A TALE OF TWO BOOK STORES

by Jen Groundwater | photos by Rae-Anne Guenther

In 1989 Barb and Tom Pope moved back to Canada after living for more than two decades in New Zealand. They visited family in pretty little Qualicum Beach, where they soon heard that the local book store, Mulberry Bush, was for sale. They put in an offer─and began putting down roots on the Island. Soon afterwards, they were visited by their first publishers’ reps, received their first quarterly microfiche (Microfiches! Remember those?!) advertising new book titles, and put in their first orders. So began a beautiful story of community and connection that continues to be written to this day.

If Barb and Tom had foreseen the many challenges they would face as independent booksellers─including the rise of big-box bookstores, online rivals, and even a global pandemic, they might have bought a different kind of business─but, decades later, Barb reflects on the secret to their longevity, “Our customers are the reason that we’re here. We feel like we have a sacred trust with them.”

The Popes opened a second store in Parksville in 1992, and both Mulberry Bush book stores have become beloved fixtures in their communities. For many years, they’ve been not just where you go to pick up your next beach read or thriller, they’ve been a gathering place. Book launches and author events happen in store, while the Popes and their staff take “sales-on-site” book displays to literary and festival events. Their Community Gifting Program helps support local organizations, they act as a ticket agent for various concerts and performances, and they have a frequent-buyer club for their die-hard bookworms.

Though Barb and Tom’s two stores combined, occupy a physical space of just about 2,000 square feet, they offer access to over eight million titles on their online store. Which means that in a very real sense, walking into a Mulberry Bush bookstore is like opening a door into a universe of infinite possibilities. “Books take you everywhere you want to be,” Barb says.

Each store has a slightly different ambiance. In Parksville, it’s cozy, with dark wood shelving and a children’s area with a castle façade. The Qualicum location is bright and airy, with a holidayesque feeling. But whichever store you visit, you’ll get a warm welcome from people who know and genuinely love books.

Both stores stock plenty of new Canadian titles (Barb says, “We like to support local and Canadian authors”) along with sections for mysteries, popular and literary fiction, non-fiction, bargain books, and more. The Staff Picks shelves are a great place to find your next favourite author. And there are lots of children’s books.

Barb is the buyer for the stores. Asked how in the world she selects which books to order from the thousands published every month, she says she considers her customers first. “What have they asked for? What are they reading? We always buy more work by authors our customers love.”

She also pays close attention to publishers’ lists of hot new titles, book-prize shortlists and winners, Canada Reads and celebrity book-club recommendations, and titles or topics in the media. “Recently, books about US politics, along with Black Lives Matter and Indigenous Canadian titles, have been very much in demand,” she notes.

Like most small shops, both Mulberry Bush locations closed in mid-March 2020 in the early days of COVID-19. But then something marvellous happened, Barb says. “Books really took off during COVID. It was an unexpected but amazing phenomenon. People rediscovered the joy of reading.”

For the Popes, this meant a surge in online and special orders. They quickly began offering home delivery and no-touch pickup at the door; they re-opened in June with restrictions on how many people can be in each store at one time. This means no in-person events for now, but you can still go in to browse or buy, or chat with the staff, who Barb calls “fabulous professionals.”

A key team member is Barb and Tom’s daughter, Marianne (“We can’t do it without her!”) who works in the Qualicum Beach store and oversees all of Mulberry Bush’s website promotions, marketing, monthly newsletters, and Facebook and Instagram feeds.

In these strange pandemic days, book lovers need bricks-and-mortar bookstores more than ever. And our booksellers need us, too. For Barb and Tom, the connection to community is one of the very best parts of running their stores. Over the years, they’ve seen summer visitors come back year after year, and have become friends with many local bibliophiles.

A SELECTION OF MULBERRY BUSH STAFF PICKS

The Jane Austen Society: A Novel

by Natalie Jenner

The Power of Kindness: Why Empathy Is Essential in Everyday Life

by Brian Goldman

The Complete Language of Flowers: A Definitive and Illustrated History

by S Theresa Dietz

How to Window Box: Small-Space Plants to Grow Indoors or Out

by Chantal Aida Gordon

To Speak for the Trees: My Life‘s Journey from Ancient Celtic Wisdom to a Healing Vision of the Forest

by Diana Beresford-Kroeger

Two for the Road

by Roddy Doyle

We’re grateful for our customers. We’re just so blessed that we get to talk about books every day,” says Barb. “We can talk about books with our customers, we know what they’ll like, and they keep coming back.

Barb Pope