The Aardvark Blog
Christmas is very much upon us
Christmas is very much upon us
After a very busy few months, the shop is suddenly even busier - particularly online - with a morning spent in a blur picking over 60 orders that have come in overnight. I am always amazed at the titles that people order for Christmas (these days there are far fewer traditional gift books, and far more books that people really need).
Sales of art books have been very strong, but we are still selling a lot of more serious academic books. Online I just got an order for a book on Thai Lacquerware to go to the Netherlands, and an order for a specialist academic book of military history. Whilst in the shop a customer bought a box full of books - getting his Christmas shopping done early apparently.
At the weekend I got my calculator out and was working out how sales in the bookshop stood against last year (not including online sales, the café, exhibition sales etc). The result was very pleasing with increases in all but a few months of the year. Overall we should pass last year's total within a week or so, which is very gratifying after what has not been an easy year.
Also very pleasing this week has been the number of customers who have been very complimentary about the bookshop. Culminating in one customer at the weekend saying that it was her favourite bookshop of all ! Being English I never really know what to say when being complimented - I usually respond by hopping from foot to foot in an embarrassed way. Still I think it is true that the stock has rarely been better than it is at the moment, and I cannot remember a year when it has been possible to buy such a fascinating range of books both new and secondhand.
Come January we will be attempting to lighten the load before next year's buying starts in earnest, so we will again be running a sale at the end of the month. Full details on the events page of this website.
In the meantime for bargains of a different sort why not come on Sunday for our CHRISTMAS MARKET. From 10am-3pm there will be 25 brilliant stalls with lots of different gift and present ideas. Also if you need a Christmas Cake, why not order one from Aardvark's own wonder baker Catherine. Details on request.
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