A new generation of indie bookstores – and readers – emerges post-pandemic

When the lockdown shut us all in, some took to books – to pass the time, escape from omnipresent screens or take a breather from reality. The years that followed have seen that reading renaissance blossom into a nationwide boom in indie bookstores.

“It was always this pipe dream – one day,” said Mayde Pokory, who opened Well Worn Books in Middletown, NY with her husband in September 2021. “The pieces for us started to kind of fall into place: we found a spot, we had some books, and it was kind of like a now or never.”

Since January 2020, 355 new independent bookstores have opened nationwide, said Allison Hill, CEO of the American Booksellers Association, a nonprofit trade group that has seen a 20 percent increase in membership. Another 294 stores are in the pipeline to open in the next one to two years, she said.

“I grew up reading at the dinner table,” said Pokory, 35, whose family includes three generations of English teachers: her grandmother, dad and sister. “I was a kid just before the internet really took over our lives. To me, this is what I did when I was a kid, I sat around and read books.” Always a bookworm, she started reading more during lockdown. “I got very frustrated by the lack of a bookstore in the area, you know? There wasn’t one, without having to go all the way up to Newburgh or Montgomery, which for me is a little far, you know? And libraries are great. But during the pandemic they were shut down a little bit, or their hours were a little funny,” she said. “So it was like: well, we need a bookstore. We’ve always wanted to open a bookstore.”

The 250-square-foot selling space in a 100-year-old building is “teeny teeny tiny,” said Pokory, “but I think that just adds to the coziness.” Since Pokory is “a one-man show,” the size makes sense, and an upside is that the inventory flips quickly and stays fresh. The 250-square-foot selling space is stocked with 2,500 titles, mostly donated, gently used books with one section of new releases. The register desk is sourced from Newburgh Vintage Emporium. “We just kind of bootstrapped the whole thing from the ground up, which was also part of the reason we wanted to start small, because this is how we could do it without knowing whether or not it would be successful. Trying to work smart, not getting ourselves into too much debt.”

Pokory holds an MBA from Mt. St. Mary College, has worked in marketing at her alma mater and helped her husband run his tattoo parlor in Middletown. “So we’ve done the small business thing before,” she said. “This wasn’t our first rodeo.”

Day-to-day sales are unpredictable, with two people coming in some days and 20 on others, following no discernible pattern, said Pokory. But overall, so far, so good. “We’ve been busy – this summer especially was really busy, more than we expected,” she said. “We’ve been hosting a lot of author events, we have a book club that meets once a month here in the store.”

Her decision to stock 90% used books means she has to move more inventory, but expands her client base. “Not everybody can afford or wants to afford a new $30 hardcover. That’s very expensive to some people. So I think being able to find maybe last year’s titles for a quarter of the price is a little bit more palatable and affordable. That’s what we’re trying to bring to people.”

Established bookstores that made it through the lockdown have enjoyed a good few years, too. “Bookstores did have a nice boost during the pandemic,” said Catherine Cassidy, who after retiring as a nurse opened Black Dog Books in 2016, now located in Lafayette, NJ. “Because they were local, there was a large push to support businesses locally so that they would survive. But also because I think people really had time to open books,” she said. “Each independent bookstore has its own personality,” said Cassidy, “and I think that’s what draws people.”

Reading is cool again

“I get the sense that reading is becoming – it sounds silly – popular and cool again,” said Brittani O’Hearn, 30, who opened Blue Fox Books in Walden, NY in February 2021. To her surprise, many of her regulars are teenagers. “Obviously there’s always been bookish teenagers, but it’s actually a cool and trendy thing to be reading now, and to talk about how you’re reading. So I have like a lot of young people come in here. They take photos of their book hauls, and they’re looking for really specific things, to put up on their like Bookstagram pages,” she said.

“You just have to kind of stay on top of those things because a lot of it’s genres I’m not as familiar with,” like graphic novels and rom-coms. “So I’m trying to keep up with that, especially around this time of year.”

O’Hearn, 30, has worked in bookstores and libraries since she was 16. “Everyone always says: this must be your dream, having your own bookstore, and I’m like yeah, it is.”

That dream fell into O’Hearn’s lap last year. The owners of Broad Leaf Books in Pine Bush, NY, bequeathed to her their second, newly opened location, which was proving to be too much. “So they literally gave me the store. Because that’s just them, they’re amazing. The existing inventory, the fixtures, the garbage cans! The cash box! Everything, really, that you could need to kind of just get started.”

It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, she knew, though it was a bleak moment for retail: February during Covid. “So even though I was just not prepared for it – our family, financially, was like we can’t afford to carry the store if it can’t carry itself – we just had to go in running,” said O’Hearn.

Her family supported her in myriad ways. Her 95-year-old grandmother came in to buy audio books or a mug during slow times. Her dad peeled old stickers off of shelves full of books. And her partner, a contractor, has been taking two jobs at a time to make ends meet and doing odd jobs around the store like caulking up the windows for the winter.

That’s among the less-dreamy aspects of owning a bookstore, laughed O’Hearn. “It’s winter, and there’s freezing cold air coming through your really, really old windows in your really, really old building that everyone likes – but it’s freezing in here.” What to say to customers who complain about being cold: I’m so sorry? Wear layers?

“Maybe I should have slippers here,” she mused.

The kids’ section has emerged as one of the store’s strongest. “It has the most turnover, because I put a lot of work and time and love into the kids’ section,” said O’Hearn, whose son, 5, is a regular presence at the store. “I know what we like, I know what our friends like and what I think kids should be reading. So it’s just a lot of stuff that we love and we put out in the space,” she said.

So far, O’Hearn has managed to keep the lights on, and now she’s going into her best season. But it’s impossible to know what “normal” will look like – after Covid, now that construction along Main Street has finally finished.

“Some days I’m like, how can we go on like this? We can’t! I can’t do this!,” she said. “And then other days I’m like ah, this is amazing. We had such a great day or such a great event, or such a great weekend.”

A ‘mobile book experience’

“I always like to read a book a week, but during quarantine, I was inhaling books,” said Veronica Siehin, 22, of Monroe, of her entrée into bookselling. “And I was just thinking: I feel like other people are doing this too. They have to be. I had just had my son and it just hit me: books are so important and I want to do this. This has always been my dream. Why not do it now?”

As her husband and co-owner put it: “A lot of people like to read now, because TV just gets old after awhile,” said A.J. Siehin (pronounced, he offered, like “seein’ is believing.’”)

Along with A.J.’s mother, the pair opened the Dusty Bookshelf in 2021 in a shared vendor space in Monroe, the Lake Street Marketplace, operating for half a year and proving the concept. “We were meeting our dailies, I think it was $100 a day,” said Veronica. “The best part about having a bookstore is you get to talk about books all the time. Sometimes people walk in and they don’t even know what they want, they just like books. And I get to word-vomit about all the books that I love that we have.”

Now, expecting their second child, the couple has transitioned to doing pop-up shops – setting up tables of books at fairs and markets, like the Newburgh Mall Holiday Market on Saturdays. Along with three bins of new books, they brought their signature child-sized nest chair to the first holiday market on Nov. 19, so their youngest patrons “can cozy up,” said Veronica. The Siehins are looking around for a brick and mortar store into which to expand, and in the meantime, A.J. is working at the Lululemon store at Woodbury Commons.

A.J. refers to their current operation as a “mobile book experience.” “We just kind of thought, we’re doing so well in these markets, they’re more flexible, and it’s kind of fun reaching out to the community, like going to them versus having them come to us,” said Veronica, who is of Guatemalan and Puerto Rican descent and grew up on the Lower East Side. “I strongly believe that reading is activism. I’ve always had the dream to open a bookstore and just make that accessible for everybody,” she said. “As many different narratives as I can provide, that’s what I really wanted to do.”