ANTECEDENTES HISTÓRICOS DEL RÉGIMEN SIMPLIFICADO

The second common theme in the talks that Eslite executives have for consumers, “to experience the beauty of reading and the fun of life”, is “to read books and everything in between”, which was re-phrased from a sentence in an advertisement composed by Ms LEE Xin-Pin for Eslite bookstores:

Rodin read human bodies and found beautiful coastlines that Columbus did not discover. Camus read Kafka and realised half of the truth has been illustrated.

Between books and non-books, we welcome all types of readers. (Lee, 1998: 158)

Later, “to read books and everything in between” became popular in other advertising and non-promotional copy from Eslite bookstores, and was also used frequently by

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staff in Eslite. However, the meaning of the sentence has altered. Today, the sentence is interpreted as ‘everything can be read’. As the senior regional manager, Ms Yeh, explained,

Not only books can be read. Anything that gives us affection, information, and inspiration can be read. For example, we read paintings, we read exhibitions, we read art works, and we read performances. (Yeh, Interview, August, 2006)

Generally speaking, the objects of reading are printed material such as books. As a carrier of culture and knowledge, books are considered as the media through which to offer texts and/or visual images that convey abstract concepts to readers. However, in Eslite bookstores, the notion of reading is expanded to include a wide variety of material goods, sensual events and fleeting performances because all of the above give us feelings and understandings through our apprehensions and interpretations. That is what Eslite means by “to read books and everything in between”. Through acknowledging that reading materials can be more than books, the categories of commodities in Eslite bookstores are extended to an impressive array. The director of public relations of Eslite bookstores, Ms Chen, gave me a quick and clear picture of what is sold in Eslite bookstores by dividing the commodities into two groups:

We provide both static and dynamic products. By static, I mean books, CDs, stationeries, furnishing and etc. As for dynamic products, we offer concerts, films, lectures, performances, these sorts of events. What we have is really diverse.

(Chen, Interview, August, 2006)

What Eslite extends, then, is not only the subjects of books on offer, but also things unrelated to books, such as art works, coffee, music, and exhibitions. The connection between books and other commodities are trans-categorical. That is, the types of commodities in Eslite bookstores are multiple and the commodities are brought

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together via planar relations rather than vertical and linear relations. Through the

‘trans-category connections’ a number of different merchandise lines are able to co-exist in Eslite bookstores. Bookstores have become more than sales floors of books, consisting instead of a number of areas for different purposes, such as sales floors of full of varying commodities, coffee shops, and exhibition halls or performance rooms.

Various activities and practices, apart from reading, are therefore encouraged.

Although the trans-category connections have made Eslite introduce numerous commodities into their stores, the company has also been criticised for becoming department stores (Wang, 2009b). Ms Yeh disagreed with the criticism and offered an explanation of why non-book products are important:

This is related to what we talked about earlier in terms of propagating reading. We realised some people don’t read every day, or books are only a tiny part of their life. No problem! We accept that! We are what needs to change. So we host concerts, exhibitions, films, performances, story-telling, etc.; and we also offer designer stationery, music, photo albums and autobiographies of popular stars.

Let Eslite bookstores become a part of everyone’s daily life. And hopefully reading will become part of everyone’s life then. But first of all, you need to draw people, especially those who don’t read normally, into bookstores, don’t you? (Yeh, Interview, August, 2006)

For Eslite, the various activities and products are not meant to make Eslite bookstores into malls; instead, they are the means to propagate reading by attracting customers in the first place. The most significant value of the ‘trans-category connections’ is that bookstores are linked with other aspects of life through reading. Consumers do not only go to Eslite bookstores for books, but also to listen to a folk gig, to have a lesson in architecture, to drink a cup of coffee with friends, or to enjoy a mini in-store book fair.

In that sense, Eslite bookstores are not just places of transaction/consumption (of books); rather they are places of entertainment, places of education, places of socialisation, and places of leisure. Eslite bookstores are one of the ‘everyday’ places.

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As well as the option of books, Eslite offers many more products consumers can choose as reading materials according to their preferences. It is believed by Eslite that if consumers visit Eslite bookstores often, reading will become part of people’s lives. Mr Chen also emphasised the idea that “to read books and everything in between” is not motivated by the “commercial profits”; instead, “everyone is able to find his own preferred way to read” (Chen, Interview, August, 2006). Despite the commodities in Eslite bookstores being multifarious, the commodities are not randomly chosen individual irrelevant items, and nor are the multiple merchandise lines in Eslite bookstores combined to offer the visitors the convenience of being able to find all they want/need in one building. The broad range of commodities in Eslite bookstores are rather carefully chosen, as Ms Yeh explained:

Not any product can be placed in Eslite bookstores, and not any retailer can set up a counter in Eslite bookstores. We examine the commodities – are they of good quality, do they offer inspirational knowledge, do they represent creative ideas, and do they value culture as much as we do? (Yeh, Interview, August, 2006)

In order to practise the concept of “to read books and everything in between” Eslite has conducted a number of business strategies as well as paying careful attention to the interior design of the bookstores. Various events are hosted to bridge the gap between books and the wide range of goods. In terms of the interior spaces, music shops, electronics shops, stationery shops are designed and installed in Eslite bookstores to offer non-books goods. The strategies and the physical space will be discussed later, but I want to point out that through broadcasting the strapline of “to read books and everything in between” Eslite re-defined the material of reading and expanded that from books to inert goods and ephemeral performances. The discourse and action of cross-category connection brings books and non-books into Eslite bookstores as reading materials for the consumers. Books are no longer the key

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products. Eslite bookstores become complex bookstores. On the one hand, there is a lot consumers can do in Eslite bookstores. Consumers can expect to go to Eslite bookstores and browse something apart from books if books are not particularly favoured. The practices of consumers, then, become even more diverse than buying books and reading books. Now, shopping for a model aircraft or joining a musical performance is common to see in Eslite bookstores, too. There are more busy interactions, which do not take place in other bookstores, going on in Eslite bookstores.

The spatiality of (Eslite) bookstores has thus changed. By the same token, what the bookstores look like also goes beyond traditional ideas. Although bookshelves and bookcases are still the main furniture, glass display cases, performance stages/halls and digital apparatus are parts of Eslite bookstores. A café may sit next to the magazine area, counters of jigsaw puzzle and wooden toy blocks can be neighbours in the children’s book area, while an exhibition hall may be just around the corner. ‘Piles of books to the ceiling high’ is no longer an image applied to all types of bookstores. In short, the discourse “to read books and everything in between” gives us more ideas about what we can read and also shows different imaginings of what we can do in bookstores apart from reading. So we can entertain, we can learn, we can socialise, and we can shop in Eslite bookstores. That tells us Eslite aims to make Eslite bookstores one of the ‘everyday’ places. It is from this dimension that Eslite reaches its goal of making Eslite bookstores as experiencescapes for consumers to experience the fun of life. What is more, consumer experiences are becoming even more important to Eslite bookstores. The experiences here do not mean the individual experience over a transaction such as if a customer is happy about the service he receives. Rather, consumer experiences refer to the interactions a customer has with goods/services/retailers during the period of visiting a store. Ms Yeh believes consumer experience is the reason why Eslite bookstores are able to compete with online

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bookstores:

It’s very convenient to buy books online now. […] Why do people come here? I think is because of the experiences. In Eslite bookstores, there are lots of events for you to participate in and many products for you to discover. You can see, you can hear, you can touch, you can smell, etc. Just like the fun you have in open-air markets. Those real interactions between you and the environment are irreplaceable. (Yeh, Interview, August, 2006)

It is because consumers normally have multi-sensory experiences through their appreciation or participation of products/events in Eslite bookstores. The actual interactions occurring as part of a multi-sensory experience is the reason that physical bookstores, such as Eslite bookstores, continue to thrive.