BOOK BINDING

The Resilience of St. Louis' Independent Bookstores

Written by Rob Levy

The COVID-19 crisis has made things tough for the already hardscrabble life of locally owned businesses. This is especially true for independent bookstores like The Book House, Left Bank Books, Main Street Books, The Novel Neighbor, and Subterranean Books, each of whose tenacity and resourcefulness are helping St. Louisans get their read on.

When the lockdown hit, these stores quickly turned the page on old business models and utilized new technologies to engage customers in a world without foot traffic. Now, as businesses continue to reopen with restrictions, these devotees of the written word are again writing their own chapters as they seek new ways to interface with consumers.

After reopening to foot traffic in May, Main Street Books in St. Charles is still getting its legs back as it adapts to an evolving retail landscape. Co-owner Emily Hall Schroen described how the pandemic affected her business. “Bookselling is a very hands-on craft and when you remove the in-person element of getting the right book into the patron’s hand it then becomes very impersonal. That is not how bookselling was meant to exist. It is harder for us to sell our favorites or promote that independent bookstore experience.”

Commenting on the challenges bookstores like hers are facing, Schroen cited how supply chain issues, diminished revenue from author events, the lack of school visits, and reopening with limited capacity have hurt the bottom line. “It is really difficult to operate a business when every single thing about your industry is constantly changing. However, I think all of us have been very smart and very clever. We are all operating in a completely different way and trying new things. We’ve had to invent a new business model from scratch.”

A fixture in the Central West End since 1969, Left Bank has faced the pandemic with activism and determination. As part of their commitment to community involvement and social justice, they recently became the nation’s first independent bookstore to implement an e-commerce system that accepts preferred names rather than official legal names, a move aimed at helping transgender patrons checkout with their post-transition identity.

While their doors just recently reopened to foot traffic, Left Bank Books remains passionately engaged with their supporters virtually via author events, social media posts, a ramped-up store newsletter, and a recently launched YouTube channel.

Co-owner Jarek Steele addressed how the pandemic changed store operations. “We’ve had to reimagine what a bookstore is several times over and also reevaluate our business model. Although this has been a very stressful time, it has forced us to really look at what was working and not do things because that is the way we’ve always done them. We had to come up with a different way and that was kind of cool.”

Steele also touched on the types of books that have become popular during the pandemic. “Fiction always outsells everything, but I think in this particular moment people are buying books about racial injustice and politics that they normally wouldn’t because they are waking up to something they didn’t necessarily know. They are educating themselves which is a beautiful and wonderful thing.”

He also shared his thoughts on how the store was prepared for the economic fallout from the pandemic. “I think we are uniquely positioned because we operate with not very much money all the time and we’ve become really good at doing a lot with not very much. We also have a long view because we’ve been here for 51 years and have gone through a lot. I think that positions us pretty well. We were doing a dress rehearsal for this for a long time without realizing it.”

Despite successfully pivoting to new methodologies, things got dicey after an employee tested positive for COVID-19. While it was a scary moment for the store, which immediately shut down and had its staff tested, it also was one that exemplified the solidarity amongst local independent bookstores. Hearing of Left Bank’s misfortune of not being able to host Independent Bookstore Day, Holland Saltsman of The Novel Neighbor volunteered to sell their books in her store that day to help Left Bank when they were in a bind. Steele commented, “It was really touching and really spoke to the different ways that bookstores in St. Louis are working together. The notion that the better one of us does help makes it better for all of us is really true.”

As the virus splintered existing business practices, The Novel Neighbor (nestled in the heart of Webster Groves) initially experienced a rough ride as the lockdown forced owner Holland Saltsman to lay off staff and shift to curbside pickup. After grinding it out during the first weeks of the COVID-19 crisis her store expanded in-store services between June and August and eventually returned to normal business hours within the last month. Saltsman admits that the road back has been difficult. “While our book sales are pretty steady, not having events has hurt us the most. We are still trying to figure out and recoup all of the stuff that made us the Novel Neighbor and find new revenue streams to make up the difference.”

Joining other independent bookstore store owners that pivoted to new ways of doing things, the Novel Neighbor found itself working to improve their website. “When we closed we were fortunate that we had an online bookselling platform. It was clunky but people could order books. Looking at our website, we quickly realized that it was very event focused on things like book-themed birthday parties, summer camps, and in-store classes. So now, having lost all of our income from that programming, we decided to overhaul the site. It was one of the first things that we did.”

They also changed things up by presenting virtual events, introducing a subscription service, and creating “Mystery Boxes” whereby customers spending a set amount of money receive a box of books and other goodies. “That has been a game-changer for us,” said Saltsman. “The feedback we get from people receiving them has been terrific. We also have gotten into personalized shopping over the phone and using the FaceTime app which has also helped develop new revenue streams.”

With change happening so rapidly, local store owners have stuck together, maintaining regular contact to share experiences, brainstorm, collaborate, and share their passion for books. As Saltsman notes, the solidarity between these independent business owners has helped them weather the pandemic. “We touch base with each other regularly and I think we are lucky in that we all have a strong community following. Everyone is very concerned about all of us staying, which is a great position to be in.”

Looking ahead, each of these owners views the coming months to be crucial to their survival. As Schroen points out, the fourth quarter of 2020 is vital for the success of small businesses, especially independently owned bookshops. “Small businesses are in danger and there is no way to sugarcoat that. The really important thing is that people need to internalize that if they do not support their local businesses and instead go for the ease of purchase from an online retailer or chain, the businesses they love will not survive.”