The Wee Bookshop
Our Bookshop of the Month for May is the Wee Bookshop, which can be found in the village of Dollar. Newly opened 18 months ago, we chat to Carly about their vision when the shop was set up, what the everyday brings and which book genres hold the most interest for their customers. Read on to find out more.
1. When you set up the Wee Bookshop, what was your vision and what made you go into bookselling?
Our vision was to create a cosy, safe, and beautiful community space with books and reading at the heart (and good coffee too!). How it felt or made people feel was a priority – calm, inspired, accepted and welcome.
The decision to go into book selling was part romantic notion, part retirement planning. I thought it would be like Hugh Grant in Notting Hill …! My youngest was in her final years at school and I felt my veterinary CPD business had run its course after 15 years and the Covid years. We saw a dilapidated chip shop up for sale in our local village and the location was perfect. Naively we thought knocking down a few walls and putting up a few shelves would be easy but 2 years and a spiralling budget later proved otherwise.
2. What’s it like running an independent bookshop and café in Dollar? What do you hope your shop brings to the local area?
It is (mostly) wonderful! We have had so much community support, have great staff, made new friends, even if I lurch from teetering on the brink of being overwhelmed, not knowing what I’m doing, to feeling so happy and excited and full of ideas. We hope our shop provides a community hub, a haven for friends to meet, a place to relax and be inspired by books and reading.
A customer wrote us a lovely review recently: “There is no power for change greater than a community discovering what it cares about.”
Our village has been drawn together by the opening of The Wee Bookshop, it is a safe and welcoming space where, by the fireside books, ideas, conversations and connections are shared. Different groups and individuals have been drawn together creating a vibrant sense of community and togetherness.
Books are a window into a world that allows us to know that there are others everywhere who think like us, who feel like us, that the capacity for expansion and discovery is endless. The space the Wee Bookshop has gently opened within our community invites us all to belong and I am delighted by this every time I walk through the door.”
3. What’s your favourite part of the bookselling day, and the least …?
Favourite parts are many :- from the first quiet moments when everything is set up and I have time for a coffee before opening, to welcoming the regular oldies who come in everyday, to finding a book for someone (‘it’s got a blue cover and is about an otter’ type thing) to already having a book in stock that someone comes in to order . The least favourite is putting the cakes away and tidying up at the end of the day, accounts (!) and any grumpy or rude customer (thankfully a minority but still staggeringly baffling!).
4. You stock a wide range of titles for readers of all interests and ages, as well as some gift products – how do you choose the books and gifts you have in the shop?
Only being open 18 months has meant an evolving stock as we get to know what our customers like and want as well as us finding the confidence to bring ‘new stuff’ to people they may not have considered. Katie and I are the main book buyers, but all staff have a hand in suggesting new books or ways to organise our shelves. We read lots of reviews, have finally just started having Rep visits, follow lots of other great booksellers on social media and try and cater to our market: we stock a huge range of travel and outdoor writing as we are at the foot of the hills and have many outdoorsy folk and tourists. This is my area of interest too. Our historical and political non-fiction section is very popular with the discerning gentlemen of Dollar as is the children’s section with our local families. Surprise hits are our translated fiction shelf. Bucking trends, we don’t sell a lot of romantasy as we just don’t have that demographic ( nor do any of us read it …. yet!!) Our other products are mainly chosen as stuff we like. We are quite discerning with our choices of non-book stock and carefully curate this for our ‘brand’ and our customer base.
5. And finally, do you have any exciting plans for the shop in the coming months that you’d like to share with us?
To still be open and thriving in another 18 months would be amazing. We are getting busier and busier and our events programme and schools’ outreach is really taking off. It’s all very exciting although overwhelming. Hopefully we will find a balance soon and through it all we want to stay true to our ethos and ‘vibe’.