About Us
We like to call Elephant: “Your very best gift shop in Bulgaria.” But what exactly is Elephant?
Elephant Bookstore Ltd. is a Bulgarian company, with an international management team, that has been a well-known and unmistakable brand since 2012.
The company engages in the wholesale distribution of some of the best British and US brands for home and travel gifts, such as Gentlemen’s Hardware, Captain Fawcett, The New York Puzzle Company, as well as the world’s leading licensed brands like Harry Potter, DC Comics, Marvel, Star Wars, and other merch collections.
For a wide audience, however, Elephant is mostly known for its physical shop, located in the heart of Sofia, as well as its online gift shop – elephantbookstore.com.
“Elephant Bookstore”, on 31 Shishman Street, is a cozy, English bookstore, vintage at spirit and young at heart. Our shelves shelter over three thousand book titles, picked with precision by our colleagues, according to our individual tastes, the company’s politics and principles, and, of course, the leading global tendencies. We specialize in providing Modern Fiction and Politics & Society titles, but we are also the joyful Friends of Dorothy, which so happens to be the name of our section dedicated to the LGBTQ+ community. It goes without saying that you will find poetry, classics, fantasy, sci-fi, specific culture and art publications in our bookstore too. Last but not least are our personal favourite Quirky Books – a highly recommended niche for improving your mood and spotting a unique, surprising gift for the people that you love (and for those that you don’t).
Even though Elephant is not the most kid-friendly when it comes to literature in particular, we are probably the best place in Bulgaria for satisfying your thirst for original US comic books, #booktok, authentic vintage magazines like Playboy (our issues date back to the publication’s founding), Young Adult novels, and merchandise, of course.
There is a special place for Bulgarian vintage memorabilia in our bookstore. Elephant is the richest commercial site, on a local scale, for original ads and posters dating back to the years of the Third Bulgarian Kingdom and the era of early socialism. It is exactly here that you will find the oldest outdoor shop sign (not Elephant’s, unfortunately).
We are also known for the supply of celebrity autographs. For example, Elephant is the only English bookstore in all of Europe where you could get your hands on the certified autographs of Robert De Niro and Al Pacino.
As proud fans, we can’t help but brag that, so far, Elephant is one of the best commercial temples for Harry Potter-related gifts in the whole world. What is even more remarkable is that here you can meet some of your favourite actors, at the signing events that we organize. David Harbour and Ranbir Kapoor are two of our most famous guests and clients, and we have also greeted actors from Game of Thrones and Harry Potter, with the utmost joy and excitement.
Last but not least, we’d like to point out that Elephant has a strong social presence and that our company aims to raise awareness through its work. On a daily basis, Elephant affirms its position as a supporter of the democratic values of Western societies, and it does it in a variety of ways.
Elephant Bookstore has always fiercely stood against gender-based violence in our disproportionate reality and has demonstrated a strong pro-gender-equality position. We support the LGBTQ+ community in Bulgaria and whole-heartedly partner with Deystvie.org – an organization that has now been offering pro bono services to the queer members of Bulgaria for 10 years. Elephant has had the honour of organizing exhibitions with a charitable cause in its collaboration with Ukraine Support & Renovation. Our company is unapologetic in its condemnation of the Russian Federation’s aggression against independent Ukraine. It is through our pro-Ukraine and anti-Putin badge campaign that we are able to provide financial help for the refugees in need and the Ukrainian resistance.
You can always hear nice music coming from Elephant (and our Spotify account), and there will never be a time that you won’t be greeted with warmth. Our colleagues at the bookstore and online will gladly help you with whatever your shopping needs are. There is no doubt that the main purpose of a commercial company is to generate sales, of course, but we never forget that Elephant’s vital purpose, in particular, is to be a place where our souls and minds could feel at home.
Happy.
We are glad to say that we have achieved this.
