When Robin Allen branded Forever Books “Your community bookstore,” in St. Joseph, she had no idea that the survival of her business would one day depend on the community it was dedicated to.
More than 20-years after opening her store, Allen signed a new three-year lease on her business space last week, largely thanks to community donations that flooded in when forced closures during the Covid-19 pandemic threatened to close her doors for good.
“The shutdown hit in March and I knew, ‘that was it,’” Allen said. “So I laid everyone off, closed the doors and prepared for disaster.”
Adapting to the state-mandated shutdown requirements, Allen soon began to fulfill curbside pickup and online orders with the help of volunteers, but sales weren’t enough to avoid falling 60-days past-due on a $30,000 debt to her wholesale vendors.
Allen was also forced to cancel a hip surgery she had scheduled for one week after the state-mandated shutdown, in order to continue working in the store aided by a mobility device.
“That was the most stressful time of my life. It was better for me to be at the store every day instead of sitting at home and worrying about losing my house, losing everything.”
Then the lease agreement on her retail space came to term completion.
“I put off my landlord for a long time,” Allen said. “He was not happy. But I didn’t know what to do. I considered just closing the store and walking away.”
“I was also concerned for my employees, who for the time at least were being kept afloat by unemployment. But if I had to close the store, they were going to lose their livelihood too.”
Allen considered applying for small business relief with the state and federal government, but was discouraged by what her business may have qualified for.
“I heard some nightmare stories from other booksellers who applied,” Allen said. “The amount of paperwork required to get the assistance compared to the actual funds being offered, and the amount of money I needed just weren’t worth it.”
“Then one of my staff came to me and said, ‘Before you close the store, you let the community decide if you’re going to go out of business.’”
Former staff member, Beth LaFleur, launched a crowd-sourced fundraising campaign through GoFundMe to notify the community of the bookstore’s dire condition and raise capital to avoid the bookstore’s closure.
Allen contracted a local business consultant to estimate the business’ need to pay off its debts and survive the uncertain times ahead, setting a fundraising goal of $80,000.
“Not only did we get an unbelievable response from the GoFundMe, people started stopping by the store to hand me checks and cash,” Allen said. “Even local businesses started coming out to help.”
“I think people realized, ‘If we don’t support our local businesses, they’re not going to be here after the pandemic.’”
The fundraising campaign’s first $30,000 gains allowed Forever Books to unfreeze its wholesale accounts and begin ordering new inventory.
The St. Joseph Public library used grant monies provided by the City of St. Joseph to invest in new books from Forever Books. Saint Joseph Public Schools, as well as Coloma Schools each made multiple large purchases through the bookstore.
While many business struggled to remain open during the pandemic, and small businesses were certainly hit hardest, booksellers were one of few industries to benefit from the widespread closure and cancelation of regular activities.
“You couldn’t go to movies, you couldn’t go to restaurants, so people started to look inwardly at things they could do at home,” Allen said. “We started selling a lot of cookbooks, kids cookbooks, all kinds of books.”
When Forever Books was allowed to reopen in June 2020, Allen was able to rehire her manager and begin paying the volunteers. Each month since its reopening the bookstore’s year-over-year sales have been up 40-60%, while the industry as a whole has enjoyed an increase of 10-20%.
Forever Books is now back to full staff, and Allen recently hired a new employee for the first time in 15 years to help keep up with the demands of increased sales.
“I’m just so grateful to the community that helped get us through such a difficult time,” Allen said.
“My heart is full every day with the memories of those who ordered from us online, collected their orders in our entryway while we were closed, and who chose to order their books from us.”
