The historic bookshop Geli in Girona is part of Group 22

by time news

The Geli bookshop in Girona is giving up opening a new location after closing the historic one, on Carrer de l’Argenteria, and will be integrated into Group 22. The historic establishment closed its doors in May, after 143 years story at the end of the Rambla de la Llibertat, after selling the premises to another century-old business, Joieria Quera.

The initial intention of its manager, Pere Rodeja, was to reopen the Geli bookstore in another commercial space, also in the Old Quarter, but he has finally given up on this option and reached an agreement to join the La 22 project.

The two bookstores have reached an agreement that they define as “historic” and as of this Friday, some of the Geli workers and all of their book stock will become part of Group 22. They will do so without their own premises or differentiated, as the Geli booksellers will work in the bookshop on Carrer Hortes and the catalog of the historic trade will gradually be added to what Grup 22 already has.

“With this sum, the offer of books that will be available in a single point in the city will be more powerful and complete”, the two bookstores emphasize in a joint statement in which they note that the pact seeks to “strengthen small trade, culture and literature”.

The integration of Geli at La 22 is the result of the good harmony between the two bookstores in the city for years, explains Rodeja, and has been brewing over the last two months. “The work ahead now will be long”, he admits, because the nearly 40,000 books that make up the Geli’s collection will need to be worked on in order to gradually include them both in the physical and online catalog that Group 22 already has operational, which in addition to the bookshop founded in 1978 has a comic shop, also on Calle Hortes, and a bookshop-kiosk in Emili Grahit.

The “sum of efforts”, they say, “will make it possible to maintain the uniqueness and experience of more than 140 years of work” accumulated by Geli and for the two bookshops to promote new folded projects.

“Each bookshop catalog is a way of understanding the world, the culture and therefore, the sum of the two catalogues, the offer of books that will be available in a single point of the city will be more powerful and complete. In addition, this whole process will also serve to boost dissemination and promotion through social networks and the web, which is essential in today’s world”, they underline.

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