With the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019 and the coronavirus pandemic immediately thereafter, Kashmir has been hit by back-to-back lockdowns and a communication shutdown for the past two years. Despite this, Bestseller, one of the oldest bookstores in Kashmir, continues to attract hundreds of readers and sell thousands of books. The bookstore owes its survival to its unique business strategy of selling books at discounted prices while offering sales of old and new books.
“We certainly have a lower profit margin, but we attract far more customers,” said 29-year-old Sani Yasnain Chiloo, who runs the bookstore in the heart of Srinagar.
The original strategy
In 1985, Sanaullah Chiloo converted a ground-floor provisional store in Lal Chowk, the city centre of Srinagar, into a bookshop. The early years were defined by simplicity. In those days, Bestseller stocked a limited number of Urdu and Kashmiri books from local publishers, along with Islamic literature. The bookstore…