Shop around the clock

A wet Tuesday evening in March, 9.45 p.m. at the Borders flagship store in Oxford Street. I am standing in line behind two people at the information desk. The store is not exactly packed, but at a rough count there must be upwards of 150 people, mainly youngish, browsing, sitting in the armchairs and listening to CDs. Some of them must be buying, because when it comes to paying at around 10 p.m., there is someone ahead of me at the till. And they are still coming in through the doors.

Outside, the only stores open are the ubiquitous McDonalds and Burger King. Even now, 15 years after Waterstones started doing it in a big way, it seems a little strange that, of all places, a bookshop should be the late-opening store. But as Waterstones recognised, you have to look at bookshops in a whole new light.

Ben Hurd, assistant manager of Waterstones on Glasgow's Sauchiehall Street, has a point when he says "at nine in the evening there are people in the shop and the tills are ringing. People are beginning to come in the evening as though it were an event, an entertainment, rather than just buying a book. They can meet, have a coffee—it is a social thing."

The bookshop as social club! And why not, when we are living in an age in which all the retailing nostrums are being turned on their head. Five years ago, most shops were closed by 6 p.m. and there was not much open on a Sunday. On the Lord's Day it was easier to buy pornography than a Bible. The law was changed in December 1994, partly because it was being flouted by DIY stores and because it no longer had public support. Now supermarkets are open round the clock—from Monday through to Saturday evening (opening is still restricted to six hours on Sundays for large stores). Tesco has 84 stores that open at 8 a.m. on Monday and do not close until 10 p.m. on Saturday.

Deregulation has brought us all-night petrol stations, grocery stores and even barber shops. In the US, home of the 24-hour society, you can go to a gym in Los Angeles whenever you want; buy stamps at Chicago's main post office at any time; buy books late at night in New York; and if you are unlucky enough to live in Las Vegas, witness a wedding at two in the morning.

It is not just that the law has changed. Technology has put a stick of dynamite up retailing's backside. Banks have realised that with ATMs, telephone and online banking, the old-style retail outlet has had its day. It is only the long leases on their high street branches that stop them closing most of them down. Those that can be sold are being turned into bars and restaurants. First Direct built a business on the maxim, "It is not that we are open at two in the morning that is important, but that we are not closed." In other words, it is up to you, Mr and Ms customer—use us when you want.

An example of what this means is Kinkos, a US-based chain with more than 900 business support service centres (in other words, very large and sophisticated photocopying shops) in seven countries. Richard Branson's Virgin Group has a 50% stake in the British and French operations. The company has opened two stores in central London and plans to have about 100 in the UK over the next five years, providing 365 days a year, round-the-clock office services support to all sizes of business, from one person freelances to large corporations.

Satisfying customer demand

The Kinkos shops are open all night. The company has recognised that the successful supplier is one that can profitably meet customer demands, whatever they are and whenever they are made. Customers in big towns now expect their demands to be met at a time of their choosing. If this happens to be in the middle of the night or first thing the next morning, then so be it. Many British businesses are still working to a time pattern set long before the last world war, and which bears no relationship to the way the world now operates.

So, travel agents find it tough to compete with direct bookings by phone, fax and Internet. In response, the Co-op is experimenting with a mega Travel Shop on the Middlebrook site near Bolton, open until late, with everything under one roof, and thereby offering a way not just of choosing a holiday but of sampling it with full multimedia technology.

And, of course, there is Amazon.com, the best-known example of what is happening in this new 24-hour Internet economy. In the past three years, Amazon.com has sold books to over three million people in 160 countries. Jeff Bezos, the company's founder, realised sooner than most that the consumer relationship with time was changing. The time-stressed public had become used to saving time by buying convenience foods and using microwave ovens; people also knew about value for time, namely that an experience that uses up time should be a worthwhile and preferably enjoyable one, providing them with value for the time they have given up.

In addition, the past decade has seen people latch on to a further time criteria, time choice, or having the freedom to choose when to do something.

The Internet releases the customer from time constraints. This was possible in the past simply through the telephone, as customers of Direct Books will remember. But you had to know what you wanted. Now customers can view Websites at a time that suits them, decide on a purchase and, by inputting the relevant credit card information, confirm the purchase instantaneously. The site carries information on stock availability and delivery so that the customer knows, if it is a tangible item, when she will be receiving her goods.

Intangibles, such as financial services, airline reservations and educational material, can be bought, confirmed and downloaded in a matter of moments. Improvements in the Internet itself, combined with the falling cost of telephone links, will drive large sections of retail and intermediary business on to the Net and end the tyranny of opening hours.

The Internet meets the three customer time criteria: it saves time by speeding up the process of product and service selection and purchase; it can provide value for time where Websites are designed to entertain as well as inform; and the Net obviously meets the criteria for time choice since it leaves the customer free to decide when to go shopping on the PC.

The Amazon site adds to time choice and time saving by offering value for money by discounting. It gives value for time by providing book reviews and special offers as well as directing customers to books on the subject in which they are interested. This genuinely provides value for time by providing the customer with both information and entertainment.

Borders uses extra-long opening hours at the flagship stores as a means of offering time choice. Philip Downer, Borders' UK operations director, says: "We get more customers between 10 and 11 at night than we do between eight and nine in the morning. Early in the morning we get people on the way to work who tend to know what they want. In the evenings the store becomes a meeting place, and people browse, sit, drink coffee and even stronger stuff, as the café is licensed."

At Borders, customers can take unbought books into the café area and read them over coffee. The goodwill element outweighs spoilage and helps upgrade the whole book-buying experience. Philip Downer is keen to get people to buy a coffee and take it with them into the stacks, but so far the British, unlike the Americans, have resisted this small cultural revolution. "But there is a strong commercial case for longer opening hours," he says. "We thought we would do well with longer hours when we first opened, but the popularity of late opening has surprised even us."

Faced with all this change, how do other bookshops respond? The Pan Bookshop on London's Fulham Road can genuinely claim that it has been ahead of the game since it opened in 1974. It was open late well before anyone else, and it still opens from 9.30 a.m. to 9.30 p.m. during the week, from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.on Saturdays, and from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Sundays.

Part of the neighbourhood

The shop, which won the Independent Bookshop of the Year trophy at the British Book Awards this year, has long been a favourite of the area's slightly louche and bohemian set. In recent years it has become more mainstream and much bigger, as the area itself has become more affluent and more conventional. Manager June Formby sees it as very much part of the local neighbourhood. "We know about 70% of our customers by sight," she says, "and they like coming here because of the friendliness and familiarity. People often come here in the evenings to meet before going to the cinema or to have a meal. The nearby cinema is a great draw and we get a big increase in the secondary footfall traffic when a popular film, such as 'Shakespeare in Love', is showing. People who go to movies also buy books."

Bookshops are part of the general retailing and leisure environment. People like shopping; after television viewing, it is the second biggest leisure pursuit, but they like to do it at a time that suits them. They also like to go to bookshops as part of a joined-up evening—say, go to the bookshop, then see a film and have a late meal. But June Formby is adamant that, when it comes to opening hours and being part of that general leisure scene, "once you have made your bed, you have to lie in it. If you are going to be open late every evening then you have to stick to it with no chopping and changing."

Horses for courses

Specialist bookshops can still, to some extent, fashion consumer demand. Many of Blackwell Retail's 80 branches are campus shops. Clare Pirie, Blackwells' marketing and brand manager, sees the group responding to the inexorable trend towards a 24-hour society in different ways. "The campus stores know their customers very well," she says. "At present they are open university hours, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., and we have not picked up any demand for change. Of course, we stay open longer at the start of term. The high street stores, apart from the Charing Cross Road branch, which opens late, are also 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., though we join in with other retailers at special times, such as the run-up to Christmas, when we all open longer.

"Our Internet site caters for those who want to buy books late at night, so we have a linked strategy to cover all occasions. But we keep a very close eye on retail changes to make sure that we move with them."

Also keeping a close eye on trends is Melanie Howard of the Future Foundation, a London-based forecasting organisation. She believes that retailers do not pay enough attention to the way in which customers' behaviour changes over the course of a day. "The book market is a fascinating example of how, in a buoyant product category, several distribution channels can exist side by side, and the customer will move between them depending on a number of factors: where they are in the buying process; what type of purchase it is (business/pleasure); how much time they have available; what time of the day it is and so on.

"In the 24-hour society, there are as many people wanting to shop from home during the evening as there are on the high street. Our own work shows that there is a significant proportion of affluent consumers who love shopping but who don't always have time to get out, and are very receptive to offers via new media. Bookshops need to realise this and serve both audiences more effectively round the clock."

Maybe. The success story of the past few years is the fast-growing Ottakars chain. Its 65 stores tend to be open from 9 a.m. to 5.30 p.m. Many of them are sited in smaller towns and often have no direct competition, but even where there are other bookshops open on a Sunday, Ottakars stays closed. Vanessa Eversfield, Ottakars' operations director, acknowledges that the group's Scottish stores are the exception to overall policy. "We try hard to be the local bookshop and so we fall in with demand. In Scotland, Sunday opening is expected. But in the main, we are in locations where the other shops shut at 5.30 p.m. and so do we. However, if there is a local demand for extended hours then we will respond, in the same way that we are opening an Internet site later this year."

Ottakars may operate in many towns as the solus bookshop, but this does not mean that there is no competition. There are many more book distribution channels than there used to be, with supermarkets and even some petrol stations getting in on the act.

Getting later all the time

There is a perceptible change under way in our shopping habits. We are shopping later. The National Travel Survey suggests that there is a slight but significant shift in the timing of journeys made principally to go shopping, from the midday period to the 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. slot. And the National Grid has noted an increase in electricity usage between 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. as many shops stay open later.

The Victoria & Albert Museum got into trouble a while ago with an advertising campaign that ran along the lines: "Ace café with quite a nice museum attached". Could it be that we will see a café society developing in our towns and cities, open until late and with quite a nice bookshop attached? The Caffe Pedrocci in Padua is the grandaddy of all cafés. In the last century, the popular hangout of intellectuals opened through the night. Don't be too surprised if the Pedrocci store, a great café with a nice bookshop attached, is the bookshop of the future.



Leon Kreitzman is managing director of the Maturity Marketing consultancy. THE 24 HOUR SOCIETY (£16.99, 1861971044) was published on 24th February by Profile Books.