Sidelines are an important part of most bookstores’ inventory, particularly for the holidays. At Next Chapter Booksellers in St. Paul, Minn., manager David Enyeart looks for nonbook items that customers won’t find elsewhere. One that’s doing well, and that he expects will have strong sales through the holidays, is Japanese paperclips in animal shapes.
Skylark Bookshop in Columbia, Mo., also strives for unusual sidelines, like bookshelf inserts. General manager Carrie Koepke is having success with especially “clever” bookshelf insert kits that enable readers to build inserts with lights and other details.
Tarot and oracle cards are “having a moment” at suburban Detroit’s Book Beat, says co-owner Colleen Kammer. “Maybe,” she adds, “it’s because people are searching for certainty and direction as there is so much chaos and negativity in our world right now.”
Browsers Bookshop in Olympia, Wash., integrates sidelines into store displays throughout the year, says owner Andrea Griffith, noting that “sidelines are not an afterthought.” During the holidays, the store emphasizes “cozy” products, such as tea (which can be sipped from a mug designed by a local potter featuring the store’s logo on the bottom), as well as artisan chocolate from a Seattle chocolatier and artisan candles. “We work to create a warm, welcoming space,” Griffith says.
Sidelines are an integral part of the inventory at MahoganyBooks in Washington, D.C., and National Harbor, Md., too. They are “a huge part of what we do” to celebrate Black lives and culture, says co-owner Ramunda Lark Young. While many stores carry bookmarks, Mahogany stocks ones sporting traditional African hairstyles, such as Bantu knots. For Kwanzaa, which is “really big ” at both her physical stores and online, Young notes, she brings in kinaras and Kwanzaa-themed merchandise. The store also sells sweatshirts with Mahogany’s tagline, “Black Books Matter,” and sleeves embroidered with various African designs.
Noting that Books & Books at the Studios of Key West, Fla., has only 1,100 sq. ft. of selling space, manager Emily Berg says that she brings in many items she doesn’t carry during the regular season. This year she is stocking up on MerryMakers toys and “really artistic” snow globes to sell along with the literary-themed jewelry and art kits the store usually carries. Books & Books also carries little clocks that look like cars and robots, which are “super popular”—perhaps too popular, according to Berg: because the clocks resemble toys, “kids pick them up and hide them all around the store.”
