Kim's bookshop owner reflects on 20 years in the city

SussexWorld

The owner of Kim's bookshop looks back on almost twenty years in Chichester, ahead of the shop's closure next month.

Transcript

00:00Okay, my name's Lynn Flowers-Hearn and I'm the owner of King's Bookshop in Chichester and Daringen.

00:06And so obviously the latest news is that you guys are closing, when is that exactly?

00:11We will be closing the Chichester shop the week beginning the 22nd of July,

00:16not entirely sure what day, depends on what stock level we have left,

00:19but it'll be the week beginning the 22nd of July.

00:22And it must have been a really hard decision, I mean how long have you been in the city?

00:25Nearly 20 years now and yes a very hard decision because it's a very busy shop

00:29with lovely customers and it's still very busy and very reasonable overheads,

00:34but I need to close just to make life a little bit easier for me just to have one shop.

00:39That's fair enough, what exactly sort of led to the decision to close if that makes sense?

00:45The term of the lease is coming up at the end of July

00:50and I have a fourth grandchild so I need to be a little more available.

00:55That's fair enough, I think it's a relief to know that there's still a,

00:58it's not because there's a lack of appetite for books in Chichester?

01:00Definitely not, no, we have a very active customer base

01:04who love us and have nearly been in tears when we've told them,

01:06so yes it's nothing to do with how busy it is and we can sell lots of books,

01:11but no it's a personal decision.

01:14I think personally I'm almost more relieved that it was a personal decision then,

01:18and it must have been hard if it was you know a personal decision,

01:21if that makes any sort of sense, it must have been hard to come to it as a person.

01:25Yeah, very difficult because I love it,

01:27but there's a lot of physical work involved running a bookshop like this,

01:31a lot of lifting and carrying from one shop to another,

01:34and I live in Worthing, the traffic consideration,

01:38an hour and a quarter to get home most evenings, so I need to just reduce.

01:43That's totally fair enough, and is there,

01:46well you mentioned there sort of how customers have responded to you,

01:49if you know what I mean, over the last, well because of the news, yes,

01:53and I suppose I'd just like you to talk a little bit more about that,

01:56I mean have they shown much support, I mean how has it been?

01:59Great support, yes, we started a sale with 25% off all the stock,

02:04and everybody's been loving that and filling their bags,

02:08but just generally they're shocked and quite upset that we're going.

02:14Hopefully a lot of them will still come to the Arundel shop if they can get there,

02:18but if you're just relying on public transport it's not easy for some people,

02:25for the theatre and Palant Art Gallery and things like that,

02:28we will miss the London people who come for the visits.

02:32And is there, I suppose after 20 odd years, you know,

02:35you must have a real healthy batch of regulars that it's been,

02:38I mean that it's been particularly hard to say goodbye to,

02:41I mean but you must have a lot of memories as well I suppose,

02:43do you have any favourites?

02:44Well we've got a lot of customers that specialise in their own sort of books,

02:51and a lot of them like railway books and Sussex books,

02:54books on Chichester of course,

02:57this shop had the poet Charles Crocker lived here in the 18th century,

03:03and we have a blue plaque outside and that sort of gets a lot of people in,

03:08just generally interested in the city centre and what used to be here,

03:13and even back to Roman times,

03:15so our customers love local history,

03:19and obviously we have a good student,

03:23Leon Tell as well from the University,

03:25who we shall miss because we're, you know,

03:27we're all generations and children as well for children's books,

03:31so yeah we will miss it greatly.

03:34Bless you, absolutely,

03:36and is there anything you'd like to say to your customers?

03:39I'd like to thank them for all their custom,

03:42and just being so lovely and friendly,

03:45and just making book selling a pleasure really,

03:48as people come here because they want to buy a book,

03:50and they buy a book and they go away quite happy,

03:52and we do lots of ordering for people,

03:54and yeah it's a very nice business.

03:57Have you ever, this is adjacent to the business,

04:00but I mean has book selling for such a long time,

04:02have you discovered any new favourite books as a result of it,

04:06if that makes any sense as a question?

04:07Um, have I personally decided?

04:09Yeah, yeah.

04:10Okay well my favourite author would be George Orwell,

04:14or a favourite sort of children's book would be Wind in the Willows,

04:17and those would be my go-to books for comfort reading if you like,

04:22but I'm introduced to new books through customers all the time,

04:26things I haven't heard of,

04:28but you know the Kim's Bookshop business started in 1971,

04:31so it's been going a very long time.

04:33Absolutely yeah, I mean and that's,

04:34that must be one of the great pleasures of it,

04:36is sort of that access to new books all the time, yeah.

04:38We learn something, particularly sort of general knowledge every day,

04:42because everyone that comes in is a specialist in their own,

04:45in their own speciality really,

04:47and very obscure some of it as well.

04:50I bet.

04:50Well thank you very much, that was kind of the...

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