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Burson opens new bookshop in Hay-on-Wye
The only store in Hay-on-Wye, Herefordshire, to exclusively sell new books will open on 26th October.
Owner Hannah Burson made the decision to open The Old Electric Bookshop, The Pavement, Hay, after spotting a gap in the market for a dedicated shop for new books. The shop will be the only bookshop selling exclusively new titles among Hay’s 20 second-hand bookstores.
She said: “Most of the books you get in Hay are second-hand books—some of the bookshops also sell some new books. There aren’t any bookshops just selling new books which is what we’ll be. People do like to give new books and current books as a gift."
©Billie Charity
The 388 sq ft shop will build on the books section of her existing vintage and artisan shop, The Old Electric Shop, Broad Street, Hay, and will be staffed by three part-time staff. Titles will be largely design, architecture, eco-living, feminism, politics and protest non-fiction, some fiction from local authors, and children’s fiction.
Burson said: “I basically buy what I would like to buy right now. If I feel I want to read it right now, I buy it and hope other people also want to read it right now. I’ve got three children so rather like I choose my own reading list, I choose their reading list for the shop. I’ve got one real bookworm so he’s working his way through.
“It’s always a risk when you open a new business so I’m hopeful that we understand what people are looking for but prepared to be wrong! The benefit of having a small business is we can adapt it if it turns out people don’t want that.”
©Billie Charity
Burson said the shop was made possible by the legacy of entrepreneur Richard Booth who founded the first bookshops in Hay-on-Wye, now dubbed a “Town of Books”.
Burson said: “His influence over the town as a whole has made it a really interesting and slightly eccentric, media-driven town and that has given us the opportunity to do what we do. It’s brought the right kind of customers to do what we do. The independents that he started have continued.”
The former underwater and equestrian photographer opened The Old Electric Shop in 2014 after having her third child. She also runs a vegetarian cafe and manages an Air BnB letting, "The Folly". The shop will host a soft launch and party on Friday 25th October, before opening officially on Saturday 26th October.
