THIS WEEK
Bookshop Spotlight The Mainstreet Trading Company
The Mainstreet Trading Company ? Main Street, St Boswells, Melrose TD6 0AT
As she shores up her bookshop’s online offering and prepares to host authors, Rosamund de la Hey talks to The Bookseller about running her business, and why not being able to sell audiobooks is a missed opportunity for the trade
N
estled in the village of St Boswells in the Scotish Borders, The Mainstreet Trading Company started life as
Walter Ballantne & Son general store. Built in 1838, it closed as a shop in 1970, and was then run as a “rather wonderful and eccentric auction house”, before Rosamund de la Hey bought the buildings in 2007. Aſter a substan- tial renovation, the former Bloomsbury children’s marketing director opened the current shop in 2008.
The company comprises a bookshop, café—where “truly delicious” Chocolate Guinness cake flies off the counter—and a barn which houses a deli and a homeware shop, above which is an events space. “We do include books in there, we cross-merchandise a great deal, and oſten different things sell in there compared to the main building,” says de la Hey.
Ruth Comerford @ruth_comerford
38 18th February 2022
Since Christmas, de la Hey and the team have worked to refine their online offering, capitalising on their book subscription and giſt boxes. “Our book subscriptions went
completely crazy in the past two years and have continued to be really strong, and our giſt boxes are incredibly popular.” The giſt boxes have proved to be a “bit of a USP” as de la Hey is able to take advantage of the deli and homeware element of the business. Among the 27 different options is a Soup Broth Bread care package, complete with Rachel Allen’s cookbook of the same name (Michael Joseph), a packet of farro (a nuty ancient grain, delicious in soups) and Blackthorn Scotish sea salt flakes. The British Debut Fiction giſt box is currently offering Caleb Azumah Nelson’s Open Water (Penguin Books), paired with a bar of Bare Bones chocolate from the Glasgow-based chocolatier.
The online sale of individual £8.99 paperbacks wasn’t working as well—“it just doesn’t stack up on its own in terms of labour and turnaround”—so de la Hey turned to
Bookshop.org. “We’re much more proactive on that, which is already having a good effect. It’s really nice to see and very measurable.”
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