Dubai has always been a city of firsts! From the tallest building to astonishing architecture to amazing metropolitan culture; Dubai is the city constantly under innovation. The latest in this series is the first of its kind bookstore which purely runs of trust.
If you are a bookworm and happen to be in Dubai, then you must not miss a chance to visit the city’s first-ever 24×7 ‘trust’ bookshop and that too with no ‘support staff’.
The bookshop, named Book Hero, is running a mini pop-up stand at Marina Walk in Dubai Marina through May. What’s more is that although the store does not have any staff, it instead runs on public trust.
Book Hero has over 20,000 novels in store and relies on a payment drop box called the Trust Box, making it the region’s first unstaffed bookshop. All that the customers have to do is to just drop their money in the box and be on the way! Amazing, isn’t it? No fixed charges other than the price of the books, which again is very nominal as compared to the charges in other stores. Just the thought and feeling that each customer comes in with and then decides to donate.
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Montserrat Martin, the owner of Book Hero, partnered up with Emirati entrepreneur Mohammed Abdulla Alqubaisi to come up with the idea. According to him its all about believing in customer trust. “We don’t employ staff simply because we trust our customers. I visit the place once a day to replace stock and collect money,” Martin was quoted as having said.
Commenting on whether someone would steal a book and walk away, Martin added, “Nobody would steal a book and even if someone does it would cost me just 300 dirhams which is nothing compared to what I would spend on hiring staff and paying for overheads like visa and insurance.”
Book-lovers will find it very easy to navigate through prices as well. The books will be tagged with green and yellow stickers to indicate their prices, ranging from 10 dirhams to 20 dirhams respectively.
The books are mostly in English and Arabic. However, there is a wide range of books in French, Russian, Spanish and Chinese. Thus, making this bookstore a one place destination for book lovers across nationalities.
Indeed, an idea worth emulating.