Van Schaik

Stocking books in Johannesburg requires understanding what actually sells in the city—academic texts for the university crowd, business books for the corporate sector, children's stories for families spread across the sprawl, and the backlist titles that keep people reading through load shedding sessions. Van Schaik manages this by maintaining depth across categories while dealing with the logistics of a large, dispersed urban market. Distribution to Johannesburg stores means planning for traffic patterns, managing inventory across multiple locations, and keeping popular titles in stock despite unpredictable demand spikes. The work involves knowing which neighbourhoods want which books, how schools and universities drive seasonal shifts in what moves off shelves, and how to source both local publishing and international releases. It's retail that requires genuine knowledge of a sprawling city's reading habits.