French book store prints books on demand

French book store Librairie des Puf has found a new way to attract customers: it no longer buys stores from a wholesale supplier, but prints books on demand. The entire process only takes a couple of minutes.

As fast as drinking a cup of coffee

Librairie des Puf uses the Espresso Book Machine, developed by American company On Demand Books. The device is named as such because it only needs a few minutes to print a book, just enough time to drink a cup of coffee. Customers can browse through the store’s entire product range on a tablet and then pass on their choice. They can even instantly ask for hand-written inscriptions to be added.

“Our customers are totally taken by surprise”, manager Alexandre Gaudefroy told the New York Times. “At first, they are a bit out of place with our tablets in their hands, because you usually enter a book store to look at books. However, the device and the tablets move an entirely digital library into a customer’s hands.

3 million books

The biggest advantage for the bookstore is that it can operate with limited space, because it does not need a huge storage area. This is shown in the actual store space, which stands at a mere 80 sqm, even though that area contains more than 3 million books. The store intends to add even more books soon, from a range of major French publishers. Older books also get a new lease on life, because their limited sales number poses no problem anymore. In the past, these books were no longer sold, because they took up valuable shelf space.

Gaudefroy feels this formula is futureproof and is preparing several new stores all across major French cities.