You might think booksellers and those who work in bookshops just spend all day readings advance copies or pottering around books - alas, this is not the case! It's still our dream job though - here's what we get up to on an average day at Book Hero's bookshop.
Mornings in Paradise
The bookshop in the morning is bliss - illuminated by the early sunshine, books freshly stacked and colouring pages refilled ready for eager kids, coffee machine humming away as it warms up. The to do list may be long and wandering, but there's a joy in knowing there's another day ahead for us serving our local customers (and the ones who visit from far away too!).
Some of the first jobs are making sure the shop is ready for customers - whether that's a quick vacuum, a little tidy up, or getting all the pick up orders shelved waiting for collection. For Lizzy, the morning also always has to start with a fresh coffee. Luckily the team here at Book Hero are pretty big coffee fanatics so the coffee machine is always ready to fuel another day of book selling!
Arguably one of the most important tasks is choosing a soundtrack for the day - Olivia Dean normally features throughout, and Lizzy loves forcing Noah Kahan onto everyone she can, but it's always a little different depending on who's there! Nothing better than browsing with good tunes in the background. Let us know if you think we should create a publish Spotify playlist of some of our bookstore faves!
"It's like walking into heaven"
What fills our days?
If you've come in store, you have most likely met Eve, Hannah, or Lizzy - the team who generally are looking after the bookshop. There's also a huge team behind the scenes at Book Hero who you might have bumped into (people are always happy to jump on the front desk and help out when needed!).
Obviously the customers are top priority in store - we love seeing locals pop by to find their new books (we're even slowly learning names for some of our amazing regulars - you know who you are). We try to have a wide range of books to recommend for anyone looking for their next read, and our new release table is updated every week with the newest titles for people to browse. Having said that, we all have our faves that we tend to recommend repeatedly (see a selection of repeated recs below!).
As well as customers, if you ever see us tapping away on the computer we are either writing up content for our blog or newsletter (e.g. Local Crime & Thriller Authors to add to your TBR), creating collections and lists of products for our store (e.g. Hannah's favourite wordy board games), or helping out customers online who might need support.
It keeps us busy but I think we all love the variety and the way that every day feels different depending on the customers you get to chat to and the other bookish work we are doing on the side.
What about that warehouse of ours?
In our little (but adorable) bookshop we have over 1000 products - ranging from lots of books, to a selection of toys, puzzles, boardgames, and more. The thing that makes us a bit special is that right next door is our warehouse, packed literally to the brim with over 80,000 more items. This means that for a lot of customers they may come in looking for something that is in stock that we can grab on the spot for them.
If you're ever in store and can't find the book you're after please do ask! Often it's something we can get for you in under a minute (we've timed it!), and if not we can help you with setting up an order for it from one of our suppliers.
What's also fun about working at Book Hero is people like Hannah and Eve will often end up working in the warehouse too (they are multi-talented!). This means instead of serving customers they are shelving our new books, helping pick orders, and more. There's also a bit of a different soundtrack back there (think high octane).
Do we just spend all day reading?
We may not ever be reading behind the desk because there's far too much work for that, but all of us do truly love books and reading and dedicate our breaks and a lot of our free time to trying to read not only old backlist favourites, but also new releases or even, when we're lucky, the ARCs (Advance Reader Copies) that we are kindly given by publishers for books that we are excited for.
We also love to chat about books as a wider team which is great because I can recommend a book like One Last Question, Prime Minister based purely on Dylan's raving review and discussions we've had about it. We're also lucky to have a team that varies in terms of what they read, or the other things they like to do (e.g. Tim the Toyman and his collectibles, or Amelia and Siobahn and their puzzle obsession). All of this makes it easier to chat with customers in store about the things we sell, because they are all things we would want to buy ourselves!
"Great range, well priced, lovely staff, and they're always playing absolute bangers every time I go in there. Love your work, Book Hero"
Some of our favourite bookshop things:
- When people bring their dogs in with them. Yes please, we love the cuddles.
- People sharing what they're reading with us (and asking us what we're reading too!).
- Grandparents finding the perfect books for their grandchildren, we are the readers we are thanks to grandparents like you.
- Our regulars who come in on the same day every week - we love seeing your faces walk in the door.
- Every time someone walks in and is delighted by the sight of the shop or the smell of books. We feel exactly the same.
- Being able to find you exactly what you're after, or even better helping you choose something when you come with no idea what to get.
- All the locals who spread the word - I swear every day someone comes in because so-and-so told them about this great little local bookstore. Word of mouth makes ALL the difference.
- Pausing for a break and a little sweet treat and caffeine.
- All the tamariki who come and make themselves at home - enjoying our selection of books, our colouring pages, or just pointing out the random little treasures hidden around the place.
- Being able to show up to work surrounded by books, in the best team, with the best customers. Each day is a delight.
Thank you! Yes, you.
At 5pm each day, we close up shop. This means we're busy counting coins and settling the POS system, closing up and sorting out books that have found themselves a bit wayward during the day. Ultimately at the end of the day we always feel so grateful to be getting the chance to do this. It's hard to imagine a year ago where this little bookshop didn't exist, and now we are happily busy all day serving customers and living our best bookish lives.
When we say we have the best customers, we really do mean it. From those familiar faces popping in from over the road after their swimming lessons, to those who make the huge effort to come and visit when they happen to be spending time in Auckland, we are so honoured to be able to enable fellow readers and book lovers. Thank you for every purchase, every lovely review or community post - we all really appreciate it.
"Amazing people will be coming back here again. This is the best book store. Me and my friend traveled from Phia to this book store and was not disappointed. The staff where amazing and talked we talked about our books and they even gave us book recs and where just AMAZING I will be coming back ♾️/10 AMAZINGG"
