Buying a book in bookstores is again possible! Pending the reopening of stores on May 11, many establishments have already set up a "click & collect" service allowing them to provide customers with a book they have pre-ordered online.
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Bookstores are among the sectors hardest hit by the containment measures implemented since March 17 to fight the Covid-19 epidemic.
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By the fifth week of containment, book sales were only a third of their level in 2019, according to a study by the GfK institute published Friday by the professional magazine Livres Hebdo. In one year, the fall in activity dropped 68.9% in value. Bookstores are companies known for their fragility. This is why many booksellers have decided, without endangering their staff or their readers, to allow them to obtain books published before confinement.
The managers of the Monte-en-l'air bookstore in Ménilmontant, Guillaume Dumora and Aurélie Garreau, reopened their shop a week ago, two hours a day, between 3 p.m. and 5 p.m., Monday to Saturday.
With the closure linked to the confinement, they lost between 60,000 and 70,000 euros in turnover. They continued to pay the rent for their bookstore, however, and supplement the wages of two part-time workers.
Masks to protect customers
To get a book, you order it online and then come and collect it from the bookstore, taking care to bring your compulsory exit certificate by checking the box: "travel to make essential purchases". No question, however, of entering the bookstore, leafing through books, strolling. In short, everything that contributes to the pleasure of going to a bookstore. At Monte-en-l'air, the two managers wear homemade cloth masks to welcome their clients. They put a small round table at the entrance with the terminal for bank cards which they disinfect regularly. The contact is brief. The customer gives his order, takes his book and leaves. "It's good that people are getting used to it because, even after May 11, we won't be able to have many people in the bookstore at the same time," explains bookseller Aurélie Garreau.
"Jesoutiensmalibrairie.com"
The initiatives of booksellers are listed on the jesoutiensmalibrairie.com site. For its part, the Livres Hebdo site publishes an interactive map which lists the bookstores offering "click & collect". Monday morning, there were some 219 bookstores who had decided to play this virtuous game.
But "these are only troubleshooting solutions," tempers the president of the Syndicat de la librairie française (SLF) Xavier Moni. Adding immediately: "Economically, we know that this reduced activity will not compensate for our losses or the administrative ban on public reception in our bookstores which is required until May 11 at least."
The 3,200 independent bookstores in France are awaiting financial aid from the State to avoid chain closings.
"We need a common fund to help the bookstore" and favor a system of subsidies to avoid that the booksellers find themselves facing "a wall of debt", wishes Mr. Moni.
The president of the booksellers union also makes the first assessment of the health crisis and its consequences: “We will not find at the end of the year the figure that we are losing at the moment. The vast majority of booksellers will not be able to cover two or three months of operating losses from their own funds. ”
An emergency envelope of 20 million euros has already been released for the culture sector, including 5 million for the book.
In addition, the National Solidarity Fund has committed to pay aid of 1,500 to 2,000 euros to each bookstore and is preparing, for the second level of aid financed by the regions, to bring this amount up to 5,000 euros. .
Will this be enough? The president of the National Publishing Syndicate (SNE) Vincent Montagne would like to see an 8 to 10 billion euro plan released for the entire cultural industry. As of this writing, nothing has been done yet.