Strand Bookstore in NYC Warns Customers That It May Close Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic

Strand bookstore, a 93-year-old book shop in New York City, warns its customers that it may close due to the coronavirus pandemic.

According to Fox Business, the book shop is one of the 48 original stores still standing on NYC’s Book Row on 4th Avenue and “has survived the Great Depression, two World Wars, the rise of e-books, and online and big-box bookstores.”

“It’s a business of love and, you know, the margins are already small,” said Nancy Bass Wyden, the third-generation owner of the Strand bookstore. “So this pandemic has really knocked our socks off.”

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“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 said in a statement.

Fox Business reported that more than receiving a Paycheck Protection Program loan from the federal government, Wyden said her family has put in around $2 million of their own money to keep their business going.

Wyden asks customers to visit the Strand’s two brick-and-mortar locations – 828 Broadway and 12th Street and 450 Columbus Avenue and 82nd Street. Visiting its website and using #savethestrand would help them as well.

“I’m going to pull out all the stops to keep sharing our mutual love of the printed word,” she said. “But for the first time in The Strand’s 93-year history, we need to mobilize the community to buy from us so we can keep our doors open until there is a vaccine.”

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