Fill Out the ABACUS Survey to Earn an Extra Spot at Winter Institute 2019!

The deadline to participate in the annual ABACUS financial independent bookstore survey is Friday, June 15. Bookstores that have never submitted to ABACUS that participate in ABACUS-17 will this year have the option of registering an additional staff person for the upcoming Winter Institute, set for January 2019 in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

This year, each region with at least 35 reporting stores will receive a data aggregate specific for their own region’s respondents. This data will be provided in Excel and will include all the metrics shown in the ABACUS report. And all participating bookstores from eligible regions will also receive the regional data in their individual company performance reports. Let's make this happen for the SIBA region, folks!

What we learned the last time we received a regional report (from 2014 data):

• SIBA stores had a lower COGS and higher gross margin than ABA average
• SIBA stores had lower payroll costs than ABA average
• SIBA mid-range stores had higher occupancy and operational costs than ABA average
• With the exception of mid-range stores, all SIBA stores did better than ABA average

SIBA Board President Doug Robinson, owner of Eagle Eye Book Shop, writes this about ABACUS, "Using my Quickbooks reports, I finished the survey in about 1.5 hours. I am strongly urging all of you to participate in the survey. ABACUS is a yearly, members-only survey which gathers valuable information that can help improve a bookstore's operations...and bottom line. Input from hundreds of ABA members results in valuable data that help ABA establish the benchmarks recommended for stores to improve business operations and profitability....What do you get out of this?...You'll get the ABACUS executive summary and a customized report for your store that analyzes the financial results...and you'll be helping all indie bookstores to better understand their financial results."

ABA member bookstores can begin the submission process by going to www.ABACUSbenchmarking.com. If stores participated last year, the store account information has been carried forward. New participants will need to create an account to access the site.

Stores with questions about ABACUS can email Michael Becher of Industry Insights, the company that assists ABA in compiling and creating the annual report.