PANDEMIC PIVOT
Davis' Avid Reader changed hands in January, and is adapting to COVID- 19
The Avid Reader has faced more than a few challenges this past year, illustrating the problems of doing business in a pandemic, much like restaurants and retail stores.
Ownership of the iconic Davis bookstore changed hands just
months before the coronavirus pandemic hit, which forced it to limit the number of people inside at any given time. The move to distance- learning on the part of Davis schools and UC Davis has also had an eff ect.
Nonetheless, its owners are working hard to adapt.
Erin Arnold and her husband, Brett took over the store located
on 2nd Street in Davis and its related toy store, Avid & Co, just a few feet north on 2nd, in late January. That was, of course, before anyone had any clue how much the nation would be rocked by COVID- 19. Since then they’ve had to go through “20 diff erent pivots” in order to sustain the business, according to Arnold.
“We’re really lucky that we
like each other. And, we’ve already been a team for 18 years,” Arnold said of her husband. “This just seems like just another iteration of us being a team.”
The stores have both implemented personal shopping appointments, before opening time at Avid Reader and after closing time at Avid & Co. Arnold said
they’ve also completely updated their online inventory so that customers can purchase online and pickup instore. Local porch delivery is also available in Davis.
Arnold said that online orders have increased by about 400%.
At the beginning of the pandemic, the Avid Reader had cut all the way back on staffing, but as businesses reopened, they’ve increased the number of employees.
Arnold said that they originally had six staff members between the bookstore and the toy store. They now have over a dozen.
“Things like making sure we have a person who’s always monitoring capacity. That’s a job now that we have to hire,” she said. “And is a job that we get to make and the community’s supporting us so we can continue to create jobs.”
Arnold noted that she and her husband are working “twice as hard” but not making “twice as much,” but she said that they will survive the pandemic, due in large part to community support and E- commerce.
During the holidays, the bookstore has seen a fairly
decent holiday rush. Including, a number of family members from other areas ordering gifts online for people who live in Davis.
The Avid Reader is the only independent seller of new books in Yolo County. It has outlasted chains like Borders.
Alzada Knickerbocker had previously owned the bookstore for over three decades and the toy store, the Avid Reader Active, since 2012. She put both up for sale last year for $ 1.1 million. In her decision to sell, Knickerbocker noted the looming lease expiration and her son’s move to the east coast from Alameda.
Knickerbocker died in October at the age of 76. Arnold said that community members have a place to grieve in the bookstore, which has been a huge facet in downtown
Davis since opening. Knickerbocker held approximately 100 author events every year. She was also extremely active in politics, serving on local, regional and state boards.
“She was excited to see what we were going to do. I feel very positive about my interactions with her even though we’re very different,” Arnold said “We both really respected each other.”
Arnold said that people will ask her if she had always wanted to open a bookstore in Davis, and the answer is always no.
“I dreamed of living in Davis. And if you live in Davis, you don’t open a bookstore because there is a really great bookstore,” she said. But, when the opportunity came to buy that “really great bookstore,” she was convinced that it was “meant to be.”
Arnold, a trained mental health therapist grew up in the Bay Area, while Brett Arnold, an attorney, is from the Central Valley. Both studied at UC Davis.
Arnold had stepped away from the workforce after having her two children, one in 4th grade and the other in 6th. She and her husband moved back to Davis about seven years ago, and recently, she decided she wanted to start working again, but she wanted to do something meaningful in the community.
“I love that idea of stories being a centerpiece of communities, getting involved in their safe places that people can go to and it doesn’t matter who you are — as long as you’re being civil — you can be there,” Arnold said. “I kind of love that about bookstores.”
She is, like most people, excited for the pandemic to be over, not only in order to return to reading people’s lips when doing customer service but also to bring community events back to the bookstore. Arnold said that she and her husband want to bring back local author readings and events, as well as live music.
“I missed that sort of sweetness of community gatherings. I’m looking forward to that, that’ll be awesome.”