Examining Independent Bookstores During the Pandemic 

As an avid lover of books, you are most likely familiar with the flip your stomach does when you come across a bookstore. You’re traveling in an unfamiliar place, exploring a town. Your feet ache and the sun is starting to bleed into your skin. Your eyes fall onto the staple quaint bookstore façade that you are so familiar with. Before you know it, you are in the cool air filled with snippets of conversation and friendly hellos. You spend three hours there, and leave with four books and a flyer about an upcoming book club meeting hosted by the owner. You were too polite to decline, even though you are leaving town the next morning for your next destination.  

​

Even though they are places of commerce, there is a sense of community that comes along with buying a book. When examining the chain of publishing, bookstores are one of the most vital parts, as they are the medium from which the book enters the literary sphere. They are also the point in which the reader can engage with the text and the community synonymously. Whether through book clubs, author talks, or community events, the text moves from the personal to the communal through the bookstore. During the pandemic, when people had to change how they interacted with the world, bookstores took a resounding hit. The industry had to change. The idea of community within the literary sphere had to shift and the distribution of books to readers had to change also.  

​

Finding Their Footing 

​

When the world shut down in March 2020 and non-essential businesses had to close, it set into motion a change that would ripple out into the publishing and book industry. With the inability to connect with booksellers in-person and supply chain problems, getting books onto bookstore shelves required ingenuity and some maneuvering. In a Publisher’s Weekly article by Jim Milliot and Ed Nawotka, they say, “…publishers engaged in a juggling act, focusing on timely delivery of their big frontlist titles while delaying the releases of other books. Publishers also looked to move more printing back to the U.S., while also using print-on-demand more often” (Milliot and Nawotka). Distributors pushed booksellers to order titles earlier rather than later so that the books would arrive on time for busy shopping seasons. Although the business of bookstores at the time appeared grim, Milliot and Nawotka report that “…sales at bookstores were $7.12 billion, up nearly 40% over the same period in 2020, and there is a good chance that sales for 2021 will ultimately be greater than those from 2019, pre-pandemic, when they were about $10 billion.” Why were sales better than pre-pandemic fiscal years? They report that because of the “…opening of new stores and the adoption of online sales by independent and chain stores,” bookstores could continue to flourish (Milliot and Nawotka). The shift to focusing on the online marketplace helped bookstores connect readers with books remotely. As a result, this helped readers to establish remote connections to the bookstores themselves. 

​

The Change of the Third Place  

​

With the change from in-store shopping to curbside pickup, browsing, an activity synonymous with bookstores, became extinct. Community events were canceled or moved to an online forum that took away the human aspect of a bookstore. In The Great Good Place, Ray Oldenburg describes the concept of “third places.” A third place is characterized by its description of being a place of neutral ground and a leveler, where people go for conversation and to escape the mundanity of routine life (Oldenburg 20-21). Bookstores are considered third places. The main characteristics of a third place were stripped away because of the pandemic, creating a hurdle for people seeking out companionship and community provided by bookstores. In a Vox article titled “How Bookstores are Weathering the Pandemic,” Bryce Covert says, “Owners suddenly found themselves arranging curbside pickups, shipping thousands of online orders, and staging completely virtual events” (Covert). While some bookstores were able to maintain sales and community, most found it difficult to survive. Covert also says, “according to the American Booksellers Association (ABA), 35 member bookstores have closed during the pandemic, with roughly one store closing each week. Twenty percent of independent bookstores across the country are in danger of closing, the ABA says.” Bookstores are places rooted in community and the community is isolated because of the pandemic. This makes surviving difficult because bookstores are reliant on aspects known to the third place (human-to-human interaction etc.). Even though there are ways to foster community in the online sphere, there is still a disconnect. Covert states, “In many ways, online ordering is the antithesis of what independent bookstores are.” The article goes on to quote Hilary Gustafson, the owner of Literati Bookstore in Michigan. She says, “‘We are a community space that thrived with that in-person, face-to-face conversation about ideas and literature,’” (Covert). Customer loyalty and the literary community are aspects that kept some bookstores alive. Although the online marketplace is the opposite of what bookstores stand for, sites such as Bookshop.org, which gives 80% of their profits to local, independent bookstores, allows customers to fully support their bookshops.  

​

What the Future Holds

​

There is a glimmer of light. In a Publisher’s Weekly article by Judith Rosen, she reports a small independent bookstore boom currently happening as the height of the pandemic has ended. This boom came as a result of some bookstore owners starting their business online first and then establishing a brick-and-mortar store later. Another reason is because of the housing market. Some bookstore owners did not have to pay rent until relatively recently. The article states, “Jennifer Caspar, founder of Village Well Books and Coffee in Culver City, Calif., signed a lease in February 2020, just ahead of pandemic shutdowns. She didn’t start paying rent on her 3,000-sq.-ft. space until November…While she waited to open, Caspar began selling books online from her home and delivering them herself” (Rosen). The number of memberships to the American Booksellers Association and the Independent Booksellers Association have grown exponentially. For ABA, “Membership and locations rose from 1,701 and 2,100 respectively to 1,910 and 2,496 for 2021” (Rosen).  

​

Another reason why there has been a flourish in independent bookstores, stems from the protests of summer 2020. After the murder of George Floyd, there was a push within the literary community to support black bookstores as they were places of revolution. Books about anti-blackness, racism, and white privilege flew off shelves and sales surged for independent black bookstores. In an NPR article, La’Nae Robinson, the owner of Bliss Books & Wine in Missouri, was interviewed about the current state of black bookstores. She says, “It allowed us to pull [people] in…I think we were able to bring them in and keep them in. And we're still having ongoing conversations and - where we've established that relationship where I think that they want to hang around for a little bit longer” (Rosen). The ability to have conversations and not just purchasing a book is what keeps these bookstores going. They are a meeting ground, a leveler, for people of all backgrounds. 

​

In conclusion, the bookstore is here to stay. They have braved the onslaught of the e-reader and Amazon. And now, they have braved a pandemic. Community is a fundamental part of bookstores, and the pandemic showed how loss of community and third place characteristics became the death for some bookstores. But it also showed how community was strengthened. This article only scratches the surface of the story, and the history of bookstores is continuing today. If you are able to, go and visit your local bookstore today. They will greatly appreciate it.