Page 26 of The Bookshop at the Cornish Cove

‘If you could just get any tenth birthday card for a girl, that would be amazing. Honestly, I can’t thank you enough. I have a list as long as your arm that I’m working through.’

At that moment I knew I had to make sure that it was the most beautiful card she’d ever had. In fact I was going to make it myself. A perfect, hand-painted, unique card for a very special little girl.

‘We’re happy to help. If there’s anything else you need just let us know.’

‘You’ve done so much already. I can’t tell you what a weight this is off my mind. Thank you so much.’

Sometimes you just don’t realise how lucky in life you are. And at that moment, Dennis didn’t realise how much he had to thank Phil for. Because Phil had just saved him from getting a massive bollocking.

15

As the door slammed shut, Dennis turned to me.

‘Before you say anything?—’

‘How do you know I was going to say anything?’

‘Well, your face was like thunder earlier and the fact that you’ve gone from your hands on your hips to the crossed arms and puckered mouth with slightly less thunderous glares, I thought it was quite a good indication really.’ He looked over at Mum. ‘It’s a good job Phil softened the way for me a little, don’t you think, Wendy?’

‘I’m off,’ she said in response. ‘You can leave me out of…’ she turned her index finger around in a circle in the air ‘…whatever is going on here.’

Mum scooted off after giving me a very quick kiss on the cheek and Dennis a shy little wave.

‘So, would you please just hear me out?’ he said. ‘Shall we have a drink and a sit down?’

‘I suppose you want me to make that too, don’t you?’

‘I’m happy to make it, but I don’t want you to feel like I’m getting in the way.’

His eyebrows raised at the extremely loud huff that escaped me but he walked towards the coffee machine anyway and poured us two mugs full of coffee, putting just the right amount of milk in mine. As I sipped the drink, I realised it was exactly how I liked it.

I narrowed my eyes at him.

‘Nothing to be suspicious about. I noticed how you had it yesterday. Now, I hadn’t obviously had a chance to mention anything before Phil came in, but it was the perfect opportunity to show just how much you can upsell things.’

‘Upsell?’

‘Well, firstly, and I hope you don’t mind me mentioning it, but I’m going to because I am here to help and it wouldn’t be right for me to not say anything. When you told Phil that you hadn’t got the book he wanted, he would have left, without buying anything.’

‘Yes, because we hadn’t got what he wanted.’

‘But he’d have gone somewhere else to buy it if we hadn’t shown him the other books and offered to order it for him. You don’t really want customers to leave without buying anything, so you have to upsell. Upselling is kind of telling the customer what they want. Or highlighting it to them, should I say? Offering them something they didn’t even know they wanted. Like the other classics, and then the gift wrapping. And that’s something you could be offering anyone, not just at Christmas. You could just keep some nice paper under the counter and learn how to make pretty bows and charge them an extra fifty pence or a pound to have their purchases wrapped. Who, in this day and age, can be arsed to wrap presents? Who has the time?’

‘I love wrapping presents. It’s one of my favourite parts of Christmas.’

Dennis raised a brow.

‘Well, there you go. Wrapping doesn’t just have to be for Christmas. Who wouldn’t want to receive a book that’s been beautifully wrapped up in gorgeous tissue paper? That’s why the brand Jo Malone does so well. The way they gift wrap their products is second to none. Tissue paper, a spray of their fragrance and then in a lovely gift bag. It makes the buyer feel valued and they always leave the shops with a smile, swinging their gift bag.’

I tilted my head to one side. It would be nice to get a present wrapped up beautifully like that, I had to admit. Even if it was something I was buying for myself. Dennis really did seem to know his stuff and these could be little ways we could help others, and help my business at the same time.

There were still questions I had though.

‘You don’t think it’s being too pushy? That’s what I always worry about.’

‘I honestly think these days we have so many choices thrown at us on a daily basis, we don’t know whether we’re coming or going. Anything that takes choices out of the equation, and makes the consumer journey as short as possible, I reckon is worth all the money in the world.’

‘What do you mean?’

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