Shakespeare and Company bookstore calls out for orders, too

Same story, different day: a beloved bookstore is crying out for help as the coronavirus pandemic slashes its sales.

This time, it’s Shakespeare and Company in Paris, but like the Strand in Manhattan, it’s reporting astronomical drops — an almost 80 percent sales loss since March.

The forecast doesn’t look better, reports the Guardian; Paris has already been under a curfew, and France is preparing for a four-week complete lockdown that begins at midnight Thursday.

The country's publishers’ association, booksellers’ association, and authors’ group have issued a joint statement asking for bookshops to remain open alongside supermarkets and pharmacies, arguing that they too are essential businesses.

Ahead of that, though, Shakespeare and Company emailed customers to share its struggles and add that it would be “especially grateful for new website orders from those of you with the means and interest to do so.”

Sylvia Whitman, whose father opened the modern incarnation of the bookstore, told the Guardian on Wednesday that customers are eagerly responding with offers of help and orders.

You can read more about Shakespeare and Company’s past and present in the Guardian.

Related posts 

• Cry for help results in a record weekend for the Strand bookstore

• Shakespeare and Company is digitizing its lending-library records