With every ending there is a new beginning, and that’s been the case for a recently shuttered local second-hand bookshop.
- The Bookdealers of Melville was given a short notice to move out of their initial space.
- Financial constraints have had a negative impact on Bookdealers of Melville, with low turnovers in comparison to 11 years ago.
- Bookdealers has moved three blocks up, now located inside a coffee shop, namely The Sourcery in Melville, where customers can enjoy both books and coffee.
The Bookdealers of Melville is a well-known local second-hand bookshop that has been running for 35 years. Unfortunately, this year marked the beginning of the end for Bookdealers after being left with no choice but to move out of their shop by the end of April.
Bookdealers’ last day of trading was officially on April 20, 2026, and their final departure and relocation took place on Saturday, May 2, 2026.
Wits Vuvuzela visited the new, smaller set-up inside The Sourcery, a coffee shop three blocks up from the original store, to get some insight into the change.
Doron Locketz, owner of Bookdealers of Melville said: “We knew that there were new owners [for the space] in January, I think the sale went through. It took them a while to get their admin stuff together and they gave me notice in March to leave, to move out first, at the end of March. But you know, legally they’ve got to give you a calendar’s month notice. Then they realised they can’t do it, not legally, so the notice was for the end of April.”
Locketz claims that initially the landlord was going to ask for a moderate rent increase to what Bookdealers was paying previously, “but then he [the landlord] doubled it and at that stage we were not sure whether we would be able to manage the rental, and he instead gave it out to somebody else.”
Locketz recalls the conversation between himself and the landlord and describes the contrast in the interaction as being, “very casual and easy for him, you know, but for us it is a nightmare because we have been here for something like 35 years, which is crazy, you know in the one spot, and it was a hell of a business to get everything out and in the new area. You know, we’ve lost probably about 20-25% of our shelving space, which is going to be an issue. The stuff that we take out will most probably go on to our website.”
Business before the move was already slow. “It’s been very tough. Our turnover has been lower than it was 11 years ago. So, we have to be, you know very careful, we did have two closing down sales, which did help, but we haven’t traded now for over two weeks, we’ve taken quite a knock here.”
Alongside the financial constraints of the business, a declining interest in reading has taken its toll. Locketz says “In those days, 11 years ago, we would have been all right, but in these hard times when, you know books are no longer the flavour of the month, people play on their phones, or read digitally, and there are far less book collectors than there used to be you know, and that all hurts the book business, second-hand book business and the collectibles tremendously.“
These days, people tend to rely on electronic devices, audio books, podcasts or YouTube and even social media for entertainment and information. Locketz describes the impact of fluctuating trends in terms of buying and selling as detrimental to the South African literacy rate.
However, all hope is not lost. He maintains an optimistic outlook on the future, “The books will never disappear. There are more books published regularly all the time with these strong new novelists coming out, nice new South African novelists.”
When asked about the kinds of books people tend to buy more, Locketz shared how literary fiction has always been very popular and alongside literary fiction is any African orientated books especially by black South African authors which are equally popular.
The reality of business and its hardships is even more of a reason to support local bookstores, such as the Bookdealers of Melville.
FEATURED IMAGE: A photo of a sign outside the previous space of Bookdealers of Melville. Photo: Sikelelekile Pahlana
REALTED STORIES:
- Wits Vuvuzela, There is no democracy without books , May 2024.
- Wits Vuvuzela, The Survival of a bookshop in an evolving and artsy Melville, November 2018.
