Over the past few decades, the market for used books had declined and many used bookstores around the world have closed. Sydney, Australia, where Ampersand Bookstore and Café was located, was no exception to this trend. Yet, Vangel Cvetkovski, co-owner and operator of Ampersand, has steered it towards financial success. Established as a bookstore café, a familiar environment accessible to most university students, this case examines how Vangel and his partner overcame the limitations of the used bookstore and café industries to create a hybrid business model and how they got it to work.

This case study, a companion case to "Ampersand Bookstore and Café (A): Surviving the Bookstore Apocalypse" (HBP Product ID: ST90), extends the main case (A) by taking the Ampersand story further. While the main case focused mainly on how Ampersand had previously succeeded, this companion case examines how the protagonist might continue to grow and expand the business. Thus, it is suggested to be taught as an extension to the main case (A).