Pegasus Books, with three stores in Berkeley and Oakland, Calif., closed all of its locations on March 16 and owner Amy Thomas furloughed her team of 35 employees, with pay, through March 27, Inc. magazine reported. She said she has been checking in with individual employees on a regular basis, doing "financial triage to make sure nobody goes under."
Thomas noted that she is lucky to own one of her buildings and have good relationships with the landlords of the others. "They're in it too," she said. "There's something weird about this--weird in a good way, you know? Nobody has to be explained to." Online sales, formerly a very small part of Pegasus's business, are helping, she said: "We're pivoting, but what we do as bookstores, with events and readings... [Running] another kind of bookstore to keep everybody going for a while is fine, but long term, we need to be back in the store."
She also observed: "What's really been important to me is to build good relationships with the people you might sometimes be in conflict with: your vendors and your landlords. If you just build super-honest, transparent relationships with everybody from the get-go, and say, 'This is who I am, this is what I can do,' and if there's a month that you can't pay for all of it, or [payment] has to be slow, tell them. If there's a problem, call them, reach out."
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Noting the irony that "everyone finally has unlimited time to read, but bookstores and libraries are closed," Do Savannah reported that fortunately, the Georgia city's independent bookstores "are still selling books online and staying connected with their customers."
"It helps that Amazon is not shipping books right now and libraries are closed, so independents are the only game in town at the moment," said Melissa Taylor, co-owner of E. Shaver Bookseller. "I will say the one thing that is really different is, because people aren't coming into the store and browsing, the booksellers are missing talking to people about books, so Jessica and I recorded the first episode of our podcast so that we can talk about books, and hopefully people will listen to that. It gives us something to do with our time and keeps us off the streets."
Co-owner Jessica Osbourne agreed: "We have a website, eshaverbooks.com, which is an IndieCommerce site, so it's through the American Booksellers Association and it has been a life saver. People can order online and then designate whether they want to pick it up curbside or whether they want it shipped to them for free, and we'll actually deliver anywhere in town, as well, for free."
At the Book Lady Bookstore, owner Joni Saxon-Giusti said, "We are utilizing more than ever all our social media platforms and e-mailing lists to virtually-connect with customers to let them know we are still open for business and can help them find books for themselves plus their students, teachers and families, wherever they are. Lots of browsing videos and pictures of our most recommended titles allow them to see what we have on the shelves and allow us to continue to be advocates for some wonderful authors."
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Posted on Facebook by Liberty Bay Books, Poulsbo, Wash.: "While mom filled online orders at the store Fiona watched forlornly out the door, anxious for the day when we can all meet again!"