"Then the pandemic happened and they did disappear. Local businesses went out of business like crazy. And suddenly people said, Oh, you were actually right. This is actually important. We do have to support local businesses. Because we're going to get screwed. We're going to have nothing but Walmarts and Amazon....
"Since our biggest competitor is not Harvard Book Store down the street from us or Belmont Books in the next town, but Amazon, that helped independents. Look, our numbers are still tiny, we're still a tiny percentage of the market.... I'm not saying Jeff Bezos is quaking in his boots because of independent bookstores. But I do think that one thing the pandemic did is make people hate Amazon a little bit more. And the alternative to Amazon, when you're talking about books, is indie bookstores."