Sarah McNally

Sarah McNally is a bookstore entrepreneur best known as the founder and owner of McNally Jackson Books.

MJB is an independent book shop with five locations in New York City, the most-recent in Rockefeller Center.

Store #5 was showcased this year in the Monocle Retail Awards among the top retail experiences in the world.

The reason for the accolades is evident as soon as one enters the front door; the Rockefeller shop is an exercise in mass precision. There are something like 50,000 titles there and they are all presented with centimeter-level care.

There is an artistry to the experience that draws one in and keeps them looking.

In a recent interview she explained that it is the “physicality” of book retailing that differentiates the better from the lesser. She described how a good bookseller can place five books on a table in a way that creates consonant reverberation. A “symphony of ideas” she calls it.

In the retail award write-up, McNally dispensed some of her thoughts on succeeding as a bookseller, including "To bring people in, you need a mix of books that are both familiar and unfamiliar."

She also said "The booksellers who seem to succeed - whether it's a chain or just a single shop - always come out of the intersection of a love of books, neighborhoods and people."

Both thoughts ring so simple, so true.

To hear more magic words McNally has about books and retailing in her own voice, you can tune into "The Stack", a podcast about print media here: https://monocle.com/radio/shows/the-stack/559/

To see the complete list of retail award winners (includes another favorite, Tsutaya), loook here: https://deal.town/monocle.com/the-monocle-minute-retail-awards-special-P36PUF9JE