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