Tea in the Library (16 page)

After spending a delightful hour with Leslie and the teas, I selected 19 different varieties for Tea In The Library's tea menu 
—
with the word “tea” in the business name, you can't let the customers down! The black tea blends were strong and flavourful
—
from the premium English Breakfast through a lovely Scottish Breakfast to the soft, autumnal Darjeeling. We offered a wonderful green tea which was wrapped in a tight ball, and unfolded gradually as it steeped in a glass teapot
—
the jasmine “Buddha balls”. We also had several flavoured teas, some fruit mélanges, and rooi tea
—
the South African red bush tea, as drunk by Mma Precious Ramwotswe of Alexander McCall Smith's
No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency
. Nothing like a literary reference.

On the question of temperature, the experts were firm. Never make tea using the boiling water from the espresso machine
—
way
too hot. We had two electric urns
—
90 degrees for the black teas, and 85 degrees for the white teas and fruit mélanges. It may sound pedantic, but our tea was perfect. If I do say so myself.

As to coffee, I sought Leslie's advice. His modus was thus: he enquired the location of the proposed café. As soon as I told him it was across the road from the Queen Victoria Building, he recommended a strong, flavourful Italian-style blend. He assured me that it was just what our customers “in that area” would expect. Events proved him correct
—
I was always as proud of our coffee as of our wonderful selection of tea. We took tea and coffee seriously at Tea In The Library.

To prepare for opening, we needed paper bags and more in the way of stationery. I visited the designers again, and we implemented the next phase of their exquisite (and expensive) portfolio. I ordered printed letterhead
—
cream with a dark green back, our logo and name in the chosen typeface, plus matching envelopes. Even at the time, I knew we didn't really need printed letterhead, and certainly not of this standard. But I was seduced by it, and bought anyway. We also acquired menu covers, note pads, stickers (large and small) with our Logo, gift tags, two designs in gift wrap, and paper bags.

Ahh! The paper bags! Naturally, we were to be the kind of shop which eschewed plastic
—
only lovely heavy brown paper for us. In our case, bags in two sizes, just right for books, printed with “Tea In The Library” in black lettering, plus some unprinted brown paper carry bags. I remain confident that the paper bags were entirely the right choice, and not too expensive (unlike some of our other stationery). However, a slight miscalculation was made when it came to the quantity ordered. Put it down to our supreme optimism about projected sales, but I still have thousands of them stored in my back-yard shed.

Our gift wrap was to die for
—
we had a brown paper version, printed with our “fleur de lis” logo design in green, that looked attractive tied with string. For special gifts, we had a lovely double-sided sheet with the same design in faint embossing, one side green, the other off-white. When a book was expertly wrapped in this, the reverse colouring could be used to exquisite effect. We offered free gift-wrapping at Tea In The Library. Most of this, however, turned out to take place at Christmas time, when we used much cheaper red or Christmas green wrap, bought bulk.

Most important among our printed materials were our bookmarks
—
special designs that Danielle had come up with, bearing our logo and with a top flap that helped hold your page, each with a literary-related quotation in an attractive cursive font. There were six. Only four remain extant, but you get the drift: 

Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.

Sir Richard Steele 1672 – 1729

A good book is the purest essence of a human soul.

Thomas Carlyle 1795 – 1881

Some books are undeservedly forgotten; none are undeservedly
remembered.

W H Auden 1907 – 1973

People say that life is the thing, but I prefer reading.

Logan Pearsall Smith 1865 – 1946

Actually, I took quite an interest in bookshop bookmarks around this time. While some are rather boring and as cheaply produced as the shop can get away with, others are fascinating. Readings Bookshops in Melbourne must take the prize, with specially commissioned poems on their bookmarks, over several years. Better Read Than Dead use attractive recycled brown card, with a “To Do” list on the back
—
the first item is filled in: “go to bookshop”. At E. Shaver's Fine Books in Savannah, Georgia, I discovered an interesting one, called a “Booksaver”. The bookmark includes a tear-off slip at the bottom with space to write in the title, the date borrowed, and the borrower's name.

Tea In The Library's unique bookmarks are collectors' items now, so you if you have one, preserve it!

One other addition to our stationery and bag supplies was the calico carry bag, chosen and ordered by Louise while I was away trekking. Although I might have quibbled with the final design decision, these bags did become useful and widely used by our customers. We generally gave them away with substantial purchases, or they could be bought for a small sum
—
$4.00 from memory. I believe it was useful to have people walking about the city with our name and logo emblazoned on the bag they were carrying. The canvas bags also carried a quotation:

Civilisation means food and literature all round –
Aldous Huxley 

If you read Sybille Bedford's marvelous memoir
Quicksands
you'll see a context for that, and probably agree.

By the time of our “soft opening” the bookshelves were about half-full. Judicious display of titles face-out helped make us look well-stocked while we accumulated the rest of our books. Our menu was ready, the doors were opened, our booksellers and our waiters and waitresses were kitted out in their name tags and “Tea In The Library” uniforms (cream shirts/blouses and green aprons
—
one version embroidered with “CAFÉ” and the other with “BOOKS”), and the customers began exploring.

On the very day of opening, I attended an evening function at State Parliament House
—
unconnected to the shop. Over drinks, I was introduced to Bob Carr, the then State Premier. I had always been a bit of a fan of Bob, who was an erudite history buff, and an author. He was a regular figure at the Sydney Writers Festival, and had famously extolled the virtues of independent bookshops. I could not, of course, contain my excitement, and confided to him during the social chat that I was
—
as of that day
—
a bookseller. At first he was coolish
—
“a franchise?” he enquired. Upon being assured that Tea In The Library was a thoroughly independent shop, he warmed up considerably, and offered not only his congratulations, but also to come and do a reading of his book
Thoughtlines.

I was a regular breakfaster at this time, popping in before the office day began, ostensibly to cast an eye over things, but really to just thrill at the fact of the existence of this lovely space and to see The Vision in splendid reality! The customers who found us invariably commented on their pleasure at discovering us, and we received many compliments. This was a great boost for all, and hopes were high.

In keeping with the business plan, we had, from the start, planned our marketing campaign. I had engaged a cheerful marketing firm to assist Tea In The Library launch itself into the retail world, and one of their first ideas was to have a proper “media launch”. Got to get those column inches and air time! Our launch was an invitation-only event (the marketers managed to attract quite a number of press and publishing people), held at the shop one evening shortly after we began trading. We provided bubbly and wine, and impressive nibbles courtesy of Jo's skills, and a few speeches. I talked about the philosophy behind Tea In The Library, how we believed in the value of books, the attraction of great personal service, and giving to the community by providing a place for discussion, and charitable support.

Our guest speaker was Philip Adams, a well-known media lefty (the publishers' reps had pegged us as “middle left” weeks before
—
I can't think why), and he made many kind and entertaining remarks (to be expected, since we paid him). He alluded to the fact that I was a lawyer, and
—
to audience snickers
—
noted that I was spending my “ill-gotten gains” on something useful. I can take a lawyer joke if it will be of benefit to me.

He told us stories of a favourite bookshop of his youth, in Melbourne, where the proprietress had introduced him and his friends to many influential volumes. One of the friends he mentioned was Barry Humphries, and in fact Philip may have told Mr. Humphries of Tea In The Library at some point, because we received a couple of visits from him in the following weeks. He admired the shop, and told the staff what it really needed was a great, big bunch of fresh flowers. We promptly provided one.

Philip Adams' address was well received, as were the wine and the “media kits” we handed out, with various give-aways and items promoting our shop. Happily, the result was quite a few editorial “mentions” over the next few weeks. We were thrilled to find that a couple of editorial lines in
The Sydney Morning Herald
or one of its supplements was enough to have the customers breaking down the doors. Apparently I was correct in predicting that
Herald
readers were squarely our demographic. A few days after the launch, Todd sent me an SMS saying “TITL besieged by short black readers”, a somewhat cryptic message, until I realized that “Short Black” was the name of a
Herald
restaurant review page.

Before leaving the media launch party, Philip Adams exchanged a few private words with me. They were these: “it will be hard”. As events were to prove, this was ridiculously accurate.

Life at Tea In The Library settled into an eccentric and chaotic “routine”. I use the word loosely. While there never was assembled a more likeable, quirky and interesting bunch of employees, unfortunately it soon became clear that something was missing. Equally clearly, that was a strong and capable leader.

In formulating the business plan according to correct theoreti-cal principles, I had attempted a proper “Organizational Plan”. In formulating my staff plan, I had tried to make the Organizational Plan fit the available people whom I could find
—
and whom I liked. This was Big Mistake Number Two.

Looking back, it seems perfectly obvious that the arrangement I had set up wouldn't work. I had appointed Louise as the overall manager of the shop, including responsibility for staff, customer service, daily routines, merchandising, etc. Todd I had designated “Business Manager”, and had assigned him the tasks of book-buying, and also involvement in tracking the financial statistics. They were both supposed to actually sell books, of course. They seemed to skip this step in the busy business of “running the shop”. In fact, through the whole life of the shop, and several changes of staff, there always seemed to me to be a great deal of energy put into buying books, receiving books, shelving books, and then returning books to publishers for credit. The step of
selling
books often seemed to fall through the cracks.

Both Todd and Louise, and also Emma and Paul, were wonderful at customer service. They all loved their product, and were very well-read and familiar with the stock. To see them with a customer was a thing of retail beauty. They were invariably cheerful and helpful, and the books were lovingly and carefully displayed. I am pleased to report that some books were indeed sold; but there was also a general aversion to “up selling” or
—
to use their words
—
being “too pushy”. My book staff definitely had a “build it and they will come” mentality, and while they were waiting, they spent a lot of time in the back office.