Posted on October 27, 2020 at 2:03 PM by Sadye Scott-Hainchek
Nancy Bass Wyden had hoped September would bring a fresh start on 2020 for her business, the iconic Strand bookstore in downtown Manhattan.
That wasn’t how reality played out, though, and Wyden found herself in the position of countless other businesses this year: issuing an SOS.
“Our revenue has dropped nearly 70% compared to last year, and the loans and cash reserves that have kept us afloat these past months are depleted,” she tweeted last Friday, urging book lovers to place an order to ensure the store’s survival.
The New York Times reports that her call was heeded: on Saturday alone, a single-day record of 10,000 online orders crashed the Strand’s website, and the forty-eight hours following the tweet yielded 25,000 online orders (compared with a normal total of about 600).
That said, though, many of the people who played a role in this epic weekend — shoppers and employees alike — have expressed some complicated feelings about the drive to save the Strand, thanks to some of Wyden’s previous actions.
You can read more about the Strand and its 2020 struggles in the New York Times (or, if the paywall thwarts you, in the Guardian).
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Categories: Today in Books