It's me again with One More Thing You Can Do to Supporting Indie Bookstores. Ready...

Do your holiday shopping EARLY. Doesn't have to be now, necessarily, or even in the summer, but, before November & December would be great. Here's why...

At peak holiday shopping, PSB had hundreds, sometimes even over 1000 customers in the store PER DAY. No matter what happens between now & December there is roughly a 0% that type of concentration of human bodies in a small space, will be safe. And...

Online orders take longer to process than in store purchases. Sometimes a lot longer. So holiday-volume online orders are going to be a challenge for bookstores. We'll get 'em done, but they'll be hard. But...

If enough customers shop early and that volume is spread out, stores will be able to provide much better customer service overall and will be more able to handle holiday surges from other readers. You'll also...

give yourself plenty of wiggle room for shipping, books being out of stock, and other problems, as well as avoiding that surge, so you'll have your presents on time. Cause if I'm being honest...

the "deadline" to order books and have them arrive in time for the holidays is probably at least a week, maybe two earlier this year than it ever has been.

So, to recap. Doing your holiday shopping EARLY this year will be better for your favorite indie bookstore, result in better customer service for you & other readers, & make sure you have all the gifts you want. Thank you!