Opening a new book shop in the current retail climate is a daunting task, but it is one that Jordan Taylor-Jones is embracing.
Jordan, 30, opened the West Kirby Bookshop on Grange Road in the town on Saturday, July 23. A truly independent shop, it promises to be community driven and it stocks a more diverse range of books than you may find elsewhere.
With his new shop, Jordan says he has no interest in taking on Amazon, nor is he wanting to compete with chain book shops. For him, it's a passion project - giving West Kirby something that it lacked. After the first week of business, Jordan spoke to the ECHO about the new shop, what inspired it and what the future holds.
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Having worked for Waterstones for around a decade - first in the now-closed Bold Street branch, before running the children's section in the Liverpool ONE store and a spell working for the chain in Deansgate, Manchester - Jordan moved into book publicity. As a freelancer, he worked in marketing for publishers across the country.
Originally from Tuebrook, he moved to West Kirby during the pandemic. Working from home and spending much of his time walking around the coastal town, he couldn't grasp why it didn't have a book shop.
He told the ECHO : "I was walking around West Kirby, chatting to people, getting to know people and it (the idea of a book shop) became a bit of a brain worm. I couldn’t really understand why there wasn’t a book shop here.
"There’s a really good sense of community, there’s a really diverse range of schools, there are places like nice independent coffee shops, charity shops - all sorts of things. I felt the sense of community and felt like this was something that was needed here. I couldn’t get the idea out of my head, so I started to do some planning."
Jordan called the shop the "creative child" of his previous book retail experience and his work in book publicity. He wanted to offer something different and establish a book shop that was rooted in its local community.
The shop opened last Saturday and Jordan said the first week has been "amazing". Word of mouth is spreading, the shop's children's section has been busy and customers are already coming in to place orders.
He added: " I think we’ve opened at the right time, because it’s the school holidays and with West Kirby having the beach, it’s a massive tourist destination too. It felt like the prime spot for something like this and what has been interesting from everyone who has been coming in is that they said there was a book shop here about 10 years ago and they're saying that they really missed having a book shop and they’re so pleased that there’s a book shop back again.
"I’m glad we’re able to do this and get people involved, there’s a lot of excitement and that I think is a good sign."
Jordan wants to offer an interesting and not necessarily conventional selection of stock, while he hopes to make the shop a community space, for talks, collaboration and meetings. He will be starting an events programme of author talks and children's story time in September.
With the rise of the Kindle and other e-readers changing the buying habits of readers in recent years, Jordan hopes that the shop and its independent ethos will capture the feeling which has led to a revival in vinyl records. He said: "There’s a really nice record shop in West Kirby called Slipmat Records. It’s all second hand records and you don’t go in there to buy the new Adele album on vinyl - you go in there to find interesting stuff that you’ve never heard of.
"That’s what we want our shop to be and that’s what people are commenting on. They’re buying stuff that they’ve never seen before."
The idea of an independent book shop taking on a difficult retail environment will inspire comparisons with the 1998 film 'You've Got Mail', in which Meg Ryan's independent book shop is threatened by Tom Hanks' chain. The film sees the corporate behemoth opening a new store nearby, offering big discounts on books and endangering the existence of its neighbouring independent.
However, Jordan has no interest in competing with the bargain book sellers.
He said: "I’m under no illusions that shops surviving on the high street at the minute is becoming really, really difficult. Places like Amazon, WHSmith and supermarkets offering really high discounts on books is not something that I’m interested in competing with.
"When you come into our store, what we’ve tried to offer is something a bit unusual. There will probably be a lot of books that you’ve never heard of, but there will be lots that you have heard of as well, so I wanted to meet this in the middle and offer people an interesting experience."
He added: "I wanted it to be a space that wasn’t necessarily a traditional book shop - it’s quite light, it’s quite airy, there’s a lot of space. Everyone seems to be liking that, they like the wall of white, there aren’t loads of signs everywhere, the tables aren’t piled high with 30 or 40 copies of books.
"We’ve tried to curate it and I think it feels a bit more hand-picked, giving people more space to shop and actually look at things.
"People are thinking about where they’re spending their money now - we’re getting lots of customers coming in saying that they don’t like supporting Amazon. I think people do want to support small businesses but at the same time, I understand that there is a cost of living crisis - people aren’t going to come in here and spend £10 on a book that they could get for £3 in Tesco, so I’m not trying to compete with that kind of market."
Just over a week into business, Jordan is excited about what the future will bring. He sees The West Kirby Bookshop as a community space, not just a place where people can discover a wide range of literature, but a venue for collaboration and events.
He said: "It’s been an amazing first week - we’ve started to take customer orders, people are coming back, they’re telling their friends. That’s what it should be - if you’re in this game trying to make money, it’s never going to work.
"It has to be driven by wanting to offer exceptional customer service and give something to the community. If you’re not going to offer that, it’s not going to survive."
You can find The West Kirby Bookshop on Instagram and Twitter.
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