Hear Ye, Hear Ye! Big News in St. Annes-on-Sea for those of us who love to spend the equivalent of a paperback book on a coffee and sweet treat once a week. STARBUCKS has opened in the town square! Right next to a locally beloved and well-supported independent coffee shop! DrAmA!
Now as an the owner of an independent bookshop, you’re probably assuming I’m outraged by this. What if a Waterstones opened up in town?! Well, we’d be devastated and then probably do the decent thing and go out of business. But it isn’t the same thing, because they can sell things cheaper than we can, and coffee shops - even indie ones - retail at similar price points to the customers. So the decision to support an indie or a chain probably comes more down to taste and morals. My morals are actually as weak as watery coffee, but this isn’t about me, it’s about the town - and a Starbucks is a good thing for it.
Our neighbouring town (with better shops!) doesn’t have one, so if people want a Starbucks-specific drink they’ll have to come here. And let’s face it, in the age of whateverthebuck this is, people with disposable cash are the sort of people who might want a Starbucks-specific drink! So, they might drive to St. Annes, which is a town they feel there is no other reason to come to, and they might sit in the new Starbucks, which feels like being in London, or Liverpool, or Manchester, and they look out of the windows (so clean!) and across the square to The Crescent, a road that they’ve never looked at before, and they see a sign that says ‘Storytellers, Inc.’ and they think What the hell does that mean? What a stupid name for a shop! But then they see the subtitle, which says, ‘a bookshop’, and maybe they say “When we’ve finished our salted-frappelatteccinos, let’s go and check it out...”
This is a long intro and we’ll get to the bookselling when that starts (2pm?!) but in the meantime, I’ll be sipping on my *Dark Roast Americano with Hot Milk for Katie*, and maybe when you’ve finished your coffee, you can buy a book from me using this link.
First browser today is one of our most regular customers, who comes in with his carer every week on his way to check out all the charity shops, and has been doing for more than ten years. He often buys a book here and sometimes it’s a book we know he already has because he’s bought it before in a different edition - he particularly loves fairy tales - but it makes him very happy and we’re always glad to see him and his team, who know this is a place he likes to visit.
Tried my new coffee - burned my tongue instantly, now everything will taste like tyres for the rest of the day.
A BOOKSHOP!
Well, I’m not going in one of them.
Next customer has a book token and she decides to order this which we don’t currently have in, but I have read, which I mention, along with the fact it’s actually quite a bleak read and she says perhaps she doesn’t want a bleak read and buys a lovely little clothbound Lolly Willowes instead. I’m going to get the Jacqueline Harpman back in for the shop stock anyway, because sometimes bleak is right and actually it was a book I found very compelling. Maybe customer will be tempted to try it when she sees it’s on the shelf next time…
It’s my book club meetings on Monday for Cecile Pin’s Wandering Souls - the Substack discussion thread is here. On Monday I’ll be handing out the book for March, which is this. You can order a copy if you’d like to read along with us in the next discussion thread, which I’ll open next month. You don’t need to buy the book from me to take part, but you do need to be a paid member to this newsletter to access the thread.
It’s a lot colder than I thought it was and even though I’m wearing three layers, the open door is a challenge.
Mrs Lemon Cake comes to order a book and checks that I don’t have a milk and/or teabag crisis on my hands. The other week when I told BM we had both, she still forgot to bring any the next day, and Mrs Lemon Cake came to her rescue along with a bonus packet of biscuits that BM told me were “really great”. I didn’t actually try them myself because I had that rice krispie cake last week, remember, anyway, Mrs Lemon Cake reappears with another carton of the really great biscuits claiming they were “still on offer” so now it’s time for a brew! I know, I know, my customers are better than yours.
A browser brings a book to the till to check the price of something. It’s £7.99 I say, gently pointing at the printed price, clearly visible on the book they’ve handed me. “I thought the shop might have its own price” the browser says, which means I thought this was a charity shop/I’ve made a terrible mistake.
*picks up book* This one looks…confusing. *puts down book*
CLOUDBURST! There’s a very sudden shower that splashes all over the pavement like when you tip the showerhead and all the droplets fall off in one big splat.
A man, who I’m afraid to say, brings with him an aroma that fills the entire shop, comes in and walks around the shelves, dragging a large carrier bag behind him. God, what’s in there? He stumbles around the shop, looking completely mystified by everything. “You have…a… very interesting shop.” He says, eventually, before leaving. I open the door again. The rain has stopped.
I’m bored now so I flick through the order diary to see who has ordered what. In the book we tend to write name of customer- title - phone number. I like that one entry just says [NAME] - Mad Woman.
I know it is ridiculous that I buy a book from my own bookshop every week but do you know how many good books there are out there??? Today I am buying this wordless picture book with a fantastic title, because even though I’ve admired it on our own shelves for many years (not the same copy, we’ve actually sold this book a few times!) I don’t actually own a copy… *sells myself the book* until now! Now I own it and it is mine. Phew. Also, this is the book we’re discussing in
Picture Book Club this month, so I need a copy at home.Really not many customers or browsers this afternoon at all. What about the Starbucks effect?! Maybe you can’t actually see the bookshop from there, I’ll have to go on a research mission and sit in those nice new chairs in the window to check our visibility…
”Hi Stick Man!” a little girl says to the book, Stick Man.
Phone rings and a lady launches into an explanation about how she’s recently changed her email address and can’t get in touch with us now but she’s been in touch previously about a book she’s “having done” and “you asked how many pages I’d need but I didn’t know because I haven’t written it yet” and “anyway, how do you go about that anyway? you know… getting the book done?”
Me: *deep breath* … I’m very sorry, but this is a bookshop. We only sell books. We don’t make them (do them?).
Her: *hysterical laughter* Oh. Are you in Chester?
Me: No. Lancashire. Lytham St. Annes.
Her: Oh! Lovely place, I’ve been there, it’s a lovely there.
Me: Yes.
Her: I’ve rang the wrong place.
Me: Yes.
Her: Bye then.
Me: Good luck!
(We’re still collecting old spectacles for a charity - there’s a sign in the window and a collection bin by the door)
“Now are you sure you’re taking old spectacles?” A lady comes in with a large carrier bag (no smell) and I’m pretty sure she’s about to unleash about 300 pairs of glasses onto my desk.
“Am I sure?” I say. “I think I am sure.” *recoiling*
“It’s just that I’ve seen that sign before, in another shop, and then they wouldn’t take them.”
My bookish friend
at Crib Notes texts me to order a copy of Under the Love Umbrella which was read on Cbeebies Bedtime Story this week. For my US readers, this is a bedtime programme on a children’s channel where celebrities read a picture book and then tell all the children watching to go to sleep. Sometimes it’s slightly obscure musicians that children don’t know, or athletes or scientists, and sometimes it’s suddenly a huge movie star and all the mums tune in to hear Tom Hardy say things like ‘off you go to bed now, night night!” When you are a picture book writer you don’t think about the dream cast for your screen adaptation, but you do think about your dream guest reader for when your book is on Cbeebies Bedtime Story.Was really hoping we’d sell a copy of Winnie-the-Pooh today so I had an excuse to link my piece from earlier this week. Oh look, it happened anyway. Big thanks to my newest subscriber Eve, who left me this lovely message.
Oh, the graphic actually cuts out the rest of the message where she says more nice things. Anyway, huge thanks, Eve!!
Right, home time for me. Terrible at Takings today, just £85 in the till and £20 of that was me! Ridiculous excuse for a bookshop. Anyway, I’ll be back next week with more whinging and oversharing. Thanks for reading and if you’ve enjoyed the Receipt do share it with your nearest and dearest because I am really bad at that. Thaaaaaaanks!!!
This was definitely worth interrupting my last piece of work for the day for, Katie. I've worked in both a large central London booksop and a tiny suburban London one – in a previous life, many years ago – and I remember that feeling in the little shop when I'd spent half my day's wage on books and that was also half the takings for the day. So you've prompted me to upgrade to paid. If I subscribe to any more Substacks I won't be able to afford to go anywhere, I'll just have to sit at home and read. There are worse fates ...
Eve is correct, the newsletter is a drop-everything-and-read-immediately piece of inbox matter. One of my favorites!