Little Bookshop in Chapel Allerton takes positives from lockdown as it reopens

The Little Bookshop in Chapel Allerton had always specialised in children's books but found older readers wanted the expertise and guidance of its staff while looking for new things to read themselves during the lockdown.

While they were unable to open the shop in Harrogate Road as normal, the team kept in touch with their regular supporters via social media and email.

Hannah Limming, one of the shop's managers, said: "I think the positive we would take from it is it allowed us to do things we'd never really done before.

"We have a really strong Instagram presence but we've never directly sold online. The first thing we did was we concentrated on our key unique selling points, which are our knowledge of books and being able to recommend them to readers.

"They could email and say 'I'm homeschooling and my daughter is learning about mountains, what have you got for us?'"

The business has now started postal deliveries to cater for customers who live outside the area but want to buy from an independent bookshop.

"Normally our business was super local," Hannah said. "Now we're able to post through the door right throughout the UK.

"We thought online selling was crowded but, if nothing else, it was just really nice to keep in touch with all our regular customers as well.

"Our service is quite unique. People were emailing us about really specific topics. It might be homeschooling or books about help for anxiety."

Since non-essential retailers were given the green light to reopen last month, The Little Bookshop has begun to gradually build up its trading hours again.

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Hannah said: "We started Wednesday to Saturday but we've soon expanded that because there's definitely a want there in the community

"We've got the standard measures in place but we've carried on with the online side too. Not everybody is able to get out or they're shielding."

Planning for the reopening with those measures in mind served as a reminder of the support to be found not only from other bookshops but also neighbouring businesses in the area.

Hannah said: "What's really lovely in Chapel Allerton is we work really closely with the other independent business owners.

"Lots of them who have been able to stay open throughout have been really knowledgeable and are sharing that. There was that sort of community there to offer support.

"We do it all the time anyway. We work on Christmas campaigns and all sorts, but it's definitely helped to have that network."

As an independent business, the focus for The Little Bookshop is very much on personalised service and there is normally a free story-time each day and a cafe to add to the experience.

While the hope is that those much-valued elements can return in due course, some changes have been necessary for the time being.

"We haven't brought back our cafe yet," Hannah said. "We're just keeping the shop really open and accessible.

"What we found during lockdown was there were quite a lot of adults wanting to find a book, so we've added a section for them which is a way to service the whole community.

"What we're striving to do in person and online is to offer really personalised advice. Whatever you need from that book, whether you can leave the house or now, we're there for you."

Welcome back to Leeds is an info hub designed to help guide you safely back to the city centre in the months ahead. welcometoleeds.co.uk #backtoleeds

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