A story of Thebooks.pl

In 2015, after defending my engineering thesis in Technical Physics (after several years of delay), I traveled to Canada with my brother Tomek. For the first 40 days, we gathered morel mushrooms in forests that had burned the previous year. Then, with the money we earned, plus some from a fundraiser, we bought 2 canoes and provisions. Tomek’s girlfriend, Marta, joined us and the three of us canoed down the Big Salmon River in Yukon, driven by the idea of finding gold and staking a claim.

I decided to spend the fall and winter in Yukon’s capital, Whitehorse. I found a job at McDonald’s and lived relatively peacefully for the next 9 months. The Multicultural Centre of the Yukon saved me from loneliness. I spent hours there after work, waiting for English lessons. That’s how I met great people from all over the world. These experiences probably led to the idea of selling English books in a place where you could spend time with interesting people.

In September 2016, I returned to Poland and, after a period of acclimatization (though I don’t know if it ever ended :p), I found a corporate job. It took me 3 months to quit and start implementing my plan. I found a part-time job and started looking for a place for the store.

Reality quickly checked my dreams, as the only place I could afford was a former stairwell without a toilet, measuring 13 square meters. Now, this place is a self-service outlet. Nevertheless, I decided not to back down. Friends helped a lot in building shelves from the cheapest materials, and Tomek handled the sign.

I opened the store in July 2017. Initially, it was very interesting. For instance, I had no idea what Marquez wrote, and I often didn’t even know the most famous authors like Harper Lee. To this day, I admire the tact and patience of my customers from that time. In the first delivery, we received 3 pallets of books dominated by “Twilight” and Danielle Steel. Luckily, there were also many popular titles like “The Fault in Our Stars.” After posting a few times on Facebook, I realized the response was very good, and people were very supportive. I received (and still receive) countless kinds of support and help gestures. That’s when I had a lot of energy for developing the business, talking with people, and creating a good atmosphere at the place. Looking back, I see that this project was actually developed through the joint effort of the community.

A few months later, I opened an online store. Gradually, I managed to expand the range of suppliers. Initially, it was just used books, later also new ones. I was incredibly lucky several times. For example, a few months after opening, Liviana contacted me – she still sends me the best used books from the UK. I would never have found her on my own, and I don’t think the bookstore would have developed without these books.

Along the way, there weren’t many milestones. Covid was a tough time when I initially rode my bike delivering books to people. Later there were limits on the number of people we couldn’t fully comply with due to the size of the store (otherwise, we would have had to close the business). The situation was somewhat saved by the online store. Undoubtedly stressful, but an interesting time.

Brexit also caused us quite a bit of confusion, but fortunately, we were able to gradually resolve most of the problems associated with it.

I was often limited by lack of space. In a way, however, it created an atmosphere. So, I had a lot of reluctance to move to a bigger place. I also didn’t have the money for such a move. In 2021, someone posted information about our store on TikTok. Quickly, many other videos were created, resulting in a lot of traffic during the summer. It was practically impossible to work because I had to make sure too many people didn’t enter the store at once. Imagine working for years towards success, and when it arrives, the customers don’t fit in haha.

This was so frustrating that when a space became available nearby, I decided to move. Especially since we could finally afford it. Now, I don’t know why, but I was really scared of this move. Luckily, I dug up the last bit of courage. Once again, friends who, in simple terms, built me shelves, saved the situation. Actually, we built about 400 shelves together.

Ultimately, the move was a success – we expanded our assortment, raised prices slightly, built a book exchange rack, and turned the old premises into a self-service outlet with books priced at 6 PLN. I am very pleased with this move and feel very lucky to have such friends.

I was also lucky with employees. In 2019, I was able to go to my brother in Canada for three weeks because Annika, an employee who temporarily added more atmosphere to the place with her sense of humor, was helping me.