Chapter closes as virus forces My Bookshop in Melbourne to shut

Nothing brings a town to life like a bookshop, and the bruised and beleaguered city of Melbourne is now one down.

Melburnians ‘anxiety and no disposable income and worrying about the future took its toll,’ says Hawksburn bookshop owner Corrie Perkin. Picture: Aaron Francis

Nothing brings a town to life like a bookshop, and the bruised and beleaguered city of Melbourne is now one down.

Corrie Perkin’s beloved My Bookshop on Malvern Road, Hawksburn, is closing.

“It’s a combination of things,” Perkin said, but the denouement was written during Victoria’s fourth lockdown.

“Our customers are loyal but exhausted, if I’m honest with you. Many Melburnians have depleted their savings. The stories I’ve heard of businesses going under, it would break people’s hearts.

“Each time a lockdown ended, you could see people trying to come out and be themselves again. In some ways, the psyche of Melbourne has changed forever. There is a sense of community, we are bonded.

“But Melbourne people are not spending freely. And the impact of all of that – anxiety, and no disposable income, and worrying about the future – took its toll.”

Perkin is well-known in Melbourne as a journalist, formerly of The Age, the old Footy Record and The Australian, and as the daughter of former Age editor Graham Perkin.

She launched her bookshop – My Bookshop By Corrie Perkin was a nod to her old byline – in 2009, just months after a rapt Melbourne was named an official City of Literature by UNESCO (it is said to have more book clubs than any other in Australia).

She prospered, running six book clubs and many events, among them one with Malcolm Fraser, “where we had people spilling out the door. I remember looking at my daughter and saying ‘Look what we’ve created here’.”

Buoyed by success, she opened a second shop in 2015, with events space upstairs and a cafe. It proved too much to chew on, all at once.

“We’ve been humming along with one shop since 2017, but this past 12 months has just finished us.

“Victoria is depressed. That is not the fault of customers, although … I worry about the mental health of our community, even closing this store, because it’s meant so much to people.

Corrie Perkin outside My Bookshop. Picture: Aaron Francis

“People feel vulnerable. They might have lost their jobs, or else the future seems uncertain. A book is a luxury item for many people. Not for many of us– a good book is a necessity for me – but it’s been incredibly hard to keep going in a confident way.”

Perkin started 2020 “raring to go, just ready to storm out of the blocks, with a seventh book club, and events booked well into the year. And then came Covid.

“We spent money upgrading our website, and I’m so glad we did, because when the second lockdown came, we didn’t close. I thought, if we close, Amazon and those companies that aren’t local, who don’t even pay taxes here, will come and take our business. We were taking orders online, and delivering books to people. We had become very good at doing Zoom and webinars with authors. But it was really hard, and by the time it ended, we were behind in our rent.

“We started paying off debt. Then came the Christmas-New Year lockdown. By the fourth, we knew the shop dream was over.

“I don’t blame anyone. I would have liked to have seen smarter lockdowns but I don’t know how possible that is. One thing I love about Melbourne is the diversity: big families, all connecting at shared gatherings. So where other cities would have two cases, three cases, we’d get 30 and 40 cases.

“I don’t know whether things could have been done differently. I just know it’s been devastating, and we can’t go on.” Perkin will continue to run the shop online at mybookshop.com.au.