In the middle of a compact aisle, at the side of Kenny's Bookshop and Art Gallery in Galway, printers are spitting out adhesive labels.
Around a number of packing stations, staff members work through the latest batch of book orders.
It is fascinating to watch the process.
All manner of publications are here. They have been picked from shelves, sorted and stacked into neat piles, in readiness for the next stage of this military-like operation.
This is the hub of the world’s longest running online bookshop. A place where you can get a glimpse into the interests of people from all over the planet.
Shipping manager Shane Crotty glances at the rubber-banded bunches of books beside him.
"This parcel here is going to Australia, this is going to Damien in Chile, this one to France and this is going to Carrigaline, down in Cork".
Seven days a week, orders stream in here from every continent. Some customers buy the latest bestseller, others wait for bundles of their favourite series. All ready to lose themselves in a good read.
Kenny’s Bookshop has been operating in Galway since 1940. Now overseen by the third generation of the family, the business was run from a premises in the city centre for decades. In that time, it established a strong local trade, as well as fulfilling international requests for hard-to-find editions.
That mail order aspect was what led Barry Flanagan to approach the family in the summer of 1994. He was involved with the Ireland online internet firm and spotted an opening for the bookshop, were it to offer stock for sale on the web.
A few months later, kennys.ie became the first retail site in Ireland and one of the first online bookstores in the world, beating Amazon to the punch by a year.
In the intervening three decades, web sales have come to dominate the business, alongside the company’s bricks and mortar store.
The success is built on a simple approach, says Sarah Kenny. "What customers want is good value, good service and speed of service.
"We have over a million books at any given time. You have to keep the offering broad, stay on top of trends, be aware of what customers are looking for and constantly monitor sales from week to week."
That task has been eased by the continual demand for books, with pandemic-related business laying further solid foundations. All metrics feed into the system and boost the range of stock available.
"The book industry is in good health … Instagram and TikTok have made a huge impact in spreading the word about 'good reads’ and that helps the book world to draw in people of all ages", Ms Kenny said.
Back in the order aisle, Shane Crotty is manoeuvring a number of steel cages into position, as they are filled with hundreds of parcels.
"Logistically, orders are coming in around the clock", he says. "We come in each morning and review those that have come in overnight, print them out, locate the books, process each request, pack and label them and get the parcels ready for the postal collection in mid-afternoon."
One of the parcels destined for delivery to South America demonstrates just one of the ways in which a Galway retailer has been able to capture a slice of the international market. It contains eight books in the Witch Hat Atelier series by Kamome Shirahama.
Tomás Kenny, Sarah’s brother, tells how staff noticed a significant hike in orders for Japanese Manga books in 2022.
"There were orders coming in from all over the place and we realised there was a market that was not that well served. So, what we did was we expanded our stock, tried to become knowledgeable about Manga and it’s been a huge success."
As he points to an aisle of shelves, loaded from floor to ceiling with the graphic novels, Mr Kenny outlines how a year ago "there was one [shelving] unit, now we have close to 20 and that’s going to expand significantly further in the next year.
"We have people buying these books from all over the world, sometimes 20,30, 40 books at a time. People are obsessed with bestseller charts but there are so many other books under the radar that sell an awful lot, in particular genres and groupings.
"People are interested in things that they can’t often find in their local shop and so we try to provide a totality of service. Graphic novels and Manga are a huge part of that at present."
That agility to move with the flow of bookselling runs deep. It's something both Kenny grandchildren reference in their recollections of previous generations.
"We try to do what our granny and grandad were always telling us: never just stay in Galway, always look outside the shop to expand and that, as long as you’re willing to adapt and change, hopefully you can stay on top of things," says Mr Kenny.
"The first step online for us was a step into the unknown in 1994, when hardly anyone had heard of the internet. But we were aware of the export market and that people internationally wanted Irish books.
"Then we kind of became an overnight success after almost a quarter of a century during Covid. Prior to that 80% of our sales were international, then it flipped on its head, and we got huge support domestically.
"I’d like to think that our prices and our service has allowed us to hold on to lots of those customers.
"We have competitive advantages over rivals like Amazon. We can answer the phone, respond to emails, things that others don’t offer," he said.
It is a different world to the one that saw Des and Maureen Kenny set up shop in High Street in Galway in 1940. But there are constants too.
"I’d hope they’d be proud of us. We’re only building on what they started," says Tómas Kenny,
"Whether it’s our name with the public and publishers, our reputation after more than 80 years in business, or the online growth … all those things contribute to where we are today."
