Effdot.com

The article that this picture originally comes from has more footnotes than mine, check it out

I was working on an update to this site recently, and found myself stuck on a php problem. When you get stuck on a problem, if you’re anything like me you want an answer sooner rather than later.

I started with google. After some searching there, I went to wordpress to find a plugin, or maybe something in the codex to help me solve the issue. From there, I went broader and looked for php and mysql issues that could help me explain what was happening. Finally, I decided that I needed expertise beyond the unstrucured answers I was finding. I was also ready to pay for an answer.

Some people might turn to experts exchange, or a trusted friend to find the answer. I have a DIY personality, so my next stop was Amazon.com to look for books on the subject in which I was interested.

Once I found the books, I looked for electronic versions. Finding none, I then went to my google map to find the nearest bookstore. Borders and Barnes and Noble were both nearby, so I checked their websites for prices. Barnes and Noble was the winner, so I headed in to grab the book, read up, and (hopefully) solve the problem.

However, the book I thought was in the store was unavailable. I decided to ask the customer service person, on an off chance, if they knew any other good books on the subject. They knew where the materials were on the shelf, but beyond that had no opinion on php or mysql. Still, why should they? Open source software guides for project managers with a hacker mentality is a pretty narrow subject area. I looked online a little more, then decided to keep hacking away and skip making any kind of purchase.

I ended up doing what I should have done in the first place; namely, go to the o’reily website and read an ebook.

But, it made me think about my experience as a customer at that big book store. And truly, I can’t think of a time I have ever gone into a chain book store and gotten a sense of any kind of subject matter expertise in the last ten years.

I will admit that the above quest for knowledge is a little obsessive. However, I think that within that excessive speed searching session there is a pattern of behavior that shows a few important things when it comes to books.

1. I have been trained to have low expectations of expertise at chain stores
Large chains have thin volumes that have to support local, regional, and often national operations. One place to trim coat is via salary, by creating operations that can allow, in theory, your employee to do whatever narrow job the owners think it is they should do. Why hire an expensive chef when a line cook wih no training can slap frozen meat on a counter? This is not to disparage the people working at these places. We all need to work, after all. Rather, it’s to point to what these chains consider their core value proposition, and to point out that they may have trained the public too well in the process.

2. The utility of a big box store to a consumer is volume and discounts
I looked extensively online for answers before even thinking of buying a book. Once I had decided to buy a book, I prepared myself by researching online before I set foot in the store. I knew that, while a store might have the book that contained the knowledge I needed, it would be highly unlikely that anyone there would be enough of a subject matter expert to point me in the direction of a useful text to help me with my php and mysql problem. In other words, the staff at Barnes and Noble could only point me to a volume, stack, or section that might have the material I would find useful, but they had no other opinion on the material. I already knew this because every customer experience I have ever had at their store indicates this to me. They are there to push widgets. Having an opinion about the widget itself is secondary, and depending on what they do at the store, not part of their job description. Like, if you’re a cashier, and there’s only 2 people in the store, it’s probably pretty likely that you’re not required to know much about the books. For the folks in the store, all of the books in which I was interested were simply commodities that either satisfied my purchase desire, or not. Beyond helping me find a book that was shelved wrong, there isn’t much more to offer to a customer at such a store in my experience. Either they have the book at a cheap price, ready for me to grab now, or they don’t.

3. If there was an expert available at the point of purchase to suggest an alternate, I will probably buy the book
O’reily is an expert in computer books. They are also a publisher, which means that I take their expertise with a grain of salt. They will grant me access to their knowledge, but not to anyone else’s knowledge. So, it is a limited expert opinion. But, and here’s the thing, it was enough expertise that I was willing to complete a sale with them.

4. Barnes and Noble looked like a pit stop at a mall instead of the warehouse of expert knowledge that I needed
I almost bought a cafe latte and a scone, but I hesitated. Looking at the offerings, I thought, man, if these guys are only good at shoving massive product at me, what’s in that scone? I didn’t trust anything in the store, aside from the prices and quantities. Price and quantity are not good measures for buying food. So, pass on all of it. Except for the bathroom.

5. Electronic books are designed for volumes, discounts, and speed of purchase
I think this is worth remembering. I went to O’Reily in the end because they had more product, of higher quality and expertise, at a lower price, in greater quantities than Barnes and Noble. I could have purchased my book on Amazon.com, or B&N, and even had a physical copy shipped to me. Or, I could go to O’Reily and get the information instantly. The big chains have trained me to expect volume, discounts, and speed. If someone else does what they do better and faster, then of course I’m going to go shop there. In a sense, it’s like the stores built their own demise by not being fast enough.

This post probably sounds a little hopeless for book sellers. Maybe it is. I’m also willing to admit that my Maurice Moss like tendencies make me a strange shopper.

But to me, this isn’t hopeless for book sellers, book makers, or anyone. Because in the end, I still bought a book. In fact, I was very close to buying a physical book.

What could’ve made me buy that physical book? The answers are contained in the situational analysis above. I’ll save my silver-lined answers until Thursday.