Om Book Shop – a division of distributors and publishers Om Books – with branches in Delhi, Gurgaon, Noida, Mumbai and Bengaluru, may have ...
Om Book Shop – a division of distributors and publishers Om Books – with branches in Delhi, Gurgaon, Noida, Mumbai and Bengaluru, may have pioneered the concept of mall bookstores in India. Borrowed from the West, the bookstore-in-a-mall has now become a viable venture as well as a popular hangout for bookworms. In India, stores and chains like Bahrisons, Landmark and Crosswords have all adopted this model at different times.
What does the pandemic mean for the bookshop-in-a-mall, going by the example of Om Book Shop? Managing director Ajay Mago spoke to Scroll.in about the business and logistics of operating bookstores in malls, how the Covid-19 pandemic and the ensuing government-enforced lockdown impacted sales and operations, and how he and his team are adapting to the new normal. Excerpts from the interview:
How old is the concept of mall bookstores?
Since the initial decades of the 20th century, and with an increasingly marked presence from the 1950s, malls gradually transformed the shopping experience in the West. While it would be difficult to accurately identify the first bookstore to ever exist in a mall, it would be unusual to amble through a mall today without chancing upon bookstores that are not only popular hangouts for readers but...
