For L.A. bookstores during COVID-19, this holiday season is make or break

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From the Los Angeles Times:

Two days after Thanksgiving, on what is sometimes known as Small Business Saturday, Jennifer Gracie plopped a stack of hardcovers onto the checkout desk of Chevalier’s Books, a charming shop in Larchmont Village. The haul for Gracie, a 54-year-old transplant from New York, included an Italian cookbook for her husband; a crime novel for her mother; guidebooks for her daughter and friends; and a David Bowie puzzle for her sister-in-law.

It could have been any other holiday shopping season, except for the masks, the plexiglass barrier separating Gracie from the salesclerk and the sign at the window that read, in part, “Max Occupancy 6 Customers.” There was, too, the sense of urgency and mission, among both store employees and customers lined up outside.

“Even if I see something that I know is easily available through overnight shipping through that behemoth we all know about, I have to buy it at a real bookstore,” said Gracie, referring to the dominance of Amazon. She chose to shop in person despite the pandemic, and also because of it. “It just makes me so sad when I see all the bookstores shuttered around the country, and it’ll be tragic if we keep losing them.”

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This time of year accounts for 20% or more of annual small-business sales, enough to get retailers out of the red — beginning of course with Black Friday. But this year, especially for bookstores, it’s not a question of balancing the books but mitigating the damage of a lost year. The Saturday after Thanksgiving, visits to three bookstores revealed devoted customers like Gracie braving the surge in advance of the latest lockdown. For local booksellers it was a day of promise but also renewed worry.

Despite the heartening lines, owners had to wonder whether it would be enough. With federal financial support depleted, further stimulus funding up in the air as of this writing, foot traffic still relatively low, popular events canceled and a record-breaking spike of cases, it’s going to be a close call for almost everyone.

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In the wake of the first lockdown, sales plummeted as much as 80% for local bookstores before improving steadily in recent months, though still significantly below that of previous years.

“The holiday shopping season is the make-it-or-break-it season for indie bookstores,” wrote ABA senior strategy officer Dan Cullen in an email. “Not only will their regular customers be shopping with them but this is when they see many first-time shoppers, who then can become new regular customers in the weeks and months ahead.”

Ultimately this is what success might hinge on — not only the goodwill of existing customers but an influx of new ones and, once the virus abates, the return of habitual in-store shopping. Because one of the biggest lessons learned for bookstores in 2020 is that online orders and loyal customers help, but not enough to ensure their long-term survival.

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“As a Black-owned business, you don’t have the luxury of just being a business, you have to be part of the community,” said Kokayi, 41, a regular customer who declined to give his last name. “You have to fight for Black businesses.”

. . . .

But the surge of web shopping “doesn’t make up for lost in-store sales,” said Cullen of the ABA. “This is definitely one of the most challenging holiday seasons that local businesses of all kinds have ever experienced.”

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Despite the dismal winter, booksellers said the spirit of giving is stronger than ever. One Diesel customer bought 200 copies of a children’s book as gifts, declining a volume discount. “We’re thinking of this as an idea, as a gift, so that we can sustain you,” Evans recalled the customer saying. He added, “A lot of people are extremely thoughtful right now, in a very civil way, about the things that they care about.”

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Diesel’s Evans put it simply at the end of an email: “Wish us luck.”

Link to the rest at the Los Angeles Times