Housmans bookshop in Islington has been open since the end of the Second World War. Last month, the radical booksellers were celebrating being shortlisted for the Indie Bookshop of the Year Awards; this month, coronavirus threatens to shutter the store indefinitely.
“Everything is up in the air for us right now,” said Catherine Barter, co-manager of Housmans. “It’s obviously terrible for business and we’re likely to have to close – out of social responsibility, mainly. We don’t know how long for.”
Housmans aren’t alone in this – Chris Edwards, proprietor of the independent Skoob Books, seemed similarly uncertain about his business’s future.
“Heaven only knows how this is going to play out,” he said yesterday. “The shop staff are being magnificent in supporting customers and maintaining a safe environment.
“As we’re losing footfall, we’ve been devoting time to preparing more stock, ready for the rush that will happen someday.”
Whilst health concerns are a priority for the public, issues with supply chains are already proving problematic for booksellers.
As a result, Edwards said he is worried about managing online sales as much as in-store purchases. Skoob has an extensive online catalogue, which it sells from its Oxfordshire-based warehouse.
“Once planes started being cancelled, we immediately noticed a drop in sales around Europe and the USA. We’re giving full refunds to people whose books are in delivery warehouses somewhere, after we’ve paid for shipping.
“We’ve also refunded dozens of people who ordered their book to their workplace, but now they’re working from home so no longer need it.”
“It’s a bloody nightmare”, he added.
Local businesses across the country are finding innovative ways to manage the pandemic. The “largest socialist bookshop in Britain”, Bookmarks, is continuing its programme of events by live-streaming them on its website, whilst Category Is Books in Edinburgh is operating a ‘pay-forward’ scheme that allows customers to buy books for others.
Some independent arts enterprises have launched crowd-funding drives to sustain themselves whilst closed.
Catherine Barter, from Housmans, isn’t sure her bookshop will run a similar scheme.
“We’re not going to be asking for donations or anything like that, because we know many, many people are going to be financially struggling.
“The lack of clarity from the government has been really unhelpful, because it’s forced small business owners to make very difficult decisions for themselves.”
Yesterday, the government announced a financial package designed to help small businesses with outstanding payments. At the daily coronavirus press conference chancellor Rishi Sunak said that £330bn in loans would be available, alongside £20bn in other aid and a business rates holiday.
Barter isn’t sure this is enough, however: “We can only hope that there will be even more financial support available to shops that have to close for weeks, or even months, or many of them will not be opening again on the other side.”
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