Edinburgh Community Bookshop in Leith pays bills and then donates profits to local charities

New bookstore vows to donate all net profit to different charities in Capital

An Edinburgh bookstore which opened its doors at the beginning of the month has vowed to support local charities and will donate all its net profit to a good cause each month.

The Edinburgh Community Bookshop has seen extraordinary support from local businesses and the wider community, and has sold more than 1800 books in its first three weeks. The second-hand bookshop in Leith is open seven days a week, and each month the organisation plans to donates all net profit to support a different local charity in the Capital.

The bookshop’s founder, Alasdair Corbett, began fundraising for the bookshop back in January, and after months of hard work and securing a premises and a strong team of volunteers, the shop officially opened on October 1.

Local businessman, Alasdair Corbett, began fundraising for his project in January, before opening the shop on October 1.

“I wanted to do something that would give back to the community in some way using the skills and experience that I have”, Alasdair said. “The idea was born for having a bookshop that would take in donated books, be run mostly by volunteers and after paying its bills each month would then donate its profits to a local charity. There are a lot of charities in Edinburgh that really struggle financially for resources - unlike a lot of the bigger charity, where they have their own shops and bigger sources of income. We wanted to support small local charities and rather than supporting one charity we thought we will try to support a different charity each month.”

The local businessman who owns Easter Greens, a vegan grocery store on Easter Road, also has extensive experience in the charity sector, acting as service manager for the British Red Cross, as well as working in charity retail where he worked as a shop manager for the Children’s Society in Cambridge and London and for the Edinburgh Children’s Hospital Charity.

So far, the bookshop has seen tremendous support from the local community and nearby businesses who have donated approximately 12,000 books to the shop. Alasdair said: “I had a feeling it would do well but I have been a bit overwhelmed by the support that we’ve had. From the general public donating books and spreading the word about the shop, local businesses donating their stock - and everybody that comes into the shop just has nothing but good things to say about it.”

This month, the bookshop will donate their profits to the Edinburgh Children’s Hospital Charity. Alasdair said: “They do some really great work – the charity supports children and families while they’re in hospital, really just to try and help the children be a child first and a patient second. So far this month we’re up to about £1900 that we’ll be able to donate to the Children’s Hospital Charity - we’ve still got another ten days to go so I reckon the total should be around £2500 probably by the end of the month.”

The Edinburgh Community Book Shop can be found on Great Junction Street.

Alasdair explained that his team includes 30 members of staff and that the tremendous interest in volunteer positions at the shop was so popular that he was forced to put a pause of applications. He said: “I’ve got a really good team of volunteers and they’ve been working really hard to get everything organised. Right from the beginning when they were helping construct the bookcases, through to getting all the books sorted before we opened – they’re doing fantastic work.”

Visitors to the shop will also be able to grab a tea or coffee as they peruse the vast selection of books as well as try a range of vegan pastries that are made by local business, the Breadwinner Bakery. You can find the Edinburgh Community Bookshop open seven days a week between 10am and 4pm at 179-181 Great Junction Street, and each time you buy a book or donate one to the shop, you’ll also be supporting great causes, helping hundreds of people across the Capital.