BooksActually announced on Sept. 12, 2020 it is closing down its physical shop in Tiong Bahru and transition to selling books online fully.

The announcement of the 15-year-old indie book shop's closure of its brick-and-mortar premises was put up on Facebook.

The book shop's founder posted a note:

As did the book shop:It has been operating out of the Yong Siak Street space in Tiong Bahru since 2011.

Raising money to buy a space previously

The book shop was started by Kenny Leck and another co-founder Karen Wai in 2005.

Since at least 2014, the co-founders have been trying to raise more than S$400,000 for a downpayment to buy a physical shop.

The goal was to purchase a property in Balestier area that is estimated to cost some S$2 million, and never again pay rent and be beholden to a landlord.

That plan fell through with the Covid-19 pandemic wreaking havoc on the economy and consumption patterns of people in Singapore.

The physical shop in Tiong Bahru has remained closed since late March.

Tiong Bahru was third location

In 2008, BooksActually moved to Ann Siang Hill after the landlord wanted the Telok Ayer shop space back.

BooksActually opened a second store, Polymath & Crust, at the nearby Club Street, in the midst of a recession. It was a three-storey space.

But the rental of two concurrent premises was hefty, and the Ann Siang shop was closed and moved into the ground floor of Club Street.

As rental was raised, BooksActually moved out of Club Street to Tiong Bahru in 2011.

The physical store is known for its cosy atmosphere, eclectic selection of books, and pet cats.

Covid-19 closure

BooksActually announced on July 4 that it was sticking to its decision of not reopening in Phase 2, "or maybe even when we eventually roll into Phase 3 of the circuit breaker".

It also highlighted its online shop's 24/7 operational hours as an early hint that sustaining the physical location is likely to come to naught.

Background

In a previous interview, Leck revealed some of the business' financial details.

The monthly rental at Tiong Bahru was S$10,000 a month.

In 2017, the business made a profit of S$80,000.

But that money was pumped back into the bookstore’s publishing arm, Math Paper Press, that publishes local work.

In 2018, BooksActually resorted to selling bricks for S$50 each to raise funds to buy a shop space.

Within two weeks, about S$12,000 worth of bricks were sold.

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