The Future of Barata is Today

BARATA BOOKSTORE IS AT THE RISK OF CLOSING. WE ARE ONE OF THE LAST INDEPENDENT BOOKSTORES IN LISBON AND WE NEED YOUR CONTRIBUTION TO SURPASS THE FINANCIAL DIFFICULTIES GENERATED BY THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC AND TO SUPPORT THE REVITALIZATION OF THE BOOKSTORE.

BARATA BOOKSTORE IS AT THE RISK OF CLOSING AND LAUNCHES THIS CAMPAIGN TO SUPPORT ITS REVITALIZATION. WE ARE ONE OF THE LAST INDEPENDENT BOOKSTORES IN LISBON AND WE NEED YOUR CONTRIBUTE TO SURPASS THE FINANCIAL DIFFICULTIES GENERATED BY THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC.

It is our purpose to live exclusively on our own sales and revenues, offering a quality service, but at this moment we need to save time and financial sustainability to execute a renovation plan (starting now and ending within two years).

LIVRARIA BARATA had been fighting for sustainability in a context in which the market made independent bookstores the weakest link in the publishing and bookselling sector. With the pandemic of COVID-19, BARATA suffered a drop of almost 90% of sales, maintaining all operating costs, due to the sudden lack of customers.

Despite this, BARATA manteined the doors open and the spirit of public service during the confinement, not depriving the citizens of the offer of cultural, informative, recreational, educational products .

He adapted the operation , reinforcing the digital media and creating a home delivery service to reach customers, an assumed effort made with a lot of personal and financial sacrifice, by LIVRARIA and its employees.

Even with this effort, this emblematic space - an independent company, which still belongs to the founder's family and on which other families depend - can close if there aren't many more like us who believe that books are important and that local businesses are indispensable. 

The decision to launch this campaign was made with a great sense of responsibility because the money raised will be used exclusively for the service we provide. The counterparts presented are, therefore, thought to be an investment and, therefore, are poured into cultural and informative products in favor of our supporters.

Thus, the funds raised with this campaign are intended to:

• Restore stocks immediately
• Ensure operating costs by the end of 2020
• Requalify the historic shop for new activities and implement an e-commerce platform, from the 3rd quarter of 2020
• Ensure campaign costs (PPL Platform Commissions)

These actions will have to be accompanied by the activation of a cultural plan and a communication strategy to attract new audiences and retain customers, which we hope to ensure with the financial sustainability of the business.

Be a part of BARATA's Future!

Aspectos das estantes modernistas

About the author

BARATA is a family owned and managed company, created by António Barata in 1957, and which continues to be owned by the family. Its history is strongly linked to the history of Lisbon and the origin of everything is the flagship bookstore on Avenida de Roma, which started out as a small book, stationery and tobacconist shop and which in the 1980s underwent a major architectural transformation that made it the space it is today, with its Portuguese stone pavement.

In the years 2010, to give impetus to the business, Barata entered into a commercial partnership with the Leya Group, through which it has priority access in the commercialization of all the Leya Group trademarks, from general editions to school ones.

But when BARATA - today classified as STORE WITH HISTORY - opened 63 years ago, it came to answer a need. Born in the mists of the dictatorship, it has become a space for literary communion, resistance and knowledge sharing. This led to its founder being persecuted by the political police, which did not give up his objective: to keep the doors of a cultural space open and to create a community of free thought.

BARATA was created in the light of the great independent bookstores, heirs of the Europe of Lights, precursors of literacy and the promotion of knowledge, in a plural, humanistic and universalist logic. The space has evolved, in size and offer, investing heavily in technical education and in the children's and youth areas, presenting today one of the most careful educational offers in the City.

The world has changed and with it the publishing and book sector, access to information and knowledge has taken on new tools, the relationship of the younger generations with books, newspapers, paper, has become different. Hence the loss of readers, due to the socio-cultural changes that have occurred since the 1990s, was a step, added to the crushing of the book sector by other sectors, especially the multimedia media, and publishing policies that bet on an immediate literature, but not even so more demanding.

Today LIVRARIA's anti-fascist resistance work will say little to younger generations. But its relevance as a cultural and educational space continues to show signs, a house that supports many schools based on the Areeiro / Alvalade axis and which brings together a community of readers.

The future we want to celebrate will bring a bold cultural project, making this space a center of culture and dissemination, prepared to reach future generations.

Budget and due dates

The funds raised will be applied as follows:

• Restore stocks immediately
• Ensure operating costs by the end of 2020
• Requalify the historic space for new activities and implement an e-commerce platform, from the 3rd quarter of 2020
• Ensure campaign costs (PPL Platform Commissions) at the end of the campaign

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