Over the last 30 years, the landscape for independent bookstores has dramatically evolved. Chain superstores and online sellers created fierce competition, but San Francisco’s Green Apple Books, co-owned by Peter Mulvihill and Kevin Ryan, has charted it’s own path to success.
Founded in 1967, Green Apple was already a local institution when Mulvihill started in the bookkeping department in 1993. The store stayed open up to 12 hours a day, welcoming guests to peruse its floor-to-ceiling stacks and enjoy its cozy nooks. It was, and is, a unique third space where local meets legendary. On any given day, you might have come across actor Robin Williams or author and neurologist Oliver Sacks. These days, you might come across musician Tom Waits or a wedding proposal in the aisles.
Despite this, Green Apple Books has had to employ consistent, strategic efforts to help the business thrive and expand. “We survive by incremental improvements,” Mulhivill said. One of those strategic efforts includes investing in Square tools.
The challenge: Outdated systems and rigid pricing
In addition to keeping up with online behemoths, bookstores operate on razor-thin margins, largely because they confront financial restrictions that most other businesses don’t. One of the biggest restrictions for Green Apple Books? Limited flexibility on the pricing of what it sells.
If the cafe down the street sees the costs of coffee beans or pastries go up, the business can try to find other vendors. Or it might try to negotiate better terms by committing to purchasing higher quantities. But those options aren’t available to bookstores like Green Apple. Every new book has only one publisher and the price is printed directly on the cover; there are also no competing vendors. And the store can’t negotiate a lower unit cost even if it commits to a big up-front order.
To increase revenue and save money, Green Apple needed more efficient systems. Until several years ago, for example, the store still processed credit card payments with what Mulvihill calls the “knuckle scraper” — a device that imprinted the card on a carbon copy. This antiquated tool made it impossible to track sales in real-time. It hurt cash flow, too. Mulvihill explained, “You’d have the paper copy, turn it in to the bank, and then have to wait three days.”
Inventory management lagged as well. “We used to put tags in our books so we could manually check how long they had been on the shelves,” said Mulvihill.
The solution: Simplified payments and real-time insights
Several years ago, Green Apple was selling books at an offsite event. Mulvihill remembered, “Someone came up and handed me a dongle and said, ‘You know you can just plug this in and take credit card payments over your phone, right?’ That was our initial exposure to Square.”
Mulvihill used to keep costs down by switching credit card providers every two or three years. “I would just pit them against each other and say, ‘Okay, who’s got the best price?’ So I gave Square a chance at winning our business on purely economic terms, and they handily did.”
But Green Apple saw benefits beyond reduced processing fees. The customer experience improved, too. “With Square, the smoothness of the transaction allows us to focus on connecting with the customer,” Mulvihill explained. “I have time to chat with them about the book they’re buying. Or I might say something like, ‘Oh, if you like this mystery, come back and ask for Martin. He’s a huge mystery reader.’ ”
One of Green Apple’s mantras is: Sell more of what’s selling. But “what’s selling always changes,” Mulvihill said. And for years the store lacked sophisticated tools to track sales trends. Now, Green Apple looks at real-time sales data to make informed decisions about what to carry.
And because the store no longer relies on tags inside books to track inventory, it can optimize its shelf space. “We constantly experiment with inventory,” Mulvihill noted. “If a category of books really starts selling, we might devote a second bookcase to that category and use data to track whether sales keep rising.”
Actively engaging with the community is crucial to the success of an independent bookstore. Green Apple hosts author events at least twice a week, and the team uses sales data to help identify popular authors and topics.
Technology has also made it easier for Green Apple to communicate with customers, even in small ways. Mulvihill said, “My favorite part is when someone reviews us on Square and I get an alert. It is just a little bit of joy in your inbox to see a customer give you a positive reaction. I always reply right away to thank them. I feel like that builds goodwill and trust.”
The impact: Stronger customer connections and purposeful expansion
The first time Green Apple expanded beyond its original location, back in the 1990s, its manual processes and legacy systems made it difficult to optimize inventory and sales. But now Green Apple has four locations. Having more efficient systems helped make this expansion possible.
For example, Green Apple now operates a popup bookstore in a downtown San Francisco bakery. “Without our current setup with Square,” Mulvihill said, “I would’ve had to drive 30 minutes both ways every week to manage inventory. Now I just log in on Monday morning to check sales and adjust stock. It takes about 15 minutes.”
This bakery outpost has become “great marketing for Green Apple because there are no bookstores downtown,” Mulvihill noted. People go into the bakery, get excited when they see the selections, and soon, “they come checking on one of our other stores.”
Reflecting on his three decades at Green Apple, Mulvihill said, “The backend administrative technology, including Square’s suite of tools, has made running the business a lot easier…I’d freak out if I didn’t have Square. There’s so much that Square does that’s integrated together. If we didn’t have Square, I’d have to find at least three separate solutions when I have one now.”
Maximizing efficiency through one solution helps keep Green Apple Books at the core of its community, right where it belongs. “I can spend more time finding the next great book to recommend and less time in an office or on hold with some 800 number,” Mulvihill said of his reality now that he uses Square. With more time for thoughtful recommendations, Green Apple Books can focus on what matters most to the business: connecting readers with their next favorite book.
