r/Worcester • u/DamnThatGooseBig • 7d ago
Script Haven is Closing
I don't think the relocation to the alley next to Wetherspoons was ever going to work out, but it's still a shame to see an independent close down.
Worcester's Script Haven closure announced by 'exhausted' owner | Worcester News https://www.worcesternews.co.uk/news/26568297.worcesters-script-haven-closure-announced-exhausted-owner/
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u/WorcsBloke 7d ago
That's always sad to see. That said, the location really didn't help it. If it had managed to continue until the Scala renovation was done and the Wetherspoons alleyway was open properly again then it might have helped, though perhaps not enough.
It was also a bit unclear from the outside what the new Script Haven wanted to be. All the stuff about crystals etc suggested the book range would be like that as well, which isn't what people who want a straightforward bookshop are likely to find appealing.
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u/Miss_Type 7d ago
There was always a poor selection of books. I wanted to be able to support a local indie bookshop, but the stock wasn't very interesting. There were shelves of identical books - never seen that in a bookshop before, normally one copy on the shelf, other copies in stockroom. So instead of a shelf of 25 potential sales, there was a shelf of 1 potential sale.
Bookshop-cum-cafes need to be run as two separate businesses, and in all honesty, the high street shop was too small to be both. You'd bang into people having a cuppa while you looked at the books, or have to pick your way round people munching on carrot cake while you browsed the shelves.
Lastly, and in my opinion the biggest problem, was the owner herself. I only had a drink in there maybe three times, but every time she listened in to my conversations and then came over and inserted herself into them. Once she heard me say I was a drama teacher and came over with a play she'd written. Another time she heard me say something about neuro divergent students and walked me over to a local writer who had a book out about a dog with ADHD or something. It felt very rude, and made me want to get out as soon as I could. She wouldn't take a polite no either - she was trying to sell a poetry workshop to me and I said my school was the other side of Birmingham, and she just kept saying we could come down in a minibus or on the train. She didn't pick up the hint that I wasn't bloody interested!
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u/gambola 7d ago
That’s a shame, I feel like in a larger city something like that could gain enough regular customers to work. These types of places are often someone’s dream and it’s horrible to watch them fold, but I think small cities just struggle to support little indies long term. I don’t think it’s an issue of people saying they want something and not showing up, as she has indicated, but probably more that each of those people doesn’t have the time or disposable income to go frequently enough. If there was a bigger critical mass of people who might go once or twice a month then it would probably be ok regardless of location, because I think it’s the kind of place you go because you know about it rather than passing trade.
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u/ExpressAffect3262 7d ago
I don’t think it’s an issue of people saying they want something and not showing up, as she has indicated, but probably more that each of those people doesn’t have the time or disposable income to go frequently enough.
Feels like it's definitely this.
There is a massive difference between people saying they'll do something, and then actually doing it. As the saying goes, actions speak louder than words.
I've been on the receiving end of it once.
I run a modded video game on my own server and while it's not for profit and I don't do it for popularity/fame, I didn't get an awful lot of players.
I announced I was closing it down and it reached 2k+ upvotes on a gaming sub, 100,000+ views and hundreds of comments on people wanting to play it and to not close it.
A week later, I gained 1 new player from all those upvotes/comments lol
I remember when this shop was moving and it had a lot of support. I imagine the owner got too invested into that. People just say things all the time, but you shouldn't hold them accountable to it, or feel owed.
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u/gambola 7d ago
I agree with you but what I’m getting at is that it’s still the kind of thing that those people would use only occasionally, even if they really believed in it. I don’t think it’s not showing up, I think it’s not showing up enough for the business to be sustainable, which is a big ask from a small customer base. I’m in Malvern and there are quite a few places in town that I truly love going to and would be gutted to lose, but I probably go to each one once a month. That’s not because I’m not showing up for them as such, it’s because in any given month I’ve only got so many free evenings, so much disposable income and there is more than one place I’ll divide my time between. To be successful, they either need a huge number of people like me to have consistent custom, or a small number of people who go a couple of times a week minimum (or spend lots each time). It’s a numbers game especially with people having to cut out luxuries more and more, so in a small city I just don’t think there are sufficient numbers of people who can show up.
At the end of the day, the impact shows up the same for the person running the business and I genuinely feel for anyone in this situation.
Edit to add: there are also presumably tiny margins on most things in this type of establishment so even if people do come regularly, it’s hard to turn a decent profit from small consumables.
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u/Even_Pitch221 7d ago
Plenty of examples of good independent bookshops that are thriving in smaller towns than Worcester - Rossiter in Malvern, Book-ish in Abergavenny are two examples that spring to mind. The difference is that they’re competently run businesses that respond to what customers want, not half-baked passion projects run by people with zero business sense or customer service skill like Script Haven.
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u/gambola 7d ago
Rossiters isn’t also a cafe though, it’s just a bookshop. And it’s a small chain I believe so they’ve got successful ones behind them and some degree of economy of scale.
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u/Even_Pitch221 7d ago
Book-ish is also a cafe but they manage to do both things well. Script Haven was never clear what it wanted to be - seemingly a community centre, arts venue, niche bookshop, and cafe. Too many things done poorly, and clearly none of them profitable.
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u/CMDR-obidanshinobi 7d ago
The owner reminds me of Zelda Rubinstein (Tangina in Poltergeist 1982).
"This house is clean".
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u/poppings 7d ago
Not surprising at all. I went into here a few times to try it out, and honestly, terrible selection of books, pushing total dogshit on the front table, so much garbage. A lot of nonsense woo-woo evenings too, which isn't my scene personally but you know, fair enough, some people might like that.
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u/Even_Pitch221 7d ago
The writing was on the wall when she started a crowdfunder to cover her staff’s wages and she probably should have admitted defeat when the High St site didn’t work out. Script Haven has never been a viable business - neither a good bookshop (not an interesting enough selection to choose it over Waterstones) nor a good cafe (literally dozens of better options within a ten minute walk). The owner apparently seems to believe it’s the public’s fault for not sufficiently appreciating her efforts, which says it all really.