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Plants and books make a happy partnership in Dublin
In the UK and US it is quite common to find garden centres that also sell books; now, in Ireland, an indie bookshop has turned this idea on its head. Chapters bookshop in Dublin invited Irish garden centre Arboretum Urban Green to open a department on the first floor of Chapters bookshop in Dublin firmly believing that plants and books make perfect companions.
The Irish Times reports: ‘The owners hope the union of books and plants proves a match made in heaven and are confident they will be able to entice many urban dwellers through the doors with the promise of food and coffee as well as a wide array of indoor plants, furniture and all manner of accoutrements for a city centre apartment balcony.’
The newspaper adds that Arboretum Urban Green stretches across more than 14,000sq ft on the first floor of Chapters, which reopened last year under new owners after closing briefly to great public dismay. It will also offer an all-day dining menu at its 60-seater cafe.
Arboretum’s Barry and Fergal Doyle believe the idea of mixing books with related products is one of the ways physical bookshops, indeed all physical retailers, are combatting the online booksellers. It is all about life-style, atmosphere and experience, all of which are hard to find online.
