Sheetal Book Centre nestles amidst a cluster of other bookstalls at Matunga’s King Circle area. It is located right outside the famous Cafe Mysore. Presently, Dharmesh prefers keeping over 3,000 books at the stall and the stock in the warehouse that holds a massive collection of 20,000 books. This includes novels, self-help books, biographies and auto-biographies, vintage magazines and comics. 

The price of books at this stall starts at Rs 50 and can go up to Rs 500 depending on the book you buy. To keep readers coming back to the stall, Dharmesh also accepts books in return at an exchange rate of Rs 50 or half the price of the book. There is no time limit within which you must return the book. 

The Matunga-based bookseller has been running the bookstall for the past 20 years. He is a graduate of Mumbai University with a bachelor’s degree in commerce. When asked if he struggles to make book sales like most of the other booksellers in the city, he says, ‘Not at all.’ 

Dharmesh has an online reading community of over 500 members. While he caters to reader’s needs at the bookstall, he also accepts purchase orders online and delivers across India using social networking sites like WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook. 

Taking the help of Indian Post for delivering books, Dharmesh sells books at the same price with an added delivery fee as charged by the postal department. The duration of delivery depends on the location of the customer. 

This strategy seems to have worked well for this bookseller as for most of the conversation, he was busy coordinating with his customers over WhatsApp chat and catering to their queries.  

This strategy of accepting orders online worked wonders for him, especially during the Covid-19 lockdown. “I was operating from my warehouse. Yes, there were a lot of protocols that I had to follow since my mode of delivery was Indian Post. However, my business was running,” says Dharmesh. Orders during the lockdown were particularly high. “People were bored, honestly. They needed to engage themselves in reading,”, says Dharmesh. 

“I like my business. I enjoy selling books, but sometimes I do face challenges due to the advancement in technology,” says Dharmesh. He says, “Earlier, books were the primary source of knowledge for all. Now, information is available to all on one single device. People read and learn using Google.” 

While Dharmesh believes that the internet has affected the business a bit, he also stands firm on his opinions that people still love reading books and nothing the replace the joy of holding a book in the hand and losing yourself in a good novel. For this same reason, he also says that while e-books might be compact and convenient, people will always prefer a hard copy.   

To read more about the book centre, click here

Store details: 
Address: M. C. Stall, Bhaudaji Rd, Matunga East, Mumbai, Maharashtra 400019
Hours: Open on all days of the week. 10:00 am to 9:00 pm. 
Phone: 098920 09924