Since countrywide lockdown, sales of Albert Camus’ The Plague have increased dramatically. Weighty tomes by Tolstoy and Proust have also seen dramatic increase in sales, however, the true best seller of the pandemic is Bregman’s Humankind, a book that argues people are, for the most part, good.
It is with this in mind that Waterstones have announced measures to reopen as and when permitted by the government, the first of which involves placing books under a three-day quarantine when touched by members of the public.
Chief executive of Waterstones, James Daunt, said that they had been advised that while the virus is unable to survive for any meaningful period of time on paper or cardboard, stores will be taking additional measures in order to allow products time to “self-heal”.
Further measures which are expected to be introduced include placing Perspex screens in front of tills and capping the number of customers in stores at any one time. Waterstones cafes will also be closed for the foreseeable, in addition to the introduction of one-way systems in shops.
Waterstones was among one of the first chains to close amid the Covid-19 pandemic, taking the concerns of their employees into consideration, and shutting prior to the nationwide lockdown. Since closing their doors at the end of March they have seen a 300 per cent increase in online sales.
Daunt has noted that: “Reading was quite robust before lockdown and if anything this has been positive [for promoting reading]. But there has been an extraordinary subtle change in what people are reading.”
He concluded: “The expectation is that in most retailers behaviour will change. People will generally be coming out to shop with greater purpose, they are not just coming to while away the hours but generally they are going to pick up books.”
