People used to buy more books, especially before 2019. Or let me say, before they started selling books online and on social media. They used to buy from us before. But now they are buying online. Some are saying that they are not interested in reading books. They like pressing phones. You can see more people here are even pressing phones. We were selling only books before and later decided to add gadgets. We saw that gadgets and phone accessories were what people were asking for. It is today’s business, and it is moving.
I’ve been working at this shop for more than 10 years. Ten years ago, we sold more than 20 books in a day. But now, if we’re lucky, somebody will still pick like ten books or five books. On average, in a day, people buy two to four books from us. Sometimes, we may be lucky, and before we close at the end of the day, we will have sold more than four or five. We sell more of gadgets now.
People no longer use CDs like this (Akeelah and the Bee). They don’t buy magazines like they used to either. The kinds of books people are more interested in are business books and books by politicians. They also buy history books and novels. Prices are really high now. These books that we sell for 12,000 Naira used to be 5,000.
People are still reading. If they are passing, they will pick one or two — unless I don’t market. I do more marketing than I used to. In the past, I didn’t use to call on people to check out the books. I just stayed in the shop, and people would walk up to me and buy. But now we are marketing. You have to go around the airport seating area.
I don’t have time to read the books. The owner will be saying, “How much do you sell in a day that you are reading?” I was even trying to read my prayer book just now. Before I knew it, people were coming inside. I had to abandon it and look for customers. So you can’t concentrate.
As narrated by: JANE OKPOTU (LAGOS, NIGERIA)
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