The owners of one of York’s longest running bookshops have given their reaction to the news that a huge new bookstore will open in the city next year.
Phillipa Morris and Tim Curtis of The Little Apple Bookshop say their ‘amazing customers’ will ensure they can continue to thrive after Toppings Books opens a shop nearby.
They were speaking as they prepared to celebrate Bookshop Day tomorrow (Saturday, 12 October) with a giveaway to customers.
The High Petergate store opened in 1997. “We’ve been through quite a lot of Bookshop Days, and it’s really nice to get a chance to reflect and celebrate that we’ve been here this long,” Phillipa told YorkMix.
The Little Apple Bookshop has grown a community of readers over the decades – both locals and visitors who return during each visit to the city.
“We have some amazing customers that have been with us from the start. Some of them brought their kids in, who’re now all grown up, and they bring their kids in!
“Because we’ve been here so long, we’re a bit of a destination. People come in year on year and go, ‘oh thank goodness you’re still here’.
“When the Booksellers Association makes this thing about the books being part of the community, you don’t always realise what that actually means, but actually, we are part of the community,” Phillipa told YorkMix.
‘We’d heard rumours’
At the end of September, Toppings Books revealed that they were opening what they described as “the biggest independent bookshop in the UK” in York next autumn.
It is due to take over the former Visit York HQ on Museum Street, not far from The Little Apple Bookshop.
“At first it was a shock and sounded very intimidating,” Phillipa said. “We’d heard rumours from the book world that it was coming, and then we saw the official announcement.”
Despite apprehension, the trust Phillipa and Tim hold in their customers is what they’re relying on, “we really value our customers”.
She explained, “it’s made us look at what we do and what we have built up and realise actually, our customers are amazing.
“They choose to come and browse and spend time in our bookshop because they like us. We get compliments every day, they value the unique feel of our bookshop.”
Tim also remains positive. “A few people will drift in there, but on the other hand, we’ll still have the same number of people going up and down the street. Hopefully we’ll be too busy to worry, these things are never as bad as you think.
“The same thing happened when Borders was there, we saw that getting built brick by brick. And they offered discounts, whereas Toppings don’t.”
Phillipa explained that no independent bookshop is the same, which is what makes them essential to the vibrancy of York’s high street.
“The hilarious thing about independent bookshops is that they’re all so different. Like, we’ll go into another independent bookshop and see books we’ve never seen before,” she added.
Bookshop Day giveaway
Tomorrow (12 October) marks The Little Apple Bookshop’s 11th Bookshop Day celebration.
Bookshop Day highlights all high street bookshops and their contribution to communities, and services provided to customers.
To honour the occasion, the High Petergate store will be offering book tokens and healthy snacks to their customers.
Phillipa said, “We have some vouchers from national book tokens to give out. I shall be giving out apples to remind people that we are The Little Apple, and reading is a healthy habit.
“We’ll also just enjoy seeing everyone, connecting, and doing what we do every day, which is enjoy running a really lovely bookshop.”
The University of York’s English Lit Society has also organised a bookshop crawl for freshers week, to be enjoyed by bookworms around the city.
- The Little Apple Bookshop – 13 High Petergate
- The Blue House Bookshop – Bootham
- Janette Ray – Bootham
- Minstergate Books – Minstergate
- Oxfam Books – Low Petergate
- Criminally Good Books – Colliergate
- Portal Books – Partick Pool
- Travelling Man – Goodramgate
- The Amnesty Bookshop – Micklegate
For more information on Bookshop day and all the goings on, check out their website here.