Resurgence of bookstores a result of a pandemic plot twist
SAN FRANCISCO -- For decades, local bookstores seemed to be vanishing from our national landscape. But in the last couple of years, there's been a plot twist in America's love story with books.
When Kevin Ryan got a part-time job at Green Apple Books, an iconic neighborhood bookstore in San Francisco, he thought it would be a temporary gig. That turned out to be only the first chapter in a surprising life-long adventure.
"It's the kind of job where when I go away on vacation for a couple of weeks, I actually start to look forward to coming back to work," he said.
After working his way up to management in 1997, he decided to turn the page and bought the place.
"I just love the part of it where I'm putting books in people's hands and shelving books and talking to people about books, it's a really fine way to make a living," he said.
Over the years, he held his own against online retailers like Amazon and even outlasted giants like Borders books. But then, the pandemic hit, and Ryan's income dried up overnight.
He was able to hang on thanks to a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan and online sales. But like most local bookstores around the country, his revenues dropped 30% in 2020, leaving many wondering whether bookstores were headed for extinction.
Instead, something else happened. Customers started coming back in droves.
"One of the things the pandemic did to people is it made them value their local neighborhoods," Ryan said. "People understood that if they wanted businesses to survive they had to support them."
Shelley Harrison, one of Ryan's regulars, told KPIX there's just no substitute for in-person shopping.
"We love coming to these bookstores and talking to the people who are knowledgeable," Harrison said. "We feel good and it's a place to go and hang out."
The American Booksellers Association told KPIX that 70% of neighborhood bookstores had sales that exceeded pre-Covid levels this year. Not only that, more than 450 new stores have opened since January 2020, four of them in San Francisco.
That's good news for Ryan, who hopes his story has a happy ending, one that doesn't include Chapter 11.
"People just want to be out in the world, especially after being locked up for a couple of years," he said.
