As we expected, we’re feeling antsy about re-opening. Two months and counting, and it already seems like forever.
So, it’s only natural…and actually very gratifying…to hear from customers they, too, are feeling the same way.
We’re finally allowed to have curbside pickup, but only for pre-arranged orders. By law, that’s still the best we can do for now.
The only hard fact we have about re-opening is it can’t happen before June 8, 2020. Everything after that is still too vague to allow us to pin a date to our door, our web site, or to use in response on the phone. The Massachusetts web site showing the details is here: When Can My Business Reopen?
As we’ve said previously, the best we can do is to plan for what will be allowed next. In this case, we’re taking names and contact info so we can get in touch if the next step is private appointments. It’s hinted that’s what’s coming for “non-essential” stores like ours. But, when Thomas Jefferson said “I cannot live without books,” he’s given us a little solace with the notion that, eventually, books are as essential and as American as anything in our culture, and our time and our re-opening will come.
In planning for what’s next, we’re still receiving all the new book releases, more than ever before, ramping up for what we planned would be an epic Summer season for readers. We’re also working on web-based author events. We’ll sponsor these so you can stay at home and still enjoy an opportunity to see some great authors…some are local, but we’re trying to make these events world-wide, too! We’re still running monthly specials, still discount EVERY new book from cover price, still have some pricing well below the deepest of wholesale club deep discounts, still have a growing and deepening selection of new releases, and we’re still Worcester’s neighborhood full-service bookstore.
When we re-open, you’ll see we’ve updated our sale carts, prepared for your Summer reading, enhanced our History section to a full bookcase near the front of the store, added to our Westerns section, gotten many other things ready for you, and you’ll be able to take a closer look at our familiar store and explore it all over again. We will still do mail order, just like we’re doing now. And special orders. And we expect to continue curbside pickup until more is allowed.
But, for now, we’re all trying to find another ounce of patience, hoping you’ll be with us through the current situation, and with us in person when we’re finally allowed to welcome you back in! We certainly understand those of you struggling to wait. When the law and the situation tell us it’s prudent, we’ll be eager to re-open our doors!
Annie's Book Stop of Worcester 