A Secondhand bookshop summer

I think it is sometimes hard for businesses to ‘say it as it is’ when things aren’t going well, or could be better. There is the worry that any negativity will prevent recovery or put people off, as if somehow the proprietor/s will stop trying to be the best they can be. We all know dreams can end and proverbial bubbles burst - there are enough empty shops and cafes on high streets as testament to that - but there is always hope that hard times can be ridden out. Certainly, if we had taken some of our winter days as typical, when the dreaded zero takings was only avoided by a favourite customer buying a paperback at 4.55 pm, we’d have shut up shop. June would have made us wonder too…

Was it the heat? The local roadworks? The development of Sizewell C? Were people scared to spend money as world events spiralled, seemingly out of control? We thought footfall was down, but counting back (and we tick everyone in), it was comparable to 2024. Whatever the issue or explanation, takings were badly down. Peter Grogan Ceramics weren’t selling so well either, when they regularly added £100 to the day’s takings.

Or was something less subtle at work? Were we finally succumbing to the preference for online shopping?

Fast forward to July and August - there are still roadworks. Sizewell C traffic is getting heavier, and as I write this, it is 30 degrees centigrade - and we are busier than ever. June isn’t forgotten, and we take nothing for granted, but summer in the secondhand book trade has eventually come good. Phew.

Holidaymakers and day visitors have made a difference, of course, and our local customers are in, ordering books and picking up holiday reads. We are still being given good-quality books and asked for money for terrible ones (please give us a break. A small shop with one person in it is a hint that an email saves us the embarrassment of turning you down). Our little shop is filled with families today, thank goodness, even though it is beach weather. So what is selling?

Today has been all about science fiction - we had a batch of those old paperbacks in, with cover pictures of impossibly beautiful women with a backdrop painted whilst on hallucinogenic drugs. They’re flying. Lots of children’s books have gone - relieved parents finding that a whole gaggle of children can each take a book away for less than a £10 total, and crime paperbacks have been gobbled up, vying for popularity with their literary cousins. Relaxation with a physical book is still a thing, thank goodness. And of course, we have aficionados who have travelled specifically to sample the delights of Suffolk secondhand bookshops. We keep in close touch with the fabulous Treasure Chest Books in Felixstowe (we are SO jealous of their huge shop) and are hoping to put together a leaflet detailing a secondhand book shop route around the county, including the joys of Westleton, the delights of Beccles and Bungay, Aldeburgh and Stonham Barns. What do you think?

Anyway, we’re back, on Substack as well as on the radar. I wrote this quickly in a moment of madness - why should bookshops share their hard times? But then I thought, quite randomly, that it is difficult to get the authors of the books sold in those bookshops to open up about how much they make for all their hard work. That might be why the publishing business is in something of a muddle - there is a lack of honesty from source to table. Writers are paid little, publishers have to cut costs, and billionaires rake in the profits.

Suddenly it all makes sense…