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MEXICO
-- Imagine transporting 10,000 used books from San Francisco
to Puerto Morelos, Mexico and then trying to clear customs without
the proper paperwork.
In September l997 that was our first exposure to the world
of owning and operating a used book store in Mexico - Alma
Libre Libros.
Yes, we eventually managed to clear customs. We can only believe
that after three weeks of looking at nearly 200 boxes of books
on their dock, some customs official decided to clear the deck
and release our books.
In our haste to depart our 9 to 5 jobs in San Francisco and
make the big move to Mexico we followed a friend's advice on
getting started in business here. "Don't bother to go to the
Mexican Consulate before you come down," he told us. "Just ship
the books and see what happens."
Although we could have received better advice, this wait and
see attitude did do the trick. But clearing customs was only
the beginning of the challenge to set up shop here. We had planned
for many years to finally be at this point in opening a book
store. For three years prior to our move to Puerto Morelos we
had shopped on weekends at garage sales, thrift shops and Friends
of the Library sales in the San Francisco area for used books.
We soon ran out of space in our Half Moon Bay home and had to
rent a Bekins Storage unit in nearby Redwood City.
I attended a weekend workshop at a local community college
on how to start a used bookstore, and soon we were following
a tried and true formula - in the US at least - on how to realize
our dream. We set up the store on a buy-sell-trade basis which
allows customers to trade in their used books for trade credit
in the store. This generates new titles for the store, and allows
the customer to read new books for little, if any, cost.
We learned what percentage of books to have in hardback versus
paperback; how much fiction to carry, mystery, spy-adventure,
science fiction, metaphysics, art, hobbies, and the list goes
on.
Living near San Francisco proved very lucky in that we found
an eclectic, intelligent mix of books and our customers comment
frequently on the selection we offer.
Thinking ahead we had contacted our present landlord two years
before we permanently moved to Puerto Morelos and asked him
to put us in line for any opening in the shops he had available
on the town square. He soon informed us that there would be
an opening which would work nicely for us. We began paying rent
in January l996 even though we knew we would not be able to
escape city life until late in l997. But we knew location was
important (on that note, many people ask us why we chose Puerto
Morelos!) and we liked the feeling of facing the town park.
Our work was cut out for us soon after we arrived from our
4,500 mile drive through Mexico. We immediately began the process
of getting our FM3, commonly know as working papers, through
a notary. Although it only took three months for our immigration
papers to be completed, it felt like a lifetime as we had to
make, at times, daily trips to the notary's office in Cancún
to give and retrieve information due to his failure to inform
us of proper procedures.
Meanwhile, the books sat in our yet unopened store. We had
the walls painted a bright mustard yellow and the window trims
were painted Mayan turquoise blue.
The next trauma awaiting us was having our bookshelves made.
We needed to accommodate both hardbacks and paperbacks, and
decided to go floor-to-ceiling in pine wood. As luck would have
it, by the time our carpenter purchased the wood, we had torrential
rains for two straight weeks. This was now early December, and
we were chomping at the bit to start alphabetizing and sorting
our books, all l0,000 of them. As we alphabetized, the carpenter
began to bring in shelves and told us not to stack books on
them for two more days to allow the wood to dry completely.
We waited, then cut strips of cardboard and tacked those onto
the shelves first - for safety's sake - in case the shelves
were not dry.
Excitedly we began placing books on shelves after four days
of tiresome alphabetical sorting. We were eager to see the fruits
of our labors shelved and ready on the beautiful new wooden
shelves. We had begun early in the morning that day and pushed
ourselves to finish placing all fiction books on the shelves,
plus spy- adventure - another large section of books. Around
6 pm that night we were breaking for dinner and Paul happened
to touch the cardboard under one section . To our chagrin it
was thoroughly soaked - just waiting to reach our books. Nightmare
on Elm Street! Like two maniacs who had just seen Freddie Kruger,
we tore our treasured books off the shelves trying desperately
to keep some semblance of order after four days of sorting.
Tension was high. Now what to do! Tourist season was upon us.
We had bookshelves, but they were hardly usable at this stage.
So we did what any normal thinking person would do - we brought
out hairdryers early the next day and tried to dry them like
a shag haircut. When that didn't work, as soon as the sun made
an appearance a few days later, Paul broke down the shelves
and pulled them into the street to dry the old fashioned way
- with sun power. We can only imagine what the locals were thinking:
crazy gringos. Here we were dragging wet planks of wood into
the street. What a backwards way to begin a business!
Since patience was neither of our virtues, that next week
dragged by painfully. We cut more cardboard and re-tacked it
to the shelves. A couple days later all our books were off the
floor and on display. On December 20, l997 - just in time for
the winter equinox - we opened our doors to customers.
We were astounded at the goodwill we received in opening our
store. Even though our books were primarily in English, many
local people here read two languages, Spanish and English. And
we immediately started trading books so that we could accumulate
a number of books in Spanish, German, Italian and French.
The next week we searched Cancún for a dehumidifier for the
store. Equipped with a relative humidity indicator, and now
a dehumidifier, we managed to control the stores' humidity to
the perfect temperature for books - about 50 percent humidity
- as explained to us by the manager of Green Apple Books, San
Francisco. Any more humidity and the pages do not retain their
crispness; any less humidity and the crowns of the books begin
to crack and break. We try to retain as perfect a temperature
as possible in the store to keep our books in mint condition.
Every April through August we now plan to make a trip back
to the US for our big book buying spree. We will bring in at
least 4000 "new" used books to add to the store's inventory
this coming fall. This is in addition to the l6,000 books we
have now accumulated plus our new books on the Maya, Maya culture,
pyramids, Latin fiction, ecology and the environment, birds,
mammals, fish, the reef. We offer books written by local authors,
maps on Mexico, Belize and Guatemala, and various guide books.
Our job in book shopping is to find the eclectic, avant-garde
reading material for our customers. So far we think we are filling
the bill. But come see our store and give us your opinion. Sign
up for our mailing list so we can send you a reminder to bring
in six used books (current titles) when you come to visit.
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