The three best small bookshops!
Posted on in Business News
With just 4 weeks to go until the UK's Best Small Shop is announced at the House of Commons on the 5th of November, Indie Retail will be giving you a bit more information on each of the shortlisted retailers!
Over the next 4 weeks we will be introducing a few shops at a time and telling you about the fantastic ways in which they continue to help their communities and why they stood out to the judges.
Today's retailers to be celebrated are the independent bookshops that were shortlisted! For the last four competitions hundreds of booksellers from across the UK have entered, with last year's Best Small Shops competition being won by Scottish bookshop The Mainstreet Trading Company. This year three bookshops have been shortlisted and are in the running to be named the UK's Best Small Shop of 2019!
Bookish, Crickhowell, Powys
Independent bookshop in Powys, Bookish, positions itself as a community hub; they run five book clubs and over 100 events annually, including the Crickhowell Literary Festival, Children's Book Festivals, a monthly cinema club and providing a home for weekly community groups. All of this as well as having a carefully curated selection of books for sale!
Bookish offer a friendly, quality service and their philosophy revolves around connecting people to books and helping children to develop a lifelong love of reading and imaginative play.
Kett's Books, Wymondham, Norfolk
An independent community bookshop in Wymondham, Norfolk has also been named on the shortlist of retailers in the running to be named Britain's Best Small Shop of 2019!
Kett's Book is run by volunteers, who met as strangers in a pub in 2013 and agreed to get together to save the town's bookshop from closing, choosing to run it toward a shared vision of community outreach, school visits, working with care homes, running programmes for children, and author visits. Over 200 friends pay £20 per year to demonstrate loyalty. Volunteers benefit Kett's with days out, book groups, school assemblies, and a school marketing workshop. This year the shop has been running a town-wide book group, reading a single book to build conversations and bring readers and non-readers together.
The Hours Cafe Bookshop & Deli, Brecon, Powys
The Hours Cafe Bookshop & Deli in Powys identifies as a cafe, a bookshop, a gallery, a deli, a meeting place, and a foodie and cultural hub to all of it's customers.
It describes itself as "a tranquil, bijou sanctuary of lovingly curated books & treats nestled in a building affectionately referred to by locals and visitors as 'the wonky green shop'. In addition to book events and supper clubs, the shop is also actively involved with the Brecon Women's Festival, the Brecon Fringe Festival, the Brecon Baroque Festival and Cerys Matthews' The Good Life Festival. This Autumn The Hours Cafe Bookshop & Deli celebrate their 9th birthday.
For more information about any of the above shortlisted shops please find them in the Indie Retail shop directory here. The full shortlisted 25 shops can be found here.