EVERY weekend, in bookstores throughout Shanghai, many people can be found spending time reading or copying books without buying any of them. This problem has bewildered storekeepers.

“After all, a bookstore is not a library, we have to make profits by selling books. If none of the customers who come to our store buy any books, the store cannot survive,?said one shop assistant in the Shanghai Bookmall who declined to give her name.

On May 1, one large bookstore ?Shanghai Boku Bookmall, invested by the Zhejiang Xinhua Bookstore Group ?opened on Yishan Lu. Before the store was opened, it declared that anyone visiting the store can stay as long as they like, regardless of whether they have come to buy books or just to kill time. He Jianhua, the chief manager of the Shanghai Boku Bookmall, said the store occupied 10,000 square metres, with 500 seats available for visitors.

Places to browse

“We do not think that everyone who visits our store should buy books. Bookstores, in my opinion, are different from other types of stores,?He said, adding that bookstores were places to browse and learn, offering more than just commodities.

He is not the only person to hold such ideas about the relationship between readers and bookstores. In Shanghai, many specialized bookstores have adopted such thinking. Luming Bookstore is one of the most famous vendors of liberal arts books. It was founded in 1997 by two students from Fudan University, Gu Zhentao and Zhang Jinyao. Gu has graduated as a master of Chinese contemporary literature and Zhang is still pursuing his doctoral studies in Chinese classical literature. Their academic careers have given them special management ideas about their store.

More than money

According to Gu, their bookstore was not merely a way to make money: “We do it because both of us love books.? Before they began their enterprise, they were already feverish collectors of books. After opening a store of their own, they were able to offer an academic salon for students and professors from the universities nearby. Many scholars from other cities, even from other countries, would visit the store when in Shanghai ?some of them more interested in chatting to the owners than buying books.

Gao Mingjian is a post-graduate student of English literature from East China Normal University. Almost every week he visits a local bookstore. Shanghai Bookmall and Luming Bookstore are his most frequently chosen destinations. “Sometimes when I go to the bookstore, I’d rather just idle there and pick up books to read randomly than buy anything. I do not feel any embarrassment even if I spend a whole day in stores without buying a book,?he said.

Economic concerns are an inevitable factor when store owners deal with such idle browsers in bookstores. “If people increasingly come to our store just to read or copy rather than to buy, the cost to the store will become unbearable,?said the shop assistant at the Shanghai Bookmall.

“We want our store to make a profit, but we never expel readers who only want to browse or idle in our store. According to my management ideas, those readers are our potential customers,?He said.

In order to provide readers with a comfortable environment to sit down and read, they have installed wireless Internet connections in the store, provided free for all visitors. If readers in the store feel thirsty or hungry, they can also get free water and relatively cheap food there. “We hope readers will stay in our store as long as possible, because then the chance of them buying books increases,?He said.

Meeting of minds

Gu admitted that he expected the store to earn money, but he also enjoyed meeting readers, even if they did not buy anything. “Because our store is a specialized book store, we meet many scholars who have similar interests to us. We think a bookstore is not only a store but also a salon, a place to learn,?Gu said. Sometimes they talk with readers to help them find the books they really want to buy.

As a reader who often goes to a bookstore to browse, Gao explained that he chose bookstores as places to kill time because they were different from other stores. “Bookstore are places with special character, where people can relax both body and mind. I hate it when some store assistants turn a cold shoulder on readers if they only come to read.? “Books were considered holy in Chinese tradition. Even today, people think this way, because books are ways to understand the world. Accordingly, bookstores should be places where people can go to learn,?said Gu.