At the beginning of April we paid a visit to Hyndland Bookshop, a small but well-stocked independent bookshop in Glasgow’s West End. Hyndland has seen a lot of change since opening its doors at its first location in BishopBriggs in 1983; what hasn’t changed, however, is owners David and Cathy Kinnear’s dedication to good old-fashioned customer service — likely one of the reasons the shop is still standing when so many others have had to close their doors.

In the following video David discusses Hyndland’s history and the benefits of being a small, independent bookshop. As we spoke it became clear that Hyndland is hugely influenced by its regular customers, whose interests and recommendations have helped shape its catalogue into what it is today.

Indeed, the shop may not yet have entered the digital age — it has no website and does not sell e-readers/e-books — but it functions much like an open-source database. And it’s a solid database: Hyndland offers a wide variety of books, films and gifts certain to pique anyone’s interest. It’s a miracle I left the shop without spending my week’s wages!

Photo and video courtesy Stewart Ennis.

Written by Dana Keller