Bookstore x Space

Chapter 6: Multiplying with Bookstores (13)

While maintaining a strong love and commitment to books, one can arrange books while performing multiplications to further increase the appeal of the bookstore. Even a space filled with a large quantity of books has a certain charm, but if the selection is excellent and there is attention to detail in the furniture and fixtures, the appeal of the space as a whole increases even further. In such spaces, a need for the space itself emerges.

The most common case is a request to rent the entire space for a certain period of time as a location for photography. It is used not only for photo shoots for fashion pages in magazines, but also for filming commercials, movies, and dramas. Furthermore, if you create an attractive space, you will receive various inquiries, such as requests to rent it for a new product launch party, a press conference, or even for a personal surprise. It is, so to speak, a form of specialized photography studio.

Of course, if you rent out the space during business hours, you will not be able to operate during that time, so it is important to decide what kind of requests to accept and at what price. You can also decide to only rent it out before opening. Alternatively, you could prepare a menu with rates such as a price per hour before opening versus a price during normal business hours, and let the client choose based on their needs.

In fact, there are spaces that function primarily as studios. "NOEMA images STUDIO" in Nishi-Azabu, Minato-ku, Tokyo, is a "study studio" that houses the collection of author Shigeru Kashima. It centers on 19th-century French leather-bound books, allowing for photo shoots in a space lined with valuable books.

Alternatively, rather than temporary space rental, there is also the form of renting out a corner adjacent to the bookstore for exclusive use. For example, the aforementioned "SPBS" has a publisher's office in the back, while simultaneously functioning as a shared office with desk units. If your office is in the back of a bookstore, the entire bookstore becomes a resource and a source of ideas. Or, it could even be a residence. There must be many people who dream of living as if they were in a bookstore. If a property had a bookstore in one room on the first floor of an apartment complex and other rooms were residences, I imagine many people would want to live there.

Also, the form of renting to other retail or service businesses as tenants is being practiced, especially in large bookstores recently. Taiwan's "Eslite Bookstore" and Japan's "Tsutaya Books" are representative examples; they build a bookstore in the center or on the top floor, and rent out the surrounding areas or lower floors to other business types as tenants, or operate other business types themselves that are different from the bookstore. If the bookstore has the power to attract customers, those customers will flow to other tenants, and if the entire facility can be made into an attractive commercial complex, a synergistic effect will be produced.

Whether it is an office, a residence, or a commercial tenant, if you can earn income in the form of rent by operating while enhancing the appeal of the entire space as a bookstore, you can achieve more stable management.

*Reprinted from "A Reader for Future Bookstores" (NHK Publishing), pp. 226-228