As part of a three-phase reopening plan implemented by Montana governor Steve Bullock, independent bookstores throughout the state can decide whether or not to reopen after being closed for five weeks.
Shawn Wathen and Mara Luther, owners of Chapter One Book Store in Hamilton, Mont., decided to reopen their store on Monday. Prior to reopening, they prepped the store with a thorough cleaning and disinfection, placed tape on the floors to illustrate staying six feet apart, and marked Xs on the floor by the cash wrap to show customers where to stand.
Wathen and Luther aren't requiring customers to wear face masks in store, but they have signs posted suggesting customers to do so, and are allowing no more than 10 people in the store at a time. The store has a used book exchange program, which they're limiting for the time being, and they're putting all newly acquired used books into "quarantine." Beyond that, they're disinfecting "all the time." And despite reopening, Wathen and Luther are still offering curbside pickup and local deliveries via bicycle.
"We're trying to make people aware that it's not over, and it's not going to be over for a long time," explained Wathen. "But we're trying to get people in the mindset that they can come in and feel safe."
When Chapter One reopened on Monday, Wathen and Luther were pleasantly surprised by the turnout. Hamilton is usually a ghost town from January through May, but there was a decent amount of people who were keeping tabs on their local bookstore and wanted to be there when it reopened. Several of the customers who showed up on Monday had actually been some of the final in-store customers in late March.
"That felt like a wake at the time," remarked Wathen. "When you close your doors, you're never certain you'll reopen. [Monday] was more celebratory but pretty much everyone had masks on. They were thrilled we survived those five weeks."
On the subject of events, Wathen said they are taking May off at the very least, and will make a decision in the summer based on how things stand in the state. Wathen added that "this is going to go up and down," and he and Luther are not holding their breath that the store won't be ordered to close again.
Ariana Paliobagis, owner of Country Bookshelf in Bozeman, Mont., has decided to not reopen her doors to customers, although she is once again doing contactless pickup. Paliobagis explained that after discussions with her staff members, conversations with other local business owners, a virtual meeting with the county health department and business owners, along with her own research, she felt that it was still too soon to reopen fully. While Montana has been one of the least hard-hit states so far, she continued, "all of our combined actions and choices are required to keep it that way."
Paliobagis added that whenever she does decide to reopen fully, she and her team will have to do a lot of work to reconfigure the store. When Country Bookshelf closed to the public, she set up order fulfillment stations that are literally in the middle of the sales floor. Much of the store will have to be rearranged to accomodate not only those fulfillment stations but also socially distant browsing. She's working on getting clear acrylic barriers for the store's cashwrap, and thinking of other ways they can set up displays for safer browsing. There will be hand sanitizer stations, along with new signage regarding things like wearing face coverings, touching fewer items while browsing, maintaining distance while browsing.
A likely next step, Paliobagis said, would be shopping by appointment, and when the store is open for browsing it will be for limited hours, in order to give her staff more time not only to clean and sanitize but also work on web orders. For the immediate future, though, she and her staff "really want our customers to stay home as much as possible."
The new contactless pickup that she and her team are doing is not curbside pickup but front door pick-up. Customers have to schedule their pick-up ahead of time, generally 12-4 p.m., Monday through Friday, using a service called Schedulicity. While the service was designed for businesses like hair salons and yoga studios, Paliobagis noted, it's worked very well for this.
Once a customer schedules a pickup, the orders are placed on a table that is literally blocking the open front door. Most of the store's lights are being kept off so the place doesn't look too inviting, but there is always a staffer nearby to say "thank you" as customers grab their orders. So far, Paliobagis reported, it has been going very well. The appointment system allows her and her team to plan their day more, rather than react to lots of last-minute phone calls, while making it easier to operate with fewer staff in store.