BookPeople of Moscow is without the people, for now.
After a statewide shutdown of all non-essential businesses, the independent bookstore on Moscow’s Main Street can’t let anyone in to browse the crowded bookshelves or host any poetry readings or book signings. But owner Carol Price is staying busy providing much-needed distraction material to Palouse residents trapped in their homes.
“Everything is completely different, of course,” Price said. “I’m spending a lot more time at the post office now.”
The doors of BookPeople might be closed, but Price is keeping the store well-stocked. Mail orders continuously flow through the store’s online marketplace with the option of curbside pickup. Price and her staff will even deliver books straight to people’s doors, free of charge by car, bike or on foot. And the store’s daily supply of the New York Times is still available through an honor-system drop box outside the door.
At the beginning of the shutdown, the store’s employees were all laid off temporarily so they could seek unemployment benefits, Price said. So she was all alone in the store, with occasional help from her boyfriend.
“It’s kind of interesting being alone in a closed store, but it’s not very fun in the way it usually is to be here,” Price said.
Sales have taken a hit with the lack of in-store browsers, but online sales and curbside orders have picked up rapidly. Recently, Price was able to bring back three employees—about two-thirds of her staff pre-pandemic.
Price and her staff are now taking advantage of the empty shop to rearrange shelves and do some deep spring cleaning. She said it takes a lot more work to ship out and hand-deliver orders than it does when people just walk out of the store with their books so the employees have stayed very busy.
“Things have gotten into more of a rhythm at this point,” Price said. “It’s nice to have one or two employees in here with me working, we turn on music and chat about books, and it’s not so gloomy.”
However, she misses the usual liveliness of customers flowing in and out throughout the workday. Moscow’s downtown, typically lively with students strolling the street outside Price’s store, is practically deserted.
“I’m hopeful people will realize after this the benefit of having a cool community so full of places to go to,” Price said. “I think people are getting a taste of what it’s like to live in an online-only world, and they’re not loving it — I definitely don’t.”
Price said she’s seen customers’ tastes in reading material reflect the current situation, both positively and negatively. Most customers carry on reading as usual, but maybe in greater volume with all the newfound time on their hands, Price said. Some request light, fun reads to escape the stress of reality and pick up their moods. Others have fully embraced the darkness of the outside world.
“We have seen some requests for apocalypse, end-of-world, pandemic-type reads,” Price said. “Stephen King has seen an uptick. There’s been lots of requests for the Camus classic “The Plague.””
“Station Eleven” by Emily St. John Mandel, which depicts a world devastated by a particularly deadly swine flu, has also gained in popularity. But readers are also beginning to idealize future escapes with travel guides, as well as gardening books and home improvement manuals to relieve boredom productively, Price said.
With self-isolation now hitting the one-month mark for many people, Price said an essay collection titled “The Art of Doing Nothing” by Veronique Vienne has seen a somewhat predictable uptick in requests.
Despite the relative loneliness, Price’s shelves are anything but empty. Price said Book People is “feeling the love” from local supporters, with regular customers making efforts to order books online. New customers are trickling in too, some from as far away as Texas.
With the sudden lack of in-person customers, Price is focusing her time on replicating the book-browsing experience from afar. Customers will miss the feeling of wandering the aisles, looking for a book they don’t know they want to read yet, Price said. She’s working on redesigning Book People’s website to provide that meandering experience virtually.
People all around the country want to support independent bookstores during this time, Price said. She’s hopeful that a whole new customer base can develop during BookPeople’s temporary shuttering, making the comeback stronger than ever when it finally comes—though Price said she doesn’t expect that to be any sooner than April 30.
Price is confident BookPeople will make it through, and she said customers can expect a deep-cleaned and reorganized store when it reopens. The shelves might be a little less packed, due to the focus on ordering books as determined by the online demand, but there will be no shortage, Price said.
“I’m very confident in our community support,” Price said. “If I was in trouble, I know help will be there.”
This article has been updated to reflect that BookPeople has been able to hire some employees back again.
Riley Haun can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @RHaunID.