New leaf for shop as books fly off shelf

An independent bookshop in Harrogate whose only custom on Monday was from people who had popped in to ask for directions, was packed out 24 hours later after its owner left a Twitter post lamenting her £12.34 day's takings.

Georgia Duffy, who runs the Imagined Things shop in the Westminster Arcade on Parliament Street, said the 4,000 retweets her message had generated produced an “astronomical” increase in trade.

Some 800,000 people are estimated to have seen her post. “We only took £12.34 today,” she wrote. “Things have been tough recently – today the worst day ever. A card, a book, anything makes a huge difference to a small business like ours.”

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Still fielding customers yesterday, she said: “On Monday there was hardly anyone in all day. On Tuesday there must have been 50 people, and we’ve been taking orders by email, too.

“I don’t think we’ve seen the full impact of it even now. It’s just been phenomenal.”

The shop, the first independent bookseller in the town for nearly 20 years, opened last summer after Ms Duffy gave up her radiographer’s job at a hospital.

“She said: “Hopefully this will be the start of people in Harrogate knowing us better.”