To celebrate Independent Bookshop Week 2025 and its vital role in fostering community and social change, our Marketing Coordinator, Rich Kemp, spent a day behind the counter at Bookhaus—Bristol University Press’s bookshop twin. Rich’s account captures the purpose, camaraderie, and sheer delight of being surrounded by books. Join him behind the scenes to see how a single day can reveal the true heart of indie bookselling.
On Monday, 16th June, as part of Indie Bookshop Week, I had the privilege of working as a bookseller for a day at Bookhaus. A key part of Bristol’s radical culture, Bookhaus is one of the best bookshops in our city and one of my personal favourites. Before my big bookselling debut, I had already frequented the shop on many occasions, both to browse their excellent (and impressive) selection and to attend some of the many book launches and debates that they so brilliantly host.
All of my shop work experience up until this point had been in shoes, motor parts, sports fashion and as a supermarket trolley boy. None of those shops I had particularly fond memories of, and so part of my excitement was to be able to create new memories of what it’s like to work in a shop that I’d also happily spend hundreds of hours in as a paying customer.
It was a beautiful, sunny day and so I chose to walk rather than cycle. I’m glad I did because I got to enjoy a pleasant bob along the waterfront, noticing the sparkle of the water and the way the sun seems to make everything open up. Bookhaus couldn’t be in a prettier part of town.
Nestled behind the array of shipping container restaurants, just before the bridge across the water into South Bristol, Bookhaus is a central component of Wapping Wharf. Considering the deliberate minuteness of all the restaurants around here (many of which are award-winning and well worth a visit by the way), Bookhaus is impressively large. My first impression was being struck by the huge window display of Bristol University Press and Policy Press books. Bookhaus had an upcoming event with one of the authors of Basic Income, plus our publisher had twinned with the shop for Indie Bookshop Week, so they’d used it as an opportunity to promote CTRL HATE DELETE, Basic Income, Woke Captialism and other (if I may say so) excellent books of ours.
I was still a little concerned, though. Would they be nice in there? It was just one day; surely I’d be fine. But old memories entered my head: the sports fashion boss yelling obscenities up the stairs because I was too slow finding a size 10 Air Max or all of us being told at the last possible minute that we were staying two hours after close for stock check and that there was nothing we could do about it. Today’s shop experience wouldn’t be like that, and I was excited to change the narrative.
Step inside Bookhaus and you’re met with walls of thoughtfully chosen titles. It’s not just about stocking the bestsellers – it’s about believing in the books they stock. Each member of the team takes ownership of different sections of the shop. Manager Darran curates Culture. Becky oversees Self-help. Joe is responsible for Fiction. Each section reflects their tastes, passions and ongoing conversations with their customers. And they each have their ride-or-die authors – those they’ll always stock no matter what: Bourdain, Didion, Baldwin, Graeber, Cusk, and so many more. They’re not just selling books that their audience would want, but books that they themselves would want. 
That sense of curation extends to how the books are presented. In Fiction, Joe’s inventive “If You Like…You’ll love…” section maps three popular books with three more books that you might just love. If you like My Year of Rest and Relaxation, for instance, you’ll love Boys Parts or Conversations with Friends or Reservoir Bitches. And then there is Shelf Wars. Running for the last 18 months, Shelf Wars is the big competition in the shop. Each bookseller gets shelf space for four books for which they write personal recommendations. Bookshop recommendations are commonplace nowadays, but this is different: Bookhaus’ team of booksellers are competing to pick the best books, write the most convincing recommendations and sell the most copies. Whoever sells the most within the month wins a free paperback. I got the feeling that it was more about honour and pride, though, than about winning a free book.
Bookhaus need to sell books to keep the lights on, of course, but they’re here because they’re passionate about books and the community in which they reside. Some people would come in, buy and head off while others would want to chat for half an hour about everything from politics to Mrs Dalloway. Darran and Becky gave each customer their whole attention. It was clear Bookhaus was not just a bookshop but a place for members of the community to visit, browse great titles and have rich conversations. Nothing like being barked at for taking a minute too long finding those Air Maxes.
I spent the first part of my morning going through the previous day’s purchases with Darran. We looked at every sale, cross-referenced them against the last time they sold and made a decision on whether to get another copy. It was a treat to see what customers were buying, from the brand-new hot paperbacks to the perennial bestsellers and a few surprises in between. I managed to convince Darran to get another copy of Giulia Enders’ Gut off the back of her brilliant Netflix documentary that I’d seen recently. (Hope I didn’t steer you wrong, Darran!) I then worked with Becky to book in the morning’s arrivals – delivered by, quite possibly, the world’s friendliest deliveryman. Becky and I scanned each book in (many of which were copies of Yael van der Wouden’s 2025 Women’s Prize for Fiction-winning debut The Safekeep), making sure each one was accounted for. The books that had been preordered went into a different pile, but still got scanned. It was harder than it looked – specifically, taking books, talking to colleagues and customers as they arrived and remembering to scan before placing on the correct pile. If I missed just one, we would’ve had to rescan the whole lot! (I am pleased to confirm that I booked in all copies without event.) And then the real work started: putting the books away. Anyone who’s ever been to Bookhaus will know that they have an impressive selection and just as impressive a number of shelf categories. My job then became taking all the books from the scanned piles and finding the right homes for them. Many belonged in the fiction shelves, but some fiction goes on the bestsellers’ table and not the shelves. And then non-fiction was a real hunt: Does this go under Outdoors or Nature? Society or Culture?
Once I started to get to grips with the categorisation of the shop, I began to really appreciate the thought that had gone into every shelf: the experience for a customer walking in and what they might see first. Where did they want to draw people’s eyes? I was noticing again that the booksellers were focused less on what was popular right now and more on what they thought was great and what got them excited to share with their customers.
At lunch, I went to the local chippie for a kids menu (pro tip from Becky) and sat out on the harbourside among the dive-bombing seagulls and toddling pigeons. During the afternoon, I learned more about the inner workings of a bookshop. Did you know, for example, that Sunday is the leanest day when it comes to stock? That’s because deliveries don’t arrive until Mondays and customers have already cleared shops out by Saturday evening. By the end of my day as a bookseller, I had developed an even deeper love for Bookhaus. What an amazing, inspiring and thoughtful community resource! I said my goodbyes to Darran and Becky, hoping they’d get on OK without my expertise going forward. Darran wished me well and said to come back any time. And I knew that I would.
*** Bookhaus Crowdfunding Campaign ***
Bookhaus is an award-nominated independent bookshop in Wapping Wharf, known as Bristol’s radical home. Now, they’re crowdfunding to buy it and keep it that way, owned and run by the people who built it. Find out how you can help and donate here.
Rich Kemp is Marketing Coordinator at Bristol University Press and a podcast host for Transforming Society.
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Image credit: Author’s own.