4 minute read
Bookstores tell their own tales
New tech, old friends boost bookstores
Net brought new clients; regulars kept on coming
by Michael Gannon
Chronicle Editor
Bookstores were made for browsing; but even when a pandemic made that impossible, ingenuity and technology kept readers occupied, and bookstores in business.
Kew & Willow Books, on Lefferts Boulevard in Kew Gardens, last week already had begun welcoming people back inside; its twolevel display area having tables and racks to augment the shelves on the walls. It could be a large, inviting living room where owners Vina Castillo and Holly Nikodem could welcome Agatha Christie, William Shakespeare, Dr. Seuss and Alice Walker and all could feel at home — there also seems to be a bit of the magic from the world of Harry Potter, if you’re attuned to look for it.
One woman was purchasing a gift card; a father kept pace as a young girl made a beeline to the children’s section.
“I think with a small business you always worry a little,” Nikodem said, when asked about deciding how to handle Covid-19. Both women said they were able to adjust on the fly while putting together long-term plans.
“Our online orders picked up immediately,” Castillo said. “And we offered $1 shipping.”
Nikodem said once people were banned from the store, they adjusted, offering curbside delivery service for online or telephone orders out front.
“We also offered delivery in Queens,” she said. “Once we had to keep people out this functioned as a warehouse.”
And while they soon began taking orders from across the country, and winning over legions of new customers, they are convinced that it was old friends who made the difference.
“I think we survived because our regular customers wanted us to,” Nikodem said.
Grouped in a corridor of small businesses on Lefferts Boulevard, they saw a lot of their neighbors, such as a small restaurant and other shops, struggle. “Then the 7-Eleven closed — not overnight; closed down for a while,” Nikodem said. “That was strange.”
The 7-Eleven reopened. But Nikodem and Castillo said the first sign that things were going to be all right was a call they received from Alex Segura, a mystery author who has participated in some of their inperson events bringing customers together with local authors.
“He asked if we could do an event virtually,” Castillo said.
They did, and it worked, initiating an ongoing series of virtual events.
“I think that was the first sign,” she said.
People can come in to browse, though appointments are requested. The wall of shelves at the checkout desk is filled with orders awaiting pickup by area bibliophiles.
A few changes, they said may be permanent, such as their layout. More tables are in the ground-level main browsing area, as the elevated section to the rear of the store was closed off once state regulations allowed people back inside.
The children’s section is there now.
“This is the first day we’re opening this area back up, “Castillo said last Thursday.
Information on appointments, specials, bestsellers and upcoming events can be found on their website, kewandwillow.com. They also are on Facebook and Instagram.
Ray Harley, owner of the Austin Book Shop on Jamaica Avenue in Richmond Hill, said he has been online for years; and that it was a necessity even before Covid-19.
“Today, you have to be on the internet,” said Harley. “You have to be on book exchanges like Alibris, Barnes & Noble; you have no choice.”
He is on Facebook at facebook. com/austinbookshop.
But as much as he has done business online, he’s glad to have people coming back in person.
A visitor is greeted by mobile bookcases out front, ones that require time, care and an eye for detail if one is to look them over to see what might be of interest — be it something a reader is looking for, something unexpected or an older, forgotten hardcover or paperback that was an old friend.
Inside, the floor-to-ceiling shelves are as organized and precise as any library — albeit with boxes of books waiting to be sorted through or shipped out to customers. A brief glance around one portion of the store shows Winston Churchill’s sixvolume “History of the Second World War” about equidistant from women’s studies around one corner and a biography of former New York Yankees catcher Thurman Munson around another.
“We have our biography catalogue, American history catalog. And we’re probably best known for our baseball catalogue,” he said.
He said he also is expanding other catalogues in subject areas such as the arts.
When Covid struck, Harley had the advantage of owning his building.
“I have a great relationship with the landlord. He’s a terrific guy,” he said.
His online business expanded greatly, with many new customers, he believes, soon on their way to becoming regulars.
Harley’s neighbors on the commercial corridor are at least holding out, he says.
“The barbershop next door is doing very well,” he said. “So is the barbershop around the corner that I use. Everyone who was here before Covid is still here.”
The relaxed regulations now allow Harley to welcome walk-ins rather than having to schedule appointments. But he said he still is considering cutting his in-person hours from Thursday through Sunday to just weekends.
And he offers one slight correction when asked if his baseball catalogue covers everyone from players David Aardsma to Paul Zuvella.
“I prefer to say Aaron to Zink,” Harley said. “We go by authors here.” Q
Vina Castillo, rear, and Holly Nikodem mixed costumer service with improvisation to shepherd their Kew & Willow Books through the Covid-19 crisis. PHOTOS BY MICHAEL GANNON
