Baker & Taylor has closed its Bicester facility in England for everything other than "urgent and essential matters," the Bookseller reported, adding that distribution operations by Macmillan and HarperCollins, alongside wholesalers Bertrams and Gardners, remain operational.
Noting that the company reached its decision "to abide by the U.K. government's directives and to not risk the health of staff, our families and the general public," B&T said: "With the facility closed we are not taking deliveries at present, though will meet very unique customer needs where appropriate. We are not cancelling any orders as we will require all for when restrictions are lifted. We are planning for a swift and exciting return when this situation is over."
Bookspeed, a wholesaler based in Edinburgh, Scotland, closed its business during the coronavirus pandemic, with employees receiving full pay for March and April, supported by the government's Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme. The company specializes in books, games and stationery, supplying more than 1,500 retailers across the U.K. and Ireland, and employs almost 50 people at its offices and warehouses.
Gardners announced it is "moving to re-engineer credit terms for independents, 'in a bid to preserve liquidity in bookselling and ensure the viability of indie bookshops as we navigate and ultimately emerge from this predicament,' " the Bookseller reported, observing that the move followed discussions with the Booksellers Association about how to support indies during the crisis.
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In the U.K., Pan Macmillan is offering "financial support," as well as focusing on helping indies to engage with their communities, while Hachette "is investigating whether it can make an extended credit limit available," the Bookseller reported. "Penguin Random House said it was working with the Booksellers Association to explore how it could help all retailers, and HarperCollins said it is 'absolutely committed' to helping independents and is currently working with shops on a one-to-one basis."
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Bricks-and-mortar bookstores in Shanghai are "taking new steps such as open-air book fairs and 'take-out' services to get themselves through the novel coronavirus outbreak," China Daily reported. Most bricks-and-mortar bookstores in China have reopened to the public since early March, and passenger flow in Shanghai's bookstores has recovered to about half of what it was before the outbreak.
Many booksellers are shifting their markets and services online. China Daily noted that the Shanghai Foreign Language Bookstore has settled "in Meituan Dianping, China's online food delivery platform, and launched 'take-out' service to attract more customers and mitigate the effect of the outbreak.... According to Meituan Dianping, three bricks-and-mortar bookstores in Shanghai and a total of 72 bookstores in Beijing have settled in the platform."
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Despite coronavirus-driven lockdown measures across Europe, Belgian bookstores "can remain open because they sell newspapers and some are doing so as a public service," Euronews reported.
At Filigranes bookstore in Brussels, only one person at a time is allowed to enter, though people can also order books in advance to pick up at the entrance. Owner Marc Filipson said, "If we have to close, we close. The way we do now... I don't know if I respect the rules but I think I respect the rules. But I think that people must read. But if my staff ask me to close tonight, I close tonight. But I will stay.... Now we have to do the best. To be together and for sure, the bookstores, if the crisis is for one month, two months, three months, people will always read books so we are very lucky but everybody won't have the same chance as us."
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" 'Read!' president Emmanuel Macron exhorted his compatriots when he announced France's coronavirus lockdown on March 16. Perhaps only the French could make a literary event of a pandemic," the Irish Times noted in a "Paris Letter" this week.