Peter Miller managed to offend me on page 15 of his new book entitled Shopkeeping: Stories, Advice and Observations. I must admit that he eventually won me over (mostly), but as the author of four editions of Specialty Shop Retailing, I take exception to his statement that “there are no books on shopkeeping.”  As a bookseller, Miller should know better – but as he makes clear in this slim, hardbound book, published by Princeton Architectural Press, his shop is specifically focused on architecture.  

For those looking for a book about how to be a retailer, I would modestly recommend my own work. And yet Miller’s observations are frequently inspirational and on target.  For example: “ The true retailer will find a way to be busy when there is nothing going on. Most important, it is your spirit, your invention, your imagination that must be kept as active and fresh as possible.  It is your workplace — you must commit all that you possibly can so that it does not feel stale. To you or to anyone else. In retail, nothing runs in a straight line.” Having survived both the onslaught of Amazon and the pandemic, he knows whereof he speaks.

Peter Miller Books and Accessories has been in several locations since it was founded 45 years ago, and his observations about selecting a storefront will be of special interest to those facing that decision. Once a location is selected, he acknowledges the important interplay between a shop and its business community: “As a shopkeeper, you have a quiet, unspoken responsibility to your literal section of the street. You keep quiet track of it and help, however you can.”

I also agree with what Miller – who apparently personally still selects every book in his shop – says about inventory. “Inventory has three masters. It must please the owner, represent the product, and attract the customer. Every shop is defined by its inventory. Every shop is curated. The physical shop is the theater, the inventory the play, and the interaction is the drama.”

Miller published a book in 2020 called How to Wash the Dishes, which talks about how dishwashing can become an act of grace and rhythm; and one in 2014 called Lunch at the Shop: The Art and Practice of the Midday Meal, which focused on recipes for the shared lunch that he and his staff enjoyed together. As Dean Katz says in the Post Alley blog, Peter Miller’s latest book as “a meditation on almost a half-century of shopkeeping.”  It may not teach you all you need to know to be successful, but like having a chance to visit with an experience retailer in order to learn what he feels has contributed to his long-term success.

Happy Retailing,

Carol “Orange” Schroeder