Yahoo Finance English bookshops reopen, hoping for Christmas trade rescue after lockdown
At The Bookshop in Liskeard, Cornwall, the first customer through the door on Wednesday snapped up The Sentinel by Lee and Andrew Child, while the second went for My Garden World by Monty Don. At Waterstones Piccadilly, after a Christmas elf cut a ceremonial ribbon to reopen the shop, the first reader went straight for the Booker prize winner, Douglas Stuart’s Shuggie Bain. Bookshops across England were opening their doors on Wednesday for the first time in almost a month, in an attempt to land some of the vital Christmas trade that will, they hope, keep them in business.
“We have had a fantastic morning. Of course we have to socially distance and limit the number of customers in the shop but have been very busy since opening at nine,” said Bob Skillicorn, who owns the Liskeard shop with his wife Jackie. “We were ready and very happy to reopen. December is a critical month for us. Had we remained closed that would have had a serious impact on the ongoing viability of our bookshop.”
Skillicorn, Waterstones, and leading authors including Philip Pullman and Salman Rushdie had campaigned for bookshops to be classified as essential retailers during England’s second lockdown, arguing that closure in the run-up to Christmas was potentially ruinous, particularly while supermarkets and WH Smith remained open and selling books. But stores remained closed from 5 November until 2 December, with the period from now until Christmas seen as vital in keeping bookshops afloat.
“There’s an awful lot riding on these few weeks,” said Mike Sansbury at The Grove Bookshop in Ilkley. “October to December is our biggest period of the year and that’s been hit really hard by by the lockdown. We kept it going to some extent, but we did miss out on the buzz. You can go online and order, but you don’t get the serendipity of picking up a book that you weren’t expecting while browsing.”
The Booksellers Association said there was much nervous excitement among England’s bookshops about reopening. “There is anxiety about the ability of already stretched booksellers to maintain their click-and-collect business as well as run the bookshops, but booksellers are famously resilient and they are battle-hardened after this year,” said managing director Meryl Halls. “They are well-placed to cram seven weeks’ trade into three … Hopefully they can make up enough lost ground to get through to January with their businesses intact and ready for the onslaught of 2021.”
Many bookshops offered click-and-collect services or had established online shops by the second lockdown, meaning it wasn’t quite as painful as the first.
“The last lockdown it was such hard work, but we put all of our books on our website and this second lockdown really kicked that into gear,” said Fleur Sinclair at Sevenoaks Bookshop. “We worked really hard all through lockdown not to furlough anybody. We were doing a click-and-collect service and had our online shop going, but we also made sure that we kept our windows decorated and changing, and we’ve had a few people thank us for that – the windows have been a really lovely joyful thing.”
Annie Martin at Waterstones Piccadilly said that Barack Obama’s A Promised Land, Florence Given’s Women Don’t Owe You Pretty, Shuggie Bain and Richard Osman’s The Thursday Murder Club had all been extremely popular for click-and-collect customers; and the flagship branch of the UK’s biggest book chain reopened in fully festive mode.
“We decided to launch straight into festive jollity with Christmas music and our very own elf to cut the ribbon and declare us officially open again,” said Martin. “We’ve had a nice steady stream of lovely people in this morning. It’s heartwarming to hear how much our customers missed browsing in our shop.”
At the Harbour Bookshop in Devon, Jane Fincham said their runaway bestseller had been Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake, a study of fungi. She also noted a shift from hard-hitting dystopian novels towards more gentle, uplifting storylines, while poetry collections were also “flying out of the door”.
“I feel that people have rediscovered the joy of reading during the pandemic,” said Skillicorn. Fincham agreed: “In the end, the real heart of bookselling is still alive and well. We are always here to chat about your favourites, look up long-forgotten titles and hopefully be a comforting link between a reader and their next great discovery.”
