Interview with Joe, the original ABC The Hague staff member

In 1976, an American named Joe was tasked with starting up an American Discount Book Center in The Hague. From a basement on the Spuistraat to the current location on Lange Poten, Joe helped guide the store to where it is now. He retired a few years ago, but was still willing to drop by his store for a short interview about 50 years of ABC The Hague, and a life filled with books.

We’re celebrating 50 years of ABC The Hague! But you didn’t start ABC The Hague straight from your arrival from the US, right?

No, I started in ABC Amsterdam. In 1973 I just came to the Netherlands for a couple of months. Mitch (one of the original ABC owners) was going back to the US for 2 months so then Sam (the other original ABC owner) sent me and that’s when I met Lynn (ABC’s current owner). But I got caught working with a visitor’s permit and had to leave for a few months. I’d made up this story that I was just visiting my girlfriend, etc. So I left back to the US and then we started to figure out how I’d get back, because they knew they wanted to open a store in The Hague. And then I just spent 3 months getting old book racks and books together in the US, putting them on a ship to the Netherlands.

I knew Sam; I’d worked for Sam in the States. I would go set up a bookstore for him, run it for a few months, and then he’d sell it or give it to someone else, and then I’d set up another one. I set up about 5 stores in the US for him.

Why did they want to set up an ABC in The Hague?

I think just because he had a cheap place to rent! Spuistraat 72, in the cellar of the (current) Burger King.

How big was that bookstore compared to the current location?

I’d say by the time we had finished building everything about half of what downstairs ABC The Hague is now. But we discovered all sorts of things all the time there; there was a room that had heating and power, and we broke it open and put Psychology and Biographies in that room. We would build things. Old pieces of wood and suddenly we’d have a new section. We’d have these old metal standing racks we could put 15 pockets in. We had tons of those, everywhere we could put them.

What did you fill them with?

Whatever came from the US for stock, in the shipments.

And if people wanted to order something?

That took a couple of years to set up. I used to have a big book, a notebook. When I would go on vacation in the US I would take it with me. I would go to used bookstores to see if they had anything and then I would ship them over with the stock shipments. “Here’s your books that you requested three years ago!”

So customers would have to be patient back then. And then ordering started and that would be on paper?

For a few years. And then we got a computer! 10 megabytes! We thought this would never get filled! But we filled in 6 months. A customer from England had a program for inventory. But the thing was, in The Hague we were ordering 1s and 2s of a title so basically you put a book in the system and then a few hours later you’d have to take it out again!

How did people find you/the bookstore?

That I don’t know. But it was really busy! We were open Monday through Saturday. Also, in the beginning it was just me, and I was commuting in from Amsterdam. I lived in Lynn’s attic for a while. First I lived above ABC Amsterdam (its location at the time), then I lived in Lynn’s attic, and then they found a place for me in The Hague, so I moved there. From The Hague I moved to Rijswijk, I bought a house with my girlfriend at the time. And then from there to I moved to Delft.

To the house where movies get filmed!

I finally saw the film! A Beautiful Imperfection, an English film based on the Dutch book Een schitterend gebrek by Arthur Japin (translated into English as In Lucia’s Eyes). And it was fifteen seconds, just showing the street! People were so disappointed. The filmmakers spent a week setting it up. They had to cover everything that was modern. I remember the mailman would come to deliver packages but all the street numbers were covered. They only filmed the outside, the whole street. Five buildings were done. It was fun to watch.

I remember when I lived in Delft, I would walk by your house, which at the time I didn’t know was your house, and I would lust after the bookshelves in the living room. Such a beautiful bookcase! 

It’s so full! The pockets are triple. And the hardcovers and trade papers, I now have to pick something I’m never going to read again and turn it around and put it in the back. I cannot give books away. When I moved from Rijswijk to Delft the movers said “we’re not doing the books”. I had 75 Gardners boxes full of them! I thought it was a good time to get rid of stuff… well, I found 5 books that I thought I could get rid of, but in the end I said why bother. It’s really difficult for me to get rid of books. I should though.

I give them away if they didn’t do anything for me. But if there’s even one good memory I’ll keep them.

I find lately I’m not reading anything new, but I go back to old favorites. When I’m sitting in my living room and I look at my bookcase I go “oh, I remember a scene from that one!” And I’ll just start reading it for a while and then put it back and find another one the next day.

We’ve wandered! I’m going to get us back to ABC The Hague: why did you decide to move from Spuistraat 72 to the current location at Lange Poten 23?

I think it was just, they wanted a nicer place. There was a place a little further down on Lange Poten where the Mercedes Benz place used to be, we looked at that one for a while. I really liked it… but it’s unpractical for books. Beautiful to enter, but where can you put all the books. And then we found Lange Poten 23 and the guy said “you can keep the racks”. It was a clothing store, you see. So we kept the cases of those. And some of the mirrors. I think it was in 1992.

How did you move the store?

Being ABC we had carts, and we’d put a bookcase on it and we just walked it along the street!

What are some of your favorite customer interactions that you can remember?

Lists! There were customers that brought in a huge list and then I would order for them. I think there was a group of about 10 people that would order a lot. And all from different departments. That’s where I got the idea that certain customers were allowed to take the Ingram and Gardners catalogues after we finished with them, and then they’d come back and they’d have mark those with the books they wanted. I even taught them how to – because back at the beginning Ingram just had codes.

Oh, there were no ISBNs yet, of course.

During that time I wanted to scan all my books and 80% didn’t have ISBNs.

Any other fun customer interactions?

One of the regulars used to order magazines and she loved to cook. So every once in a while she’d come in and she’d bring things she’d made from the magazines.

What were some of the biggest sellers? This was a little tricky at the beginning of course because you couldn’t control what stock would come in. But once you could order?

The World According to Garp by John Irving. We got 1000 copies of the paperback, and we sold them all. Five different colors on the cover. And we used to do a lot of that. Because back then Sam would buy lots of books, and remainders, and nobody would know what was in the boxes. There was this book Shelter, a book about alternative housing/living. We sold thousands of those, too. That’s how the Large Quantity List basically started, one of my great inventions. I remember when I was working in the warehouse, ABC staff would order from the LQL and eventually we decided to keep a record. Because I love Excel sheets I’d keep a record of who ordered the most and at the end of the year I was allowed to give prizes to the top 5.

Any other big titles that you remember from the 80s and 90s?

The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie. When someone would buy one we would wrap it in the brown paper bags with no logo. And Spy Catcher by Peter Wright I think was his name, he was the head of MI6 or MI5 at the time. We sold hundreds. And then we did The Far Side. Remember that big Far Side 2-volume big box? Somewhere we got a deal on that because I remember selling that through the LQL.

The Far Side finally came out with another day-by-day calendar last year.

I still have the electronic one.

Do you have any favorite colleague interactions, or crazy colleagues?

Martijn (current ABC Director) was just saying he found a video of me out on the street running into an old colleague, Barbara. She didn’t work here that long but she was one of my favorites. And of course we could smoke in the stores way back when. Ashtray by the cash register! That was in the basement. But we cleaned up the act.

Anything else you think is notable that we should know about the past 50 years?

The thing is when I was working here I was always by myself. It was a couple of years in The Hague before I got my first colleague, Lynn’s brother actually, for a while. And then I hired 2 strange guys. I’m really bad at hiring. Sometimes when I think about them I just <shakes head>. Not my forte. I hated being a manager. I just wanted to sell books and talk to customers, that was it.

I remember how difficult it was when I retired to not come. I think the first couple of weeks I came here almost every day anyway. Until someone said “Joe, keep your hands off the cash register, you don’t work here anymore!”

Eventually I found other things to do, but it took a while. I still get ABC nightmares. And it’s always the same nightmare.

Which one?

Here, in the current store, it’s closing time, and for some reason I’m the only colleague. And every time I think oh, everybody’s out, in some corner there’s somebody left. All the tricky corners, and upstairs!

Hopefully also sometimes good dreams.

Oh yeah, yeah! I mean, it was a lot of fun!

And all the books!

Yeah, man. I do love books! When I started filling my bookcase – this was before the internet – I thought, if somebody has an argument or a question, we’ll find an answer in one of these books. But everybody just looks at my books, sometimes neighbors from down the street knock and ask if they can look at my books. But nobody borrows any.

Maybe they’re afraid to ask?

I tell them, if you see anything let me know. And if it’s something I’m not really that into you can have it! But nobody does it anymore.

Maybe you should make a little sign in the window, borrow my books!

But then I’d have less books to look at.