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Firefighters Bookstore™

The Most Complete Source of Educational Material for Fire and Emergency Services

Where do firefighters go for information? Chances are, Firefighters Bookstore.

Founded in 1985 and still headed by Peggy Glenn, Firefighters Bookstore serves the firefighting community. Specifically, it sells books and training material to firefighters, aspiring firefighters, fire training academies, and anyone purchasing on their behalf. Other rescue professionals and emergency medical technicians will also find themselves well served.

Background.  Started by Peggy Glenn with just $55 and sheer determination, Firefighters Bookstore has become the most comprehensive source of books, videos, and software for fire and emergency services. With firefighting being a very cooperative field, in which information is shared freely among agencies and firefighters alike, word-of-mouth has proven to be the number one sales vehicle for Firefighters Bookstore. Firefighters Bookstore also sells via a proprietary Web site and CD rom catalog. In all, it ships 70 to 100 parcels per day and generates approximately 1.5 million dollars in revenue a year. Textbooks, particularly those used to prepare for promotional exams, are its biggest seller.

Firefighters Bookstore ships about 30% of its parcels via the Postal Service. Nearly 75% ship via Priority Mail, 21% via international mail, and the remainder via Express Mail and First-Class Mail. Its penchant for using Priority Mail is due to the savings in cost and time afforded it by the flat rates – Priority Mail Flat Rate Box and Priority Mail Flat Rate Envelope. With the rates being constant irrespective of weight, shipping by Priority Mail Flat Rate Box or Envelope is particularly cost-effective for heavy shipments, such as books. Additional cost savings arise from the boxes and envelopes for these mail types being supplied free of charge by the Postal Service. In fact, when a customer’s order fits into a Priority Flat Rate Box or Envelope, Firefighters Bookstore diverts the shipment from UPS to the Postal Service because doing so saves it money. Secondarily, it diverts shipments from UPS to the Postal Service when merchandise is small and ships more quickly via the Postal Service.

Not only has Firefighters Bookstore’s use of Priority Mail Flat Rate Boxes and Envelopes provided savings, it has actually helped Firefighters Bookstore grow the business and better serve its customers. Since its customers almost always receive in-stock merchandise within two days of ordering when shipped by Priority Flat Rate Box or Envelope, the customers are extremely pleased by the quick turnaround and, as a result, place additional orders and tell other firefighters about their positive experiences with Firefighters Bookstore. These word-of-mouth accounts, in turn, generate further business for Firefighters Bookstore.

Endicia's Role  An Endicia Premium customer since December 2003, Firefighters Bookstore uses Endicia for postage, insurance, and tracking. Endicia became attractive to Firefighters Bookstore once it discovered that, with Endicia, it did not have to fill out Postal Service paperwork, specifically for insurance and postage. With its reliance on Priority Mail Flat Rate Envelopes and Boxes and Endicia’s ability to print postage labels for those mail types, among others, Endicia has been a great fit. Firefighters Bookstore prints its postage labels piece-by-piece using a Zebra Eltron printer, with the 4 inch by 6 inch self-adhesive thermal labels being ample in size and excellent for presentation purposes. Additionally, Firefighters Bookstore employs Endicia insurance since, unlike Postal insurance, there is no paperwork needed to apply the insurance, and it affords savings of 54% to 67%. Moreover, with delivery status of its shipments being of key importance, due to what it ships and to whom, Firefighters Bookstore takes full advantage of DAZzle’s electronic Delivery Confirmation (e/DC). By being able to view delivery status online, Firefighters Bookstore can easily see when its shipments were delivered and determine how well the Postal Service is servicing its clientele; plus, with e/DC being free for Priority Mail through Endicia compared to the $0.50 retail price, Firefighters Bookstore again saves using Endicia.

Commenting on what Endicia has meant to her business, Peggy Glenn states:

"Endicia has saved us about an hour a day, freeing up my shipping staff to ship more orders, which, in turn, has enabled me to spend more time on promoting the business."

Firefighters Bookstore uses Commerce Management System (CMS) by NewHaven Software, an Endicia integrated partner, to streamline the printing of postage labels and otherwise help run the business. CMS acts as catalog management software, providing Firefighters Bookstore with everything about the customer’s history, the shipping options, product pricing, and pretty much whatever else is needed to operate the business.

Firefighters Bookstore likes most about Endicia the shipping information that it supplies and the ease of accessing it, the instant e-mails that Endicia sends informing of postage purchases, and the technical support that Endicia provides. With online viewing of account transactions (postage purchases, postage prints, trackable items, Endicia insured items, and InstaPostage) and delivery status for shipments with e/DC, Firefighters Bookstore saves time and otherwise benefits from knowing such things as how and when orders shipped, to whom they shipped, and when they were delivered. For accounting purposes, the owner, Peggy Glenn, finds extremely helpful the instant e-mails that she receives when postage is purchased, since she needs to know of the purchases but is not the one making them. Though Firefighters Bookstore infrequently needs to utilize Endicia’s Technical Support staff, when it does, generally for international shipments, it quickly gets answers; plus, Firefighters Bookstore finds Endicia’s Technical Support team able to put into words what Firefighters Bookstore is trying to ask.

As for what Endicia features it frequently uses, Firefighters Bookstore most often utilizes Stealth Indicia. By hiding the postage amount, Stealth Indicia enables it to charge a fair shipping and handling fee without angering its customers.

The Future  Firefighters Bookstore plans to continue its mission of supplying the firefighting community with books and training material. To aid in this effort, it will keep on using Endicia to simplify its shipping.

To learn more about Firefighters Bookstore, visit www.firebooks.com.