Book shop’s tale of success just goes on
Second honour for store
Staff at a small second-hand bookshop are toasting success after scooping a top award for the second year running.
Stirling Books were awarded the title of book shop of the year at the Scottish Independent Retail Awards at the Crowne Plaza in Glasgow.
Judges chose the Maxwell Place shop as their winner to recognise the hard work employees there do in supporting charities and the community.
The shop acts as a safe-haven for people with learning difficulties and disabilities while they also raise money for a number of different good causes — including Start up Stirling.
In addition, staff pride themselves on their commitment to offering school students and job seekers work experience — allowing individuals to develop skills and confidence to help them in the world of work.
Manager Kayda Williams said: “We are so grateful to be recognised with this award, and we really do try to give back to the community whenever we can. The staff often give up a lot of their own time to put on events and fundraisers in the evening and it’s great for them to win this.
“We also work with the Job Centre by providing opportunities for people who would benefit from work experience in a quiet, relaxed atmosphere. We hope to do further work to continue to provide this.
“At the moment we are planning a charity night which will be a themed quiz night based on the TV show Black Books. More details will be posted on our Facebook page in the coming weeks.
“In the future we would also love to include a cafe and start a charity or interest group devoted to literacy in the Stirling area.”
Stirling Books has been open for around 15 years in the city. They buy books from people before selling them on while also working with book donors to pass on items they are unable to sell or repair.
They stock around 10,000 books of various genres while they also specialise in antiquarian books.