THE final chapter is about to written for a popular Wokingham book shop – and the owners are planning for a happy ending.
Bookends in Peach Street will close its doors for the last time on Saturday, February 18 and the owners are hoping to close the book with a farewell event.
“We are going to have a small celebration,” explained store owner Lynda Low. “We don’t want it to be huge, but we do want as many people as possible to come in and say goodbye to us.”
The popular bookstore opened its doors in April 1991, and has been a fixture for Wokingham’s bookworms over the past 26 years. It was originally on the side of Peach Street that is about to be demolished to become Peach Place, before relocating to the other side of the road in 1998, ahead of the regeneration works. For a time, there were two branches opposite each other, one selling books and the other gifts.
Mrs Low said that shehas always been around books, but she used to work in Marks & Spencer before opening Bookends with her husband, Brian, who had been made redundant from his IT job.
“It was quite a life change,” Mrs Low said about their decision to open the first branch.
“As a family we’ve always really been into books,” she added. But the lack of service she found in other stores caused her frustration and made her determined to bring the famous M&S customer service values to the store.
It quickly built up what Mrs Low described as a very loyal following, but the march of technology and online retailers have seen trade start to decline.
She said: “The Kindle is on the up, Amazon is on the up and, as a bookshop, we were fighting a losing battle. Probably since 2012, we’ve noticed trade generally declining. We’ve tried to diversify and improve trade but it hasn’t.
“So we’re leaving on a high.”
Although the store is closing, parts of the business will continue to operate including its popular education business.
“We plan to keep the schools business running from the website,” Mrs Low explained. “For schools, nothing will change: they can order online as usual.
“And we have another card and gift shop in Maidenhead called Poppies.”
But for now, Mrs Low, said: “It’s business as usual until February 18. On the last Saturday, we’ll have some offers and some reductions.”
The store has been emailing regular customers to let them know of the changes.
“26 years is a long time to be in this town. It’s not just a business, it’s our life: our customers are our friends,” Mrs Low said. “Our customers are devastated.
“Wokingham has been very kind to us over the years, we want to say a big thank you to our customers.”
The landlord has arranged for a new tenant for the store and it is expected that the new, unnamed store, will open at the end of March, after a refurbishment.
