sales. Hong Xia and two other shop assistants were responsible for sorting out book lists, communicating and delivering goods, operating online stores, and doing publicity on public platforms.
Although the dream of working in a bookstore has been realized, it is completely different from Hong Xia's imagination of the bookstore.
It is her daily routine to tidy up the bibliography and meet the needs of customers. She also has to deal with trivial matters such as plagiarism of original articles on the official account and customers returning goods without reason. There was even a time when a customer dropped a precious copperplate book on the ground, causing the spine of the book to crack. .
Later, the relationship between the bookstore and some publishing houses became better and better, and the publishing house offered to reduce the discount of the catalogue.
The sales market has also become wider and wider. By 2014, the number of institutional users has increased, and the bookstore has gradually gained a surplus.
Hong Xia officially became a bookstore clerk after graduating from graduate school in 2015.
She edited the bookstore's bibliography from a dozen pages to more than 100 pages, making it a unique collection of bibliographies in the archaeological circle.
After working in the bookstore for a year and a half, Hong Xia wanted to leave.
"I want to go out and experience that new life and try the subway ride," Hong Xia said.
In 2016, she moved out of the hutong of Sanhu Bridge and came to the tenth floor of an office building with a glass curtain wall and abundant light.
The fast-paced life made her miss the simple days of being with books in the bookstore, and she was also worried about the declining sales of the bookstore's online store platform.
"Come back. You'll be the store manager." In 2017, An also invited Hong Xia to come back.
An Yezhi said that he is suitable for pioneering and expanding, but is not good at refined operation and management.
"You don't need two strong women in the store now, you are the second female boss." She knew in her heart that Hong Xia was very thoughtful and would be able to perform even more when she became the store manager.
When she first returned to the bookstore, there were many difficult questions waiting for Hong Xia.
The two store clerks are leaving, the bookstore has more and more inventory, but the sales of the online store are declining, and the promotional books have not been updated every day.
Hong Xia started her own "tossing".
"Crack" - the heavy tome broke the bookshelf, and there were more and more books in the store.
Hong Xia re-customized the cabinets, turning the original low cabinets that could only be laid out flat into tall cabinets with a full top, and also designed the bottom of the bookshelf to extend 30 cm out of the table for readers to sit on.
She also bought wooden labels and gave each bookshelf a pleasant "coordinate" in thousand-character characters. Now it has been edited from "The Heaven and Earth, The Universe Is Prestigious" to "Pushing the position to give up the country, there is Yu Tao Tang".
Hong Xia now rents with two clerks in the store.
Before becoming a clerk, Xiao Fan was Hong Xia's roommate.
In 2017, Xiao Fan just quit his last job. At that time, the bookstore was in need of manpower. Hong Xia said to her, "Why don't you come to our bookstore and have a look at it as a place to rest on the way."
This "break" is 4 years, and Xiaofan also turned this job into an interest.
Unlike other bookstores, many of the books in the Humanities and Archaeology Bookstore have been sold for ten years—or rather, many books here can last for ten years.
Book lover's favorite
"Never once went back empty-handed"
A one-shot deal makes a lifetime deal
Ten years ago, I came here with the thousand or so books called "mess", as well as a large field of wisteria and roses planted by An Yezhi and Hong Xia in the backyard of the bookstore.
At that time, neither of them knew how long the bookstore would be open.
Now, the humanities and archaeology bookstore adds about 150 new books every month, displays more than 10,000 kinds of books, and collects more than 60,000 kinds of books. It is the absolute "head" of the private humanities and archaeology bookstores.
Stable institutional customers are the profit base for bookstores.
If you have to talk about any successful experience, Hong Xia said, "Maybe it's a one-shot deal into a lifetime deal."
The curator of the data room of the Zhejiang Institute of Archaeology is an old customer of the Humanities and Archaeology Bookstore for nearly ten years.
The most time, he entered 100,000 yuan of books.
"Humanities and archaeology bookstores can't be done by others." He felt that opening a private bookstore specializing in archaeological books not only required contacts in the circle, but also needed people who "understand this".
When there is no such bookstore for humanities and archaeology, he often has to go to the publishing house to fill out paper forms or collect books from different bookstores online. This bookstore for humane and archaeology can solve his problems.
Sometimes, one or two bookstores didn't have them, and Hong Xia would find a way to buy them from other publishers and then deliver them.
For display, you only need to mark the book you want to buy in yellow from the electronic catalog.
Wen Shuang, who is engaged in power generation, is a frequent visitor to the store. His work unit is far away from downtown Beijing, but he often takes a two-hour subway ride to the National Expo to watch exhibitions. The Humanities and Archaeology Bookstore is his next stop.
The Humanities and Archaeology Bookstore satisfies his curiosity after every visit to the exhibition.
Sometimes after visiting jade and stone exhibitions, he would come to consult Hong Xia related books.
Almost never went back empty-handed.
Wen Shuang spends about 7,000 yuan every year to buy books at the Humanities and Archaeology Bookstore.
Wen Shuang said that he just likes this kind of bookstore that has no "net celebrity taste" and no whispers, and he can read more calmly here.
Some old customers will tell the clerk every time they come, "It's so good, this store is still there."
traffic hits
Don't let readers waste money
To be "a bookstore that only sells books"
A questionnaire survey and analysis report of over 1,000 brick-and-mortar bookstores made Hong Xia feel the fragility of brick-and-mortar bookstores for the first time.
She saw that 85.84% of bookstores closed without any source of income during the epidemic.
The bookstore was reopened in June 2021. During the epidemic period, many units were unstable in reimbursement, and the purchase volume in the online store of the Humanities and Archaeology Bookstore declined. It was not until November that Hong Xia breathed a sigh of relief, "We survived."
The Humanities and Archaeology Bookstore has encountered two traffic waves.
The first time was at the end of August last year, when a WeChat account introduced the Humanities and Archaeology Bookstore, and the traffic it brought came back to calm after half a month.
Another time I felt the traffic was after the Xinhua News Agency reported.
More than 100 people came to visit that weekend, and at most 30 people were crowded in the store at the same time - this is almost the upper limit of the number of people the bookstore can accommodate.
A reader came to the store, chose a book of 92 yuan, dropped 100 yuan and ran away, leaving a sentence "must cheer up".
Hong Xia's senior brother took advantage of the traffic of this report to invite her to the live broadcast room to introduce the humanities and archaeology bookstore and books.
This brought some customers to the bookstore.
Some readers suggested that the bookstore continue to open live broadcasts, but Hong Xia felt that how could it be possible to understand an archaeological book in the dozens of minutes of the live broadcast?
Interested people will come naturally, and the recommended readings are not understood by the public, which also makes them waste money.
Along with the flow, there is also Hong Xia's observation and thinking.
She feels that this kind of publicity that is not aimed at specific readers will not have a lasting effect, because some people come here just for curiosity and do not buy books.
After Beijing launched the bookstore support plan, in 2018, the Humanities and Archaeology Bookstore applied for the support of this project, and the annual support fund can almost equalize the bookstore’s rent for one year.
The Humanities and Archaeology Bookstore also began to communicate with other bookstores in Beijing. Only then did Hong Xia know that compared with other bookstores, her own bookstore was making money, and the salary of its employees of about 10,000 yuan per month was also higher than that of other bookstores. Average bookstore.
Whenever there is a chance, Hong Xia will visit bookstores in different cities.
What impressed her deeply was that of the dozen bookstores she visited, almost every one of them became a "coffee shop".
When going to Shanghai, Hong Xia visited Zhongshuge in Songjiang Town.
At the entrance of Zhongshuge, there are transparent glass under the feet, and under the glass are small bookstores, which are filled with various books, and they stand on the spines of these books.
"How do you feel at this moment?" Hong Xia asked her friend.
"And you?"
"Holy and reverent." Hong Xia whispered.
Later, when Hong Xia and the store manager talked about this design, she said that it is sacred and awe-inspiring because we dare not easily trample on the great works of our predecessors.
The store manager nodded, "However, more people come here to visit and take pictures, not for books."
She failed to find the "experience" she wanted from other bookstores, but instead gave birth to her determination to be "a bookstore that only sells books", "Just eat the cake that was distributed to you. This is a Definitely not going to make a fortune, but at least a bookstore with enough food and clothing."
Hong Xia wants to build a bookstore like a library, with a seating area, no need to pay, and readers who come to check materials can sit there.
"The back-to-back seats are connected in the middle, and there is a bookshelf above the seats, where books can be placed."
"Like is like, it's engraved in the bones." Hong Xia said.
She once wrote in a circle of friends: "'Material' can make people live, but 'spirit' can make people not die."
Among the countless cell phone photos, there is one Hong Xia's favorite -- the cluster of wisteria flowers swaying in the summer wind. Together with her and this small bookstore, they have grown for ten years.
She said, "Opening a bookstore is the footprint I can leave, the words I carved in stone."
This edition of the text and photo / reporter Li Jingjing
co-ordination / plan