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Archiver > SOG-UK > 2003-02 > 1046436746


From: "Caroline Gurney" <>
Subject: Re: [SoG] The Society Bookshop and comparison with Amazon
Date: Fri, 28 Feb 2003 13:01:02 -0000
References: <20030228122515.81602.qmail@web20903.mail.yahoo.com>


Rob Thompson wrote:

<very big snip>

> If direct staff costs (IE Staff employed ONLY in
> the bookshop) are greater than the profit on the books

Staff don't have to be employed only in the bookshop for their costs to
exceed the profit. If the cost of whatever proportion of their time is spent
on those duties exceeds the profit, then the bookshop will run at a loss.
Kevin Laurence has pointed out that the bookshop made only £7,454 in 2001
before any staff costs or other administrative overheads directly related to
the bookshop were taken into account. That is, only half one person's time
would have needed to be spent there before the bookshop was in the red.

As Geoffrey wrote earlier: "In our case most orders are for an odd book and
the paperwork and staff effort behind the scenes is too costly to be
efficient".

Caroline Gurney
Portsmouth






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