You are viewing your 1 free article this month. Login to read more articles.
The heavy snow plaguing the UK and Ireland this week will "inevitably" have an impact on sales, retail chiefs have told The Bookseller, with several shops forced to close and deliveries postponed as the blizzards continue.
Severe weather warnings have been issued by the Met Office, as first "The Beast from the East" followed by "Storm Emma", bring heavy snowfall, strong winds and icy temperatures. The weather caused disruption to World Book Day yesterday (1st March), with authors having to cancel events and some schools closing, although the Biggest Book Show on Earth tour went ahead.
The conditions have also forced several bookshops across the country to close, while others have been hit by a drastic drop in footfall.
Waterstones made the decision to close some of its shops due to the heavy snowfall and to ensure its booksellers could travel home safely.
A spokesperson for the retailer told The Bookseller: "We certainly expect footfall and sales to be significantly affected this week, particularly in those areas hit hardest by the severe weather."
Maria Dickenson, m.d. of Dubray Books in Ireland, said that while the shops stayed open on Wednesday (28th February), most suppliers were not able to deliver stock and all eight outlets in the chain were forced to close on Thursday (1st March) and Friday (2nd March) following government instruction.
"We stayed open on Wednesday but most suppliers weren’t able to deliver that day and sales were impacted to a degree due to the weather," Dickenson said. "All eight shops closed Thursday and Friday – government instruction was to stay indoors from 4pm on Thursday, plus most staff take public transport to work - and we’ll see about Saturday. This year has been quite strong so far but nonetheless it is frustrating to have to close, particularly when we recently had a day’s closure for Hurricane Ophelia [which hit Ireland in October]."
Branches of Blackwell's in Scotland and the North East and South West of England also closed on Thursday, despite the "gallant efforts" of staff, said sales and marketing director Dean Drew. However, the retailer's larger shops in London, Oxford and Cambridge have remained open and supported World Book Day.
Drew added that there would "inevitably" be some impact on sales, but the retailer hasn't had any major supply issues.
At Foyles, chief executive Paul Currie, said that all the stores had stayed open and staff had been "incredible".
"Clearly the bad weather has impacted our trading, made more intense by the media and the messages it's giving", said Currie. "More serious for us however is supply chain which has been badly hit as our distribution centre is in Kent."
Alastair Aldous, head of books at W H Smith High Street, said the weather was impacting footfall to the high street and was bound to affect performance across the balance of the week, but that children and parents seem to be "trudging through the snow to get into stores" on World Book Day.
Wholesaler Gardners meanwhile experienced some disruption in Scotland and the North of England, but has said deliveries had generally been coping.
Nigel Wyman, head of business development at firm, said: "Our advice to all customers is to order as you would normally but all of us need to set our customers’ expectations as deliveries could be delayed if the adverse weather continues."
Up in Scotland, which has seen the worst of the weather, owner of the Mainstreet Trading Company in St Boswells, Rosamund de la Hey, said the firm's deli manager had been delivering soup to local people in need. "Trade is almost zero, save some café customers in the morning on Wednesday and Thursday. We closed the shop at 1.30pm on Thursday as there seemed no point in remaining open, but our wonderful deli manager has been delivering soup to some of our vulnerable locals," de la Hey said.
On Wednesday, The Bookseller reported that several book trade events had been cancelled because of the snow, including the Irish Book Trade Conference, which was due to go ahead today in Dublin, but has now been moved to 23rd March. Simon & Schuster's Scribner showcase, which was due to take place on Wednesday night in London was also postponed and a Celia Imrie event which was due to take place at the Mainstreet Trading Company in St Boswell's was cancelled.