Reading into the changes at of bookstores COVID-19 and convenience
Photo caption & credit Interior of Friends’ Community Bookstore. Photo by Haylee Huynh
BY HAYLEE HUYNH Staff Reporter
rooms, the front four dedicated to shelves full of books, CDs and records, while the back two Media outlets blew up with regards to are for inventory and general management. supporting small, local businesses during the It is positioned at the corner of a small plaza pandemic. But how did in Marina, those businesses navigate surrounded by the ‘new normal’ to be local restaurants accessible for customers and ethnic in the middle of a global markets. Racks You just don’t know what’s lockdown? and tables full Located 80 miles away around the corner, you’re of books are from Redwood City, placed on the gonna be surprised, you’re Friends’ Community outside of the Bookstore of Marina, gonna find something that store, inviting California first opened shop you end up loving that you customers into in November of 2017. Fully were meant to find somehow. the charming run by volunteer work, the shop. group first started doing T e r r i book sales in the front lobby Terri Wheeler, Friends’ Community W h e e l e r of the Marina Library; With Bookstore volunteer is a core book donations rapidly volunteer for increasing, the store moved the bookstore, from community rooms of h o n i n g the library to classroom portables from local her position as member of the bookstore schools, eventually leading to leasing their committee and co-manager of the physical permanent residence on 330 Reservation shop along with another volunteer, Gail Road. Youngblood. The store is comprised of a total of six Days before the county lockdown, Wheeler
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and the rest of the committee decided to close the store due to safety concerns, especially with the majority of the volunteers being older and at higher risk for COVID-19. During that time, the committee met through Zoom and came up with innovative ways to keep the store running, including personal book shopping. “We had two to three volunteers working on it, and eventually one volunteer,” Wheeler said. “But we set up an email that I’ve managed and, you know, reached out on facebook and things like that. And so people would email me and say, ‘I’m looking for this particular book, do you have it?’ or ‘I just, I want some biographies to read, I need something to read.’” However, this process was not meant for permanent residence; With their reopening on April 20, the community bookstore canceled the personal shopping. “That was to kind of get us through, to be able to sell some books, and get books into people’s hands during the pandemic when the store couldn’t safely be open.” Wheeler said. Convenience was another major influence on consumers during lockdown, which turned many people to online shopping platforms like Amazon and Instacart. Along with the personal shopping, Friends’ Community
