A flying visit to the Hentschel bookshop

There are bookshops – and then there are bookshops. Across Germany, there are around 6,000 of them, including all book outlets, ranging from small town bookshops to department stores, from literary bookshops to highly specialised bookshops. And then there is the Hentschel bookshop in Burscheid. According to its owner Ute Hentschel, it’s not just a place where you can buy books, but an integral part of the cultural landscape of the Rheinisch-Bergisch region in Germany not far from city of Cologne. The literary scholar started her own bookshop in 2005 after many years spent working in various segments of the book industry. In the meantime, the shop has become an institution – and a place where people can meet up. There are various reasons for this. One of them is Andrea Lunau. The passionate bookseller, as she describes herself, has been part of the Hentschel bookshop team since 2010. The mother of three is not only mad keen on books, but also an ardent gamer. What could be more natural than to offer a select range of board games and family games to go with the books? 

How it all began

The pandemic had one good outcome: it gave rise to numerous innovative business models. Firstly, because the established concepts no longer worked, and secondly, because during the lockdowns and social distancing restrictions, people turned to hobbies that they either remembered from their childhood or rediscovered. People met up with their families or – limited – circle of friends and played games. Children’s games, family games, board games and party games – they were all in demand like never before. The often double-digit post-pandemic sales growth of game publishers speaks for itself. Now you might think that after COVID-19 and with their regained freedom, people would have quickly turned their attention to other amusements or hobbies. Far from it. Many people’s lifestyles have changed lastingly. And why should you give up something you enjoy? Andrea Lunau has something to say about that. She talks to us about her love of games and why games feel very much at home in the book trade.

Interview with Andrea Lunau

Ms Lunau, you’ve turned a passion into a business model. A bookshop that holds regular games evenings isn’t standard, is it?

Andrea Lunau: Well, maybe not the norm. But in our view, games just go well with books, and when you like playing yourself, then it just stands to reason, doesn’t it?

How long have you been selling game in the Hentschel bookshop? 

Andrea Lunau: We already had a small range of games before the pandemic. After COVID-19, the segment really took off. During lockdown, a lot of people started playing games together at home. That was obviously the case with our family and circle of friends. Some members of staff are also keen players, so one thing led to another.

Games require a lot of advice. You don’t necessarily stock the most well-known names but prefer to go for the smaller games-publishing companies instead.

Andrea Lunau: That’s true. We don’t stock a range of mainstream games, those you can buy in big toy or book shops or online. We want to stand out from the crowd and carve out a niche. I don’t think things would have worked out so well otherwise. We say that you’ll find things here you’re not actually looking for.

Does that mean that you also have some regular customers who might take a game home with them on the spur of the moment?

Andrea Lunau: Exactly. But there are also some games that go well with books, such as the Fitzek games from Moses. We place them next to the Fitzek books on the crime shelf – not on some special table in the corner. And all the games involving words, letters and literature are also the almost perfect complement to our range of books. And we’ve realised that complex games with fantasy scenarios likewise appeal to our readers a lot.

Have you been able to attract new customers thanks to your range of games? 

Andrea Lunau: Oh, yes. On the one hand, you have people who come across a game through an impulse buy, but we also benefit from the fact that Burscheid no longer has a toy shop. A lot of children like to get small and large games on their birthday. We also get customers that aren’t big readers but who are looking for specific games. And, in the meantime, we now get people with a passion for games.

Isn’t this target group more likely to buy what they want online? Keen gamers know their way round the market, don’t they?

Andrea Lunau: What we realise over and over again is that we can cope quite well with the online competition, even if we sometimes have to offer games at a slightly higher price. We can’t and don’t want to get involved in the price wars of the major players, and we don’t want to get involved in the discount campaigns organised by toy retailers in the run-up to Christmas. In our view, customers don’t look at the price tag if they receive good advice and feel at home in a shop. The rule that what you know well you sell well applies. 

Talking about buying. You buy very small quantities of games, so I suppose the terms and conditions aren’t great, right?
Andrea Lunau: Terms and conditions are a tricky subject, that's true. We order through a number of channels – either straight from the publishers or from our trade catalogue. We first had to find our bearings in the games industry; it works differently to the book trade. We’re not used to these tough price wars and had to learn that games that have won an award such as “Game of the Year” are heavily discounted by competitors. Unfortunately, this makes them unattractive for us. 

Have you acquired a taste for toys? Do you stock them in the Hentschel bookshop, too?

Andrea Lunau: Oh, absolutely. We’ve got a selection of children’s toys from, for example, Spiegelburg/Coppenrath, Kosmos, Topp and Moses. But we also like to buy special items from smaller workshops that our customers can’t get everywhere. We’ve got around 120 m2 of shop space and we present a colourful mixture of products: besides books, we also stock decorative articles, small gifts, games and toys.

And you also organise games evenings, too. How does that work with regards to space?

Andrea Lunau: We only organise them in the summer, outside, in front of the door. That wouldn’t be possible in the shop any more. Too many people are interested in the evening. We’re lucky that we have a large outdoor area in front of the bookshop with eight tables. The weather has to play ball, too, though, and so far that’s always been the case.

What are the games evenings like?

Andrea Lunau: What we really like to do is play new games with our customers and regularly introduce them to games that aren‘t so well known yet. Like games for aficionados. In other words, we choose titles that appeal to games fans, but also to an audience that’s looking for new challenges in games. However, we also always bring along classics that we especially enjoy playing ourselves. 

How do you find out about new releases?

Andrea Lunau: We make the annual pilgrimage to Spiel in Essen. It’s a must-attend event that we all enjoy and where we always get a lot of inspiration and new games. Throughout the year, we attend games seminars at games publishers such as Kosmos and Amigo, because if you want to sell games well, you have to have played them. Simply putting the product into a customer’s hands is not enough.

You are now passing on your knowledge, I hear.

Andrea Lunau: Yes, my colleague and I now hold games seminars for interested booksellers. We’re trying to pass on our passion for the topic of games and trying to encourage fellow booksellers to discover the games segment for themselves and their own shop.

Roughly how many different games do you stock?

Andrea Lunau: At the moment, we have around 50 different large board games and around 50 different pocket-sized travel games in stock. Overall, games make up around 30% of our total range. And we’d love to have more. There are so many great games, but we just don’t have enough space and, of course, as with books, we have to pick what we buy very carefully.

And to all those who plan or offer seminars on the subject of “How to find and fill a niche” - Andrea Lunau has found her niche. Just like that. Thanks to her passion, fresh ideas and a great deal of commitment.

About the author
Sibylle Dorndorf has been covering the toy industry for almost 30 years. The journalist last worked as the editor-in-chief at the TOYS family of magazines of the Göller Verlag publishing house from Baden-Baden, Germany. Her passion: Companies that reinvent themselves; brands that credibly position themselves; people who have something to say; and products with a future.