ARTS FEATURE
AShelves COMMUNI T Y IN BOOKS Bookstore moves from pop-ups to the web
Pg. 6 - JAN 26 - FEB 9, 2022
BY KARIE SIMMONS
When I spoke with Abbigail Glen, founder of Charlotte-based Shelves Bookstore, she was still fondly recalling the previous night, when she found herself overtaken with laughter thanks to a book she had been reading. “I was dying laughing like I was watching a TV show,” she said. “Like seriously, in the bed cracking up.” For her, the experience was a perfect example of why reading plays such an important role in her life. “Television is amazing, but a good writer can have you crying reading a book, laughing reading a book, like really stop and put down a book because you need to breathe. That’s what reading can do for you, and we’re here to remind people that reading is such a freeing experience.” As a longtime avid reader, Glen encourages curiosity in others. She recommends people question the world around them and turn to books to find the answers. If you don’t keep seeking, she asks, how can you learn? Glen is a firm believer in the power books have to educate as well as entertain, and she knows from experience the freedom that reading provides. “The more you read, it will free you,” she said. “It will free you from the confines of thinking you know it all.” This understanding, paired with a passion to serve the community, is what prompted Glen to launch her mobile pop-up bookstore, Shelves Bookstore, in June 2019. Since then, she has been popping up to sell books at cafes and breweries around Charlotte and has pivoted during the pandemic to offer online ordering and home delivery, along with merchandise and a monthly book subscription service. But like any good story, Shelves’ success did not come without plot twists.
Charlotte’s friendly neighborhood bookseller
Glen moved to Charlotte from Philadelphia in 2016 after visiting on a road trip six months prior. She had been working in human resources, but in the back of her mind lived a dream to someday open a brick-and-mortar bookstore that offered a subscription service. Once she got to Charlotte, it didn’t take long for her to see the need. Glen learned that there was only one independent bookstore selling new books in the city. Other indie bookstores sold used books and big-box chains made up the rest of the market. Curious about what it was like to do business locally, in 2018 Glen began attending small business workshops offered through a partnership between Mecklenburg County and Central Piedmont Community College. She learned a lot, but wasn’t quite ready to take the leap yet. “I had the name for Shelves, tucked it in the back of my mind and just was like, you know, I’m gonna pull this out when it’s time. And lo and behold, I wasn’t expecting that to be the next year,” Glen said. By 2019, Glen had resigned from her HR job and was asking herself, “What’s next?” But she already knew the answer was Shelves. To finally get the dream off the ground, however, she would end up taking a different route than originally envisioned. After a long discussion with a friend, Glen realized that her long-term plan to bring a brick-and-mortar Shelves out to the community through book fairs and pop-ups should actually be flipped — the pop-ups should come before the physical store. Armed with this new approach, she signed up for one more workshop to flesh out her ideas, this time participating in one for blossoming
ABBIGAIL GLEN LAUNCHED SHELVES BOOKSTORE AS A POP-UP IN 2019. PHOTO BY ELEANOR KATH
entrepreneurs hosted by ASPIRE Community Capital. She was the only person in attendance. “I got their undivided attention and that was really valuable to me,” Glen said. She launched Shelves the next month with her first pop-up at Queen City Grounds in Uptown. It was well-received. “I needed that because that was very encouraging and I honestly held onto that experience when times got rough, because not all pop-ups went that way,” she continued. “I never forgot that experience.” Determining what books to sell, what topics customers might be open to reading and what her mobile pop-up bookstore would look like were among some of Glen’s earliest struggles with Shelves. Still, she didn’t have any expectations for her first few pop-ups, just a hope that people would appreciate someone trying to fill a need in the community. “It was a couple of folks who opened their doors — Enderly Coffee Co., Lenny Boy Brewing,
Pepperbox Donuts — and I’ll always be grateful for everybody that took a chance,” said Glen, who today likes to call herself Charlotte’s friendly neighborhood bookseller. “I’m glad for the experiences because it really helped me see what worked and what didn’t as far as for our customers and then what environments work for our type of business model.”
From surviving to thriving
Shelves was not an overnight success, and Glen isn’t shy to admit it. Like any new business owner, there was a learning curve for Glen with unpredictable ups and downs. She supplemented her income by working as a personal shopper. Because she’s not a bookseller by trade, Glen had to figure out how to source books from publishers and, in doing so, came to understand that inventory is what makes independent bookstores unique. Shelves doesn’t necessarily carry the trending books or bestsellers, but instead focuses on
