Hudson Valley Bookstores Begin the Next Chapter
Of all the things that the pandemic has forced us to ask ourselves, there’s one question you’ll most often hear: “How can I help?”
For independent booksellers across the Hudson Valley, it’s been customers coming to them with this inquiry that has pushed them through the past year and a half.
“Honestly, I don’t think there was genuinely any real concept of what closure was going to mean, how long it was going to go for, and what the repercussions were going to be in terms of reorganizing basic store function,” says Katherine Spelling, owner of Barner Books in New Paltz.
COVID-19 forced small businesses across the nation to adapt in unimaginable ways. For booksellers, that meant a variety of things. The act of physically walking around and scouring the shelves makes up such a large portion of the bookstore experience. When this wasn’t an option, booksellers had to get creative: revamping websites, processing online orders, setting up curbside pickup, doing local deliveries, and perhaps one of the most important aspects, social media.
For a lot of these bookstores, being active on social media is what allowed their customers to see what was new. When it wasn’t possible for shoppers to walk around and view their options themselves, many booksellers did what they could to recreate this experience virtually.
“Everyone loves likes and everything, but it became a pretty important job to be active in peoples’ feeds every day,” says Abby Chance, manager at Barner Books of New Paltz.
Nicole Brinkley, manager of Oblong Books in Rhinebeck, began posting “weekly update” videos on the store’s Instagram account. These videos showcased what was new on shelves, staff picks, and events to look forward to. What the social media accounts of these bookstores didn’t show was the hours spent filling orders and getting books back to their community.
Nicole, like many other booksellers, spent most of her days tucked away in her Rhinebeck shop for hours on end processing web orders. However, the hours of time put in were an explicit display of the way her community was not only supporting local bookstores, but turning to books and literature during a time of crisis.
“It was exhausting, but also really fulfilling,” says Nicole.
When summer came and stores began opening up, there was a feeling that could only be described as a combination of eagerness and apprehension.
Jay Aspinall, who runs Inquiring Minds Bookstore in New Paltz, said she felt surprised at how quickly things started to feel normal again, despite some of the difficulty she’s had communicating with masks due to a hearing impairment.
“We put up a poster that shows the ABC’s in sign language and it’s amazing how many people stand in front of it while they’re being rung up and practice the ABC’s,” she explains. For Jay, being a part of the New Paltz community is something she feels extremely grateful for.
Although the future is uncertain, the nature of this pandemic has forced people to take things day by day.
“I think that’s the thing that we realized from the beginning to where we are now,” says Katherine Spelling of Barner Books, “there was never, ever going to be a beginning, middle, and end that was gonna be short and obvious.”
