Book Grocer

Wandering down Elizabeth Street we fell into Book Grocer to escape a cold July night. What a pleasant surprise! Great books all on discount. There were lots of titles, but we were on vacation so the suitcases and our arms could only carry so much. Lots of different interests catered to – anyone who loves books would find a good title in under five minutes. And interestingly, by not pushing the latest most expensive best sellers, the «noise» factor of new book promotion is gone at Book Grocer. Sales woman was very nice — not intrusive — allowing for lots of browsing. I am not saying fly to Melbourne just for Book Grocer. .. . but it is almost that good. It is not large, but it is different. How nice with books.

Why do I love the Book Grocer? Let me count the ways.
The Book Grocer is not like many of the other discount book stores that pop up all over the place. These other stores are often frustrating experiences. There is indeed sometimes a few good books to be found at such stores, but it takes a lot of effort. You have to pick your way through stacks of whatever trashy books were cheapest by the shipping container load, laid out in extremely vague approximations of genres in piles on tables (or piled on the floor). Once you find something you like, in such sorry establishments you often end up having to deal with staff who look like they’d rather be anywhere else.
The Book Grocer is gloriously different. It doesn’t take long to notice that they’ve clearly put a lot of effort into finding books that aren’t just cheap, but interesting, high quality reads. I’ve found so many books I wanted to read but hadn’t been able to afford at normal bookstores when they were new releases. The books are impressively well organised into narrow sub-​genres. Not many other bookstores have sections as niche as African history or the philosophy of science! In my many trips to their stores, I’ve always found their staff to be friendly and helpful. They even put your books in paper bags with word puzzles on them!
An extra thing I love about them is that no book in the store is ever more than $ 10. It takes away that sinking feeling often experienced in other stores of finding a book that looks fascinating and then noticing the exorbitant price tag. Here I can browse happily knowing I can afford any interesting book I find.
All the Book Grocer stores are great but I think the Russell Street one is best for non-​fiction (especially business books).

I was wandering down Russell with a mission to head for some cheap noodles soup to fill my starving belly when I came across The Book Grocer, and the awesome advertising of all books $ 10!
Entering, I was greeted by a friendly hello, the soothing tunes of 1940’s esq Jazz, and walls and tables full of cheap books in pretty much any genre you could think of!
It’s obviously not a place for recent best sellers, or recent releases, but if you don’t have a specific book in mind, there’s plenty of decent books to choose from. Don’t think of it like your friendly local shopping centre dodgy cheap book stand, there’s really good quality books here, they’re just a few years old by the looks of it!
Some of the books are even 2 for $ 10, or there’s 6 for $ 50!
Fun Fact — the brown paper bag your books get wrapped in has a word finder puzzle on it!

I popped in here today after seeing a sign for $ 10 books. Turns out they’re all $ 10! It’s a pretty decent size but it’s a discount store, though, so they don’t have a very comprehensive collection. On the other hand, if you’re just looking for a random read, this place is a good bet.

Thank the good lord for Book Grocer.
When I first moved to Oz I was shocked, SHOCKED, at the price of books. Look, I know it’s an isolated country with a small population, yada, yada, but this combined with the insane price of beer was just a bit much. Beer and books are basically my favourite things ever so this was gonna be a hard slog. Then I discovered Book Grocer with it’s super cheap books and things looked a lot brighter. Most of the books range from between 8 and 15 dollars and the selection is pretty damned good. Yes you have your umpteen Maeve Binchy novels and your self help garbage, but there is also a lot of quality stuff here. I’d been eyeing this book online forever and today I found it in Book Grocers for less then they were offering on Amazon BEFORE shipping. I also found a great teaching resource book which retails for 40 dollars. I got it for 15. You’ll never know what you’ll find here but there is usually a good selection of best sellers and classics. I never leave BG without buying something great and my wallet never suffers. It’s a win all around.

I like discount bookstores in general. Partly it’s the joy of finding undiscovered treasures, partly it’s market research, and partly it’s due to the unadulterated schadenfreudeian joy when you see an awful book has been remaindered. And, having seen these Book Grocer stores popping up around the place, I thought I’d give this one a look.
My conclusion? It’s not bad. Touch of class in the store layout, it’s not screaming «cheap!» at you the entire time. Range is about what you’d expect: remaindered books or the occasional cheaper edition, at reasonable prices. They’re mostly fairly awful, but there’s the odd gem here or there.
If you feel like having a browse or taking a punt (or you’re a Collingwood supporter, and so didn’t get this years allotment of malicious joy), there’s no harm in having a look-​see.