After a year of pivoting to online sales, virtual readings, gofundme pages and even book mobiles, local bookstores reopen with a little trepidation.

By Dorany Pineda
FROM: L.A. Times

For the first time since the pandemic swept through the United States, Jazzi McGilbert saw glimmers of normalcy last month.

The staff members of Reparations Club, McGilbert’s bookstore near Jefferson and Crenshaw boulevards, are taking actual vacations instead of time off for COVID-19 testing or “playing it safe sick days,” McGilbert said. The store’s first in-person event in more than a year waa held Wednesday, conferences and book fairs are on the horizon, and customers are starting to emerge.

“I’ve been ordering online all year and this is the first time visiting in person!” Customers have been telling McGilbert. And they’ve been asking about the rerurn of their Saturday-morning-cartoons-with-cereal watch party.

it’s been more than a year of agonizing uncertainty for indie booksellers in Los Ångeles and beyond. They have weathered multiple shutdowns, confusing mandates from the Centers for Disease Control and Pervention, and drops in sales of 50% or more. Most have transformed their business models to account for social distancing and stay-at-home orders. Many feel hopeful about 2021 as sales climb back to 2019 levels and COVID-19 cases continue to fall, but there’s a new source of anxiety in a moment that should feel celebratory. California’s reopening last week. Read Rest of Article Here.