McNally makes most of online sales in outbreak

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 23/04/2020 (2363 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

On a typical day, McNally Robinson Booksellers’ Grant Park location would be buzzing with staff as dozens of customers browse the shelves for books, records, accessories and more. Evenings would see the store hosting at least one author event per night; on the other side of the shop, meanwhile, Prairie Ink Restaurant & Bakery would normally be hopping with regulars grabbing a coffee or a bite to eat.

But for the moment, those typical days are a thing of the past. There’s an eerie silence to the cavernous store, which is no longer open to the public, as co-owner Chris Hall and the few staff who weren’t laid off fill online and phone orders for delivery and curbside pickup. Prairie Ink, meanwhile, sits empty and darkened, as does the booksellers’ Forks Market location.

“Our revenue is down 90 per cent,” says Hall between orders. The store currently receives around 100 orders through its website daily from shoppers located throughout the city and across the country. “We’re run off our feet — those of us who are still here, at least — but this is a tiny fraction of normal.”

Including the Saskatoon store and both Winnipeg locations, as well as McNally Robinson’s accounting, desktop publishing and wholesale division, the bookseller employed around 175 employees in total before the COVID-19 pandemic struck. These days, between the Grant Park location and Saskatoon, about 10 per cent of all staff remain.

In addition to online orders, McNally Robinson takes orders by phone between noon and 5 p.m. from Monday through Saturday, and they’re looking to expand hours in the near future. They’re currently working to clear a backlog of orders handled by their skeleton staff, meaning it may take a few days to process purchases and delivery.

Most of McNally Robinson’s current sales are of books; gone are the days of curious shoppers grabbing the odd accessory while perusing the latest titles. “People would come in for a book and buy a magazine, a box of chocolates — they’d see something they didn’t expect. It’s hard to replicate that online,” says Hall, although the store does offer a handful of non-book items online. (Its supply of puzzles, meanwhile, has essentially dried up.)

Trend-wise, Hall and company are seeing strong requests for fiction, both for adults and young readers. “People are buying multiples in a series, many books from the same author, or all the books in a trilogy,” says children’s department manager Angela Torgerson as she rings up orders. “We have a lot of grandmothers and grandfathers buying books so they can read to their grandchildren online.”

The partnerships McNally Robinson has established in the city have seen the store become a pillar of the local arts community. In addition to being the default stop for almost every author coming through town, this July the store was slated to run the Music, Merch and More on-site store at the now-cancelled Winnipeg Folk Festival. The two have retained a partnership to sell Winnipeg Folk Festival sweatshirts through McNally Robinson, with proceeds benefitting both the store and the festival.

The endeavour has been a success. “We have sweatshirt orders covering almost every inch of this store,” says Torgerson.

While web shopping hubs such as Amazon continue to dominate the online book-buying landscape, for Hall the current situation reminds him of when McNally Robinson closed its Polo Park location 10 years ago. “People in Winnipeg really got the message that we could disappear, and they rallied — it was incredible. They clearly wanted this place to continue,” he says. “I feel a bit the same now — people are rallying to us. They want this place to reopen and continue. Our fans are still with us.”

In his darkened store, Hall is able to take a moment to acknowledge that support. “I’m appreciative of all the orders we’re getting. I love it. But at the same time it’s such a small portion of what we usually do,” he says. “It’s so much better than nothing… but we’re not thriving by any stretch.

“This is a business that’s out of business by almost every definition.”

ben.sigurdson@freepress.mb.ca