Beloved Perth high street to get a new vibe this Christmas
This article originally appeared on WAtoday. I republish it here with some exclusive extra info (in bold) for you, my subscribers, at the end as I know you are extra invested!
Since Leederville’s Oxford Street Books closed in 2018, one of Perth’s premier high streets has lacked that certain something.
The closure was so grieved that a community collective began a fundraiser to open a new not-for-profit version with crowdsourced seed funding.
Boundless Books owner Allyce Cameron. Image supplied.
But despite hundreds of donors signing on, it was not quite enough and is now defunct as a new contender has prevailed. Boundless Books will open – logistics willing – before Christmas.
Owner Allyce Cameron has worked at Dymocks Morley Galleria for the past 14 years, first as a staffer then manager, but all Galleria stores have battled with falling foot traffic caused by the rundown mall owners abandoning a major redevelopment. She said many shoppers were taking their business elsewhere.
“I started looking into what it would take to purchase a Dymocks store in 2018 so that gives you an idea of how long the renovations have been pushed back,” she said.
“I was considering taking over the Morley store here, as the owners are looking to retire at some stage … but decided to go independent, and I definitely think that was the right thing.”
Boundless Books will be next door to the old Oxford St Books site and two doors up from Urban Records.
“It’s a cracking spot,” Cameron said.
“Thursday, Friday, Saturday nights it’s pumping, and they need a bookstore right there, so people can have dinner then go for a wander.”
Cameron said bookshops were the heart of any high street; a retail precinct without one was “just a little bit sad”.
The sweet spot. Image supplied.
“If I go out to dinner I still love to go and have a browse in a bookstore afterwards, even though I run a bookstore already. You just never know what you’re going to find,” she said.
“A mix of retail and restaurants is important for any strip, you can’t just go out and go home, you want people to stay and spend their money.”
Cameron said the prospect of diversifying the offerings of restaurant-heavy Leederville had helped in her bid for the location.
The campaign that was attempting to revive the old Oxford Street Books has promised to soon refund donations, and offered insight into the difficulties of such a venture.
They told WAtoday that falling short of the funding target made it difficult to secure a permanent home.
Books are back on Leederville’s main strip, Oxford Street.
Despite this, they came very close to locking in a prime location right on the strip, but had to pause memberships 15 months ago while looking for other sites. A local philanthropist was willing to assist, but another location also fell through.
“Along the way, we incorporated the Perth Reader’s Association and liaised with members of the community, including Leederville Connect and City of Vincent councillors,” they said.
“We’re super happy that someone else has succeeded in bringing a bookstore back to Leedy.”
Book fiends, want to know more?
I asked Cameron if the barriers had been high in entering such a premium strip. She said it was definitely more challenging to enter a high street location factoring in rent and wages, but she also thought in this particular instance the powers that be were keen to add more retail, aware that Leederville was now a very restaurant-heavy area.
I also asked if she was worried about the future, given how many indie bookshops in Perth are struggling. I note Australia Reads has also just pointed to a new report from the European and International Book Federation finding that only 64 per cent of Australians bought a book in the past year, compared to an average of 72 per cent across the 19 surveyed countries, including the UK, US, France, Germany and Spain.
Cameron said while “it’s always in the back of my mind that it won’t be successful” she thought all the experience she had running events and book clubs and interacting with people and contacts would make it easier than it might be for others. Being able to utilise the local pubs, restaurants and the Luna was important, she said, and she would be running at least one book club to start with.
I also asked for an idea of what the shop would be like, and she said it would be a nice mix of cosy modern and fun. And the stock? “It’s a mix of [my passions and what people want] so it will have a mix of fiction and nonfiction, I enjoy reading a mix of genres … so I just want to have a good mix of genres and it won’t be too highbrow, I want anyone to be able to come in and find something – and a good kid’s section is important. That’s the next generation of readers.” She’ll also make sure there is a good gift range for the “reading-adjacent” population. Love that moniker.
It sounds like she’s pushing hard to try to open for Christmas to take advantage of some of those all-important Christmas sales, but it’s touch and go at this stage with a lot of delays in deliveries and construction matters.
Let’s hope she succeeds as it sounds like she has all the ingredients for success.
Oxford Street Books Campaign
It’s also good to have an indication the donors to the OSB campaign will be refunded. It sounds like they really did make an effort, and it just goes to show how things are really stacked against book shops either as for-profits or as not-for-profits – so after Rabble that’s the second bookshop to investigate the NFP route and find it not workable.
More good news
Typeface Books Applecross, which has struggled for a long time, has finally found a buyer with, by the sounds of it, some financial resilience. And Guinevere will continue to be working there, which is good for her and good for the community that they can keep their bookshop.