Bookstores out west re-open . . . and re-close
It’s been terrifying to study the hockey stick-shaped graphs of Covid-19 spikes in places like Arizona and Texas, states that had closed-down insufficiently and have now re-opened too early.
Unfortunately, this has made a number of booksellers feel like yo-yos at the mercy of the yahoos governing their state’s responses.
As a recent survey that Publishers Weekly conducted in these hotspots shows, many stores well on their way to re-opening have already had to take a step (or two) back.
For instance, Scottsdale, AZ’s mystery mainstay The Poisoned Pen had only a short window of time spent re-opened. Lucky for them, the “your local bookstore, no matter where you live” ethos positioned them nicely to transition from in-store browsing, curbside pick up and shipping full time. And they were very quick on the pivot to video events.
Houston’s famed Brazo’s bookstore had about two weeks of allowing 5 customers in the store at a time before they had to retreat back to curbside service–though traffic (literally) remains high.
Meanwhile, online the children’s literature community is doing their part to keep this yo-yo from bouncing more than it has too, with a hashtag campaign raising awareness of the extreme effectiveness of masks in slowing the spread of Covid-19. There, authors are using #KidlitForMasks and #MasksSaveLives along with pictures of themselves, their books, or their illustrated characters wearing masks.
The sooner we mask up, the sooner we can browse. That’s the deal.
Bookstores out west re-open . . . and re-close was first posted on July 2, 2020 at 2:21 pm.
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