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| Abbigail Glen, Shelves Bookstore | |
Shelves Bookstore, an independent bookstore that began as a pop-up store in Charlotte, N.C., in 2019, has pivoted to a primarily online bookstore complete with a monthly subscription service called Reading Is a Lifestyle, Queen City Nerve reported.
Owner Abbigail Glen said she's wanted to open an independent bookstore of her own for a long time, and she quickly saw the need for another indie in Charlotte after moving there from Philadelphia in 2016. In 2018, she started to research opening her own store in earnest, thinking she would open a bricks-and-mortar store first before rolling out pop-up appearances, book fairs and a subscription service. Eventually she decided to do the reverse, and she held her first pop-up at Queen City Grounds in Uptown Charlotte in June 2019.
Over the next few months she hosted pop-ups at Enderly Coffee Co., Lenny Boy Brewing and Pepperbox Donuts, curating her selection of fiction and nonfiction for all ages based on community feedback. She has focused on lesser-known writers and narratives and on expanding readers' horizons.
After the Covid-19 pandemic began, Glen saw an uptick in online orders and made a "full pivot" to online sales by summer 2020. Focusing on online sales also allowed Glen finally to launch a subscription service, which she named Reading Is a Lifestyle. When customers sign up, they tell her what sorts of books they are open to reading, and each month Glen ships them a new adult hardcover based on their selections.
"When you read a book, you are freeing yourself from your biases, especially when you are reading books that are not necessarily about topics and subjects that you're comfortable with, which is why we also push the narrative of really diversifying the subject matter that you read," Glen told QCN. "When you only go back to things that you're comfortable with, you will never get comfortable with being uncomfortable and that could be in other cultures, among other thought processes."