Enter: Shelves Bookstore. Founded in 2019 by Abby Glen, Shelves is an online bookstore that partners with multiple brick & mortar stores all over Charlotte, including Enderly Coffee.
We recently sat down with Abby to ask her a little about Shelves Bookstore, how they’ve grown and pivoted during the pandemic, and why buying from a local bookstore is the perfect holiday purchase.
Here’s what she had to say:
What was the original vision for Shelves? Why did you decide to open a bookstore?
The original vision for Shelves was to be a brick and mortar store. I love the bookstore experience. I always wanted to open a bookstore because I enjoy fellowship with people. I envisioned creating a space that would allow conversations, fellowship and community to occur – all in one space focused on knowledge and leisure.
Looking back, I now see that I have the ability to create community, even if I don’t have a brick and mortar. The pandemic helped me realize that it doesn’t have to look the way that I thought it would at the beginning. One of the biggest things I believe in is that it is not always what it seems.
What happened to Shelves during the pandemic? How did you pivot?
The last event Shelves had before COVID was at Enderly – I still remember that day so clearly. The first two months of quarantine, orders barely trickled in. We weren’t selling online, our website was barebones at the time, so things felt pretty desperate.
Then one morning I woke up and I heard as clear as day: “The bread comes after the thirst.” At first I wasn’t sure what it meant, but I decided to trust God and see what happened.
In May of 2020, I decided to have a pop-up market in Shamrock Park. Before the pandemic, I had planned to have a pop-up there and reached out to see if they would still have me. I had a few books left over from the March event at Enderly and thought “Why not?”
After receiving the go-ahead, I booked the pop-up for the last Saturday in May. Then, the weekend before I was set to have the market, George Floyd was murdered. When I showed up on the day of the market, there was a lot of buzz about George Floyd. The energy was palpable.