Geoff Strong
April 28, 2008
The Age
BOOKSHOP owner Andrew Ball was struck by figures that showed only 18% of Australians would ever venture into a shop such as his, so he devised a way to take such shops to the remaining 82%.
The prototype of his idea sits in front of the Federation Square staircase that links the square’s open space to Flinders Street. Like a market stall it unfolds in the morning and refolds at night.
In the meantime, office workers taking their lunch can pick up a copy of Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood while a commuter on their way to catch a train home might be tempted to delve into a Jane Austin or Anthony Trollope classic between the city and Frankston.
Melbourne’s first portable bookshop has been licensed to self-confessed classics fanatic Ross Matthews and Ball hopes once the project is refined, it will go further — a series of mobile bookshops taken to fairs, markets and even country towns too small to support a bookshop in their own right.
"The city used to have a lot of bookshops, but rising rents have forced them out. Also there are a lot of people out there who would like to run a bookshop but are put off by the upfront costs, which can start at $100,000," Ball says.
His is the name behind Andrew’s Bookshop in Ivanhoe and, up until last year, in Carlton.
Ball started in the business 31 years ago with two boxes of second-hand books under his bed which he took to sell at Wantirna market.
He initially advertised for second-hand books in the local paper and, having no car, used to hitchhike to the buyers and do likewise to get home.
His fi rst bookshop followed soon after, in Ringwood. It was in the wrong place but Ball learned valuable lessons about the trade. He also sold books at La Trobe University. "I always say I did my degree in bookselling at La Trobe," he says.
"I soon realised Ivanhoe was probably a better location for a bookstore than Ringwood and I have been there ever since." For a few years, until March last year, Ball had a branch in Carlton, near the Nova Cinema.
"When a Borders store opened nearby in 2003 we were unsure if we would be blown out of the water, but we thrived on the challenge and we discovered they brought customers to the area. I used to say to customers, ‘You know, that’s cheaper at Borders’. Mostly they would respond that they would buy from us anyway."
Most of the books on sale at the Federation Square stall are end-of-line or remaindered titles from publishers or shop-soiled stock which they can sell for a third of the new price.
"In 2004, when we could see our Carlton lease was coming to an end, we wanted to see how we could fit into the new market and we decided to develop the mobile bookshop idea," Ball says.
"We are still trying to define what sort of stock goes well here and we are also learning how to deal with being out in the open facing the weather."
But Ross Matthews has an easy answer to that one: "If it looks like rain I just pack it up."
