SPCK Bookshops...
Categories: uncategorized
Date: 03 May 2006 12:30:48
...I have been hearing rumours for some time, and now it looks like they may be true, that SPCK are planning on closing down their chain of bookshops in the UK. (Thanks to Dave for bringing this to my attention).
"Why is this important to Neil?" New readers of this blog may ask. Well although I don't any longer buy much in the way of Christian books and Music, SPCK provided me with my first real job, and also many great and interesting memories.
I met many people who I am still friends with to this day, David, Lindi, Crispin and many of the customers still recognise me in the street. I learnt customer service, how to handle money, how to make decisions, how to bluff knowledge, how to deal with awkward people, how to buy stock. My life was turned upside down when one night there was a major fire, I was then moving around the country helping other shops and clearing up our own mess for months. SPCK introduced me to the Greenbelt festival, which subsequently changed my life in a whole set of ways of its own.
Cris is still the manager of the Exeter shop, so I worry about his job and the others I used to work with. I worry that the demise of the bookshop, along with the constant downsizing of the Theological department at the university will mean that Christian thought within the city will continue to get narrower and narrower and more conservative. I worry that one of the oldest buildings in Exeter will get used for a purpose a lot less appropriate to its heritage.
Of course, things may work out, Dave's campaign (see cartoon below) may just work, but if they don't I will personally miss a friendly shop that actually changed my life.
