Dear Remote Readers,

We hope you’re feeling fine and finding a way, through solidarity and books, to get by in this strange skewed world.

Ordering Books

We are able to obtain and ship most books to you thanks to our partnership with our key supplier who have scaled down their operations so that they are able to pick and send books from a limited (and yet still vast) range of their stock-holding. They’ve made these changes for the benefit of indie bookshops like ours, our customers and with the safety of their teams in mind. We’re delighted that their efforts mean we can once get books into your variously isolated hands.

Supply issues do exist in relation to some items of course – newly published titles are particularly slow to filter into the supply chain at the moment – and we will notify you of that whilst processing your order and offer refunds or delayed shipping as appropriate. Delivery times are of course more difficult to predict than usual.

Remote Bookselling

Our bookselling and customer service is being run from homes in and around Bath so that our booksellers do not need to unnecessarily travel to work. Here are some of the ways you can engage with them:

  • Browse books on our website – At www.mrbsemporium.com – our booksellers are continuously curating many themed lists of books to browse and purchase. You can also use the search function on our site to look for any particular book you’re after. If you don’t see what you want then just message us through the site or by email and we’ll check availability and add the book to our website for purchase.
  • Recommendation station – Through our recommendation station at www.mrbsemporium.com/#recommendation-section. This is where you can tell us what you are in the mood for and have recently read and we’ll fire you a list of recommendations for future reads based on the scattergun but brilliant brains of our booksellers. You’ll receive back a personalised book list online for you to choose from.
  • Send us an email – We’re poised to answer any query at books@mrbsemporium.com.
  • Phone us – You can still call us on 01225 331155 or 07546 479 908 with any query if you just want to talk to a friendly bookseller for that matter! If we don’t pick up, bear with us and do leave us a message and we will call you back.
  • Youtube – If you haven’t already been enjoying our YouTube channel, then now’s the time to start. Click here to see all of our daily children’s storytimes (who says they’re just for kids?), booksellers talking about their favourite books and more.
  • Social media – You can get in touch with us on twitter and instagram @mrbsemporium and on facebook right here. In recent days we’ve been encouraging you to send us photos of to-read piles so we can help choose your next book and we’ve been having a crack at book-spine poetry.

Surprise Reads!

Our new service offering to send you or your loved one a Surprise Read is the perfect morale boosting gift for you or a friend or family member. Just choose one or more books from our surprise book categories, add them to your basket and you’ll receive a nifty downloadable voucher right now promising you, or your gift recipient, the imminent arrival of an exciting surprise book.

Subscriptions and Vouchers

It’s still just a click of a button to receive a digital Mr B’s book voucher for the amount of your choice which can be saved for a spending spree at the shop itself once the worst is over or used for purchases on our website.

Our bespoke Reading Subscriptions are also still available for purchase and can be ordered through our website. Our booksellers are still choosing fantastic books for all of our subscribers based on the questionnaires they have completed. Whilst we have had to postpone sending most current subscribers their April instalment, as soon as the supply chain has restarted more fully all subscriptions, new and old, will swiftly receive their next book and be back up and running

Thanks and Stay Safe

Your custom and support is always appreciated, and never more so than now. We hope you remain well whether you’re keeping distant at home or out there on the front-line. Stay safe, read lots and we’re already looking forward to seeing you again once that becomes a possibility. Until then, stay in touch!