Chapter 293

For the publishing industry in Nihon, the economic crisis is a turning point; after this, the entire industry has been going downhill continuously.

Especially some publishers without bestsellers are facing the end of transformation and bankruptcy one by one, and those that can still survive are forced to do self-publishing business, earning money by gilding professors and business owners.

With such a status quo in the publishing industry, the bookstores closely related to it naturally cannot escape the same fate.

Throughout the 90s, nearly many bookstores went bankrupt or changed their business to close down. If viewed from the perspective of time, about 1,000 bookstores stop business or go bankrupt on average every year.

At the same time, a large number of bookstore practitioners also have to face the end of re-employment.

However, while these bookstores went bankrupt, cheaper second-hand bookstores sprang up one after another.

Besides the BOOKOFF chain of second-hand bookstores, thousands of other types of second-hand bookstores have opened in various places.

However, 1993, where Akiwara Yuto is now, still belongs to the germination stage of the second-hand bookstore trend.

So what he asked Nishijima Sōta to do was a comparison of the data curve between bookstore bankruptcies and new second-hand bookstore openings.

A week later, the president's office on the third floor of Tsutaya Bookstore.

Nishijima Sōta said with a surprised face: "Teacher Akiwara, this is incredible."

After seeing the results, he felt very shocked.

In the first half of this year, about 500 bookstores went bankrupt across Nihon, but 100 second-hand bookstores opened in various places, and there is a trend of continuous expansion.

But before this, he had not noticed this point at all.

Akiwara Yuto already knew the result, so he didn't feel surprised.

He just asked: "How many second-hand bookstores are counted in total now?"

"About 300 or more."

Akiwara Yuto calculated in his heart and found that compared with the scale of his past life, the market still has very large room.

"President Nishijima, regarding the proposal for second-hand bookstores, do you have any other opinions?" Akiwara Yuto asked with a smile.

Nishijima Sōta waved his hand, indicating that he had no opinion.

The momentum of second-hand bookstores is hot, and anyone can see it.

And if it is established by the method of franchise + direct operation, it will not cause too much burden on funds.

However, he still has some doubts in his heart about whether a perfect sales channel can be built.

Before seeing the results, he is not willing to draw conclusions easily.

Seeing that the other party no longer opposed, Akiwara Yuto said again: "Since it is feasible, then issue a relevant plan to me later."

"Yes," Nishijima Sōta indicated he understood.

He planned to send people to various places to see this week, first looking at the 12 cities with a population of over one million.

Although not sure if it can be done, since he decided to do it, he naturally has to do his best.

He handed over another document,

"Teacher Akiwara, this is the sales statistic of the reading session for 'A Personal Matter' last week."

Akiwara Yuto took it and looked at it carefully, finding that on this statistical table, "A Personal Matter" sold 27,000 copies.

Although it did not reach 30,000 copies, it still reached a very high level.

But why can it sell so much?

After his doubt, Nishijima Sōta said seriously: "Teacher Akiwara, the store managers of various bookstores in Tokyo said that your work has the lowest return rate, so they are willing to stock a little more."

He paused, and his expression softened: "They seem to know about the Tokyo Distribution and Nihon Distribution distributors, so many store managers also told me that they are willing to take the initiative to help you recommend the book to other bookstore managers."

Hearing this answer, Akiwara Yuto didn't know what to say for a while.

He was not surprised that these bookstore managers would know about this; after all, there are many employees on the distributor side, so there are many mouths.

It was just that the actions of these bookstore managers made him feel surprised.

In the reading session for "Snow Country," many people expressed that they did not accept this work, but now after learning that the distributors reduced orders, they took the initiative to buy "A Personal Matter."

You must know that in the current situation of bookstores being in a downturn, these bookstores themselves are on the edge of a cliff.

This made him feel a little moved.

He was silent for a while, then squeezed out a smile and said: "Help me thank those bookstore managers."

"Understood," Nishijima Sōta also smiled.

After chatting for a few words, Akiwara Yuto left the office.

While walking, he pondered in his heart.

Can he help these bookstore owners without harming his own interests?

He thought for a while and finally decided to tell Nishijima Sōta next time to give these owners who support him more discounts.

Leaving the publisher, he took a special car and returned home.

Just after arriving home, he received a call from Assistant Police Inspector Sōma of the Metropolitan Police Department.

The other party said excitedly: "Teacher Akiwara, the Kanagawa serial murder case has made huge progress!"

"Huge progress?" Akiwara Yuto said in surprise: "Did you catch the murderer?"

Assistant Police Inspector Sōma hesitated and said: "Sorry, we only found out who the murderer is, the other party is still on the run."

Hearing this sentence, Akiwara Yuto almost couldn't help scolding the other party for being a bucket of rice.

They had already found the criminal, and actually let the other party run away! No wonder someone in his past life scolded the Nihon Metropolitan Police Department for being trash!

He thought about it and asked again: "How long is it estimated to catch the murderer?"

Assistant Police Inspector Sōma replied: "The Metropolitan Police Department has joined forces with Kanagawa to dispatch more than 2,000 police officers, and it is estimated that it won't take long to catch them!"

However, Akiwara Yuto was a bit suspicious of this answer.

In his past life, there was a case in 2007 where a murderer named Ichihashi Tatsuya raped and killed his foreign English teacher and then began to flee.

This incident shocked all of Tokyo, and the police claimed to have invested 100,000 police forces, but it took a full 2 years to catch the other party.

So he was worried, will this time let the other party run for so long again!

"Teacher Akiwara, thank you very much this time!"

Assistant Police Inspector Sōma said gratefully: "The reason we were able to discover the criminal this time is because you adjusted the psychological profile; the murderer is a middle-aged man with a wife and a career.

Before this, none of us thought that he would be the murderer in this case."

For his gratitude, Akiwara Yuto frankly accepted it and then asked: "You didn't expose that I modified the psychological profile, right?"

"Of course, our confidentiality measures are very good."

Hearing this answer, Akiwara Yuto let out a sigh of relief in his heart.

If the other party knew about this and couldn't think straight and wanted to assassinate him again, that would be troublesome!

However, for himself, this is indeed good news!

If the murderer can be identified, then the movie "Memories of Murder" does not need to worry about social influence and can be released as soon as possible!