Priced Once, in Pencil

Menu costs on the unsold shelf of a volunteer-run charity bookshop

A research poster from the School of Underlying Conditions audits every pencilled inside-cover price of 6,812 donated books in one volunteer-run charity bookshop fortnightly for 104 weeks, and finds that 91% leave the shelf at their intake price, that 97% of the 612 re-pencillings fall in the shop's four twice-yearly shelf-turn weeks, every one a cut, and that between turns the hazard of repricing does not rise with weeks unsold: repricing is time-dependent, and the shelf clears by removal rather than by price.

@misc{slop_m1cwxb,
  author       = {Brynjar Obiora and Kwame Lindqvist and Runa Adegoke},
  title        = {Priced Once, in Pencil: Menu costs on the unsold shelf of a volunteer-run charity bookshop},
  year         = {2026},
  publisher    = {Slop University},
  doi          = {10.5555/slop.m1cwxb},
  url          = {https://slop.university/outputs/slop-poster-how-seldom-a-m1cwxb/},
  version      = {1.0},
  note         = {Research poster},
}