Books just like bread: why nothing beats the local ‘bakery’ at Christmas

“Do you prefer buying frozen bread from a bigger outlet, or do you support a local bakery for your fresh bread?” asks Pietro Bossi, the Italian owner of Solo Vinyl & Books, a tiny shop in Msida emblematic for its religious dediciation to non-fiction publications, and electic vinyl selection.

How are independent bookshops in Malta thriving in an age where so many stores have been taken over by big retail chains now commanding major footfall across the island? Christmas might be the right time for book lovers to source their gifts from these outliers of the Maltese book trade.

Before moving to Malta to 2018, Bossi was running Solo’s first incarnation in Milan. But his advent to the urban landscape of Msida, in the vicinity of the Junior College, brought with it a taste of a rare counter-culture hard to find in the retail landscape. “Buying from an independent shop also means believing that culture is not only profit,” Bossi says, whose shop is also a “concept store” which he believes gives the shopkeeper a connection with customers by understanding what they like and ask from him.

Independent bookshops are certainly no new phenomenon, but their absence is exemplified by the way the iconic Sapienza’s bookshop in Republic Street, Valletta was taken over by the Agenda chain, while one last survivor of this ‘old world’ – Meli Bookshop in Old Bakery Street – has been in business for over 50 years.

“What keeps us alive is the love for books and when we sell them, we see the satisfied customer,” Gerald Meli told MaltaToday. One major advantage is the direct connection between buyer and seller, one which often develops in to a bond between book lovers and not one between a salesman and a buyer as happens in a supermarket. “Our clients are more than clients. Over time they become friends. We encounter all types of clients, from the ordinary laymen to the most high-up people in Malta. So, we easily adopt different approaches tailor made for different clients.”

In contrast, Meli suggests, buying from a chain store is “like buying the daily needs you chose; you buy and you pay”. He recalls a particular incident in which a client was devastated at seeing the salesperson searching for ‘Shakespeare’ on the computer, apparently never having heard of the Bard himself. “You ask for a particular book or auhor, and they are referring to their computer,” Meli says, lauding the small bookshop owners as connoisseurs of literature.

“We are the owners and we are the workers so we know our job very well. If a client asks us about a book, we can easily say if we have it or not,” Meli says, while also recognising the importance of online shopping. “I can’t say anything against it – you will find whatever you want online, and you cannot expect to find Amazon’s stock inside a small shop.”

“Buying from an independent shop also means believing that culture is not only profit,” Solo’s Pitetro Bossi says, whose shop is also a “concept store” which he believes gives the shopkeeper a connection with customers by understanding what they like and ask from him

Conversation vs Algorithms

Kixxot is another independent bookstore and cooperative set in a cultural space which has planted its roots in Mosta in the past two years. Teodor Reljic, himself a writer of fiction, a freelance feature writer, and former culture editor and film critic at MaltaToday, succinctly explains the difference between an indie shop and a big chain.

What defines an independent bookshop is “an increased likelihood that the person behind the till (or bar, as it may happen) will know more, or at least be passionate about, what they are selling,” Reljic says.

In contrast, employees working in chains are unlikely to be incentivised to hand-sell and offer advice on books, nor are they likely to be equipped to answer any follow-up questions which may come up – either about the book/s in question, or similar titles that might be of further interest to the buyer.

And even Amazon’s recommendation palew in comparison to the friendly advice of a fellow book lover. “While’s Amazon’s algorithm may be an advanced piece of technology, it will only generate recommendations based on a pre-set assumption built on the browser’s previous purchases or clicks. It is of course not capable of striking up a conversation with the buyer, or creating any form of memorable experience beyond the crude transaction of consumption.”

Moreover, Independent bookshops can also serve as community spaces. Kixxot itself hosts a bookshop, a bar and various events including film screenings. “At Kixott, this is amplified even further thanks to its dual function as a bar and cultural centre, which makes organising book-related events all the easier.”

And unlike chain stores, indie stores reflect the cultural tastes of their owners, endowing them with an identity which also contributes to the creation of a community. The curated service and selection gives visitors the opportunity to experience a personalised space. While this means that the selection will not be exhaustive by proxy, it gives the space a signature feeling and atmosphere.

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In this way the shopping experience becomes “less about merely buying and more about the experience of being in the space,” Reljic says. “At Kixott, we believe that this can also serve as something of a balm to the current status quo of easy availability and endless distraction: yes, you could in theory have everything delivered to you at the click of a button, but how do you then actually process that overwhelming array of choice in a way that makes sense to you? Curation implies a degree of selection, which means that at the very least, that paralysis of overly-available choice is taken care of.”

A smaller selection also means that an actual conversation can be had between buyer and seller about the stock, so that the prospective buyer can come to a decision on what they’d like to purchase without having to parse through endless online reviews. “A conversation may also encourage readers to buy something that is out of their immediate comfort zone... the latter of which is very much catered to by online algorithms,” Reljic said.

Independent bookshops may not be in a financial position to offer large-scale discounts to clients and neither do they benefit from the economies of scale of bulk-buying, but they manage to create a connection between authors and their readers.

Being run by book-lovers and other cultural practitioners, Reljic says Kixott is well-placed to organise events that could benefit authors, publishers and their titles, “putting their message and goals at the forefront and allowing them to increase the impact and reach of their book in a way that transcends advertising on both traditional and social media”.

In an age when the physical sale of books is severely compromised by their online variant, for Reljic creating this “experience around books” is crucial.