As part of my reporting on the effects of COVID-19 on small businesses in Athens, I visited Avid Bookshop at Five Points. Avid Bookshop is a rare example of a retail business in Athens that has yet to reopen its doors to foot traffic.
Lindsay Brannen, the director of community outreach for the Athens Area Chamber of Commerce, said that the local bookseller and other storefronts that have yet to reopen are the ones that worry her and her organization the most. In Avid Bookshop’s case, she projected that its lack of in-store events at the time being is cause for concern about the business’ well-being.
For a small business that just downsized at the end of 2019 by closing its Prince Avenue location, the pandemic is just one more obstacle. Small bookstores like Avid Bookshop have struggled in the face of competition from larger sellers, and the business model is itself being challenged.
For Avid Bookshop, putting on in-person events for children and hosting authors are its main differentiation for customers. “Those are things that a bookstore, an indie bookstore, would have to be doing these days to compete with Amazon and any other big-box,” Brannen said. For the time being, Avid Bookshop is fulfilling online orders via curbside pickup, and it is unclear as to what the rest of 2020 holds.
