May 11th, 2020
I hope that
everyone has been having a healthy, safe, and productive quarantine.
Based on the
guidance from the governor’s office – and our own work to find new ways for our
staff to travel more safely to and from the shop – we will now be returning to
work at the bookstore.
Beginning on
Monday, May 11th, we will be able to welcome you back as well,
though in a limited way. We will be here for you to pick-up your book orders, to
deliver or ship them to you, and we will also be available for appointment
based remote browsing (details below).
Our hours
will also be limited, as we will only be here from noon-8pm, Monday through
Friday, to start. But we will be adding
to those hours as circumstances permit.
For the time
being, our book buying from the general public will remain suspended. This is for the protection of our staff.
Now, on to
all of the great ways that we have devised for you to work with us:
- Any book we have in stock can be ordered for
pick up Monday-Friday between the hours of noon-8pm. Just call us, and we can take your request
and credit card details over the phone. Or,
you can pay in cash when you arrive, but we will be rounding to whole dollars
in that situation so that no one has to handle coins. We can also accept email requests, though we
do not recommend sending card details via email. You can still use your store credit to buy as
well. Just verify your credit amount
with us via phone or email before you come in, so we can have your order ready
to go when you arrive.
- Please remember to wear your mask if you are
picking up in-store. No one will be
admitted without a mask.
- If you are not comfortable going outside, we
will deliver any order over $20 to you for free – within the city of
Chicago. Please provide us with
instructions for contactless delivery. For
orders under $20, we will charge a $5 delivery fee. Outside of the city limits, we will have to
ship it to you. Shipping fees start at
$5.
- If you need our recommendations, please don’t
hesitate to ask us to browse the store for you.
We can pull books and call you with options for whatever you are looking
for. We can also email you photos of
volumes we have on our shelves if you want to see them before deciding. This might be especially helpful with our second-hand
volumes.
- If we don’t have it in stock, we can order it
for you. Please bear in mind that some
warehouses are still closed, and that what is available changes daily.
- If you don’t want to wait for us to order it for
you, you might consider visiting our store on Bookshop.org (https://bookshop.org/shop/after-wordsbookstore).
We will get a commission for anything you buy
from their website (a bigger one if it is from one of our recommended
lists). It is a site dedicated to
supporting authors, publishers, and independent booksellers. So, unlike when you buy from other online
retailers who shall remain nameless, you are fully funding the authors and
publishers of the books that you buy.
Not to mention supporting us as well.
- As always, we list about 15,000 of our used
volumes on Biblio.com (https://www.biblio.com/bookstore/after-words-bookstore-chicago)
so you can shop our store there. You can
also browse our store there very specifically by topic.
- Finally, for those who really miss browsing our
stacks, we are experimenting with virtual browsing via Zoom. We are figuring out the technology still, so
the first few of you to take us up on this will be our guinea pigs. To take advantage of this, you can book an
appointment with one of our staff during our store hours to browse for 30
minutes. We can show you the sections,
let you read the backs of the books, and generally play host (we can provide
suggestions or keep quiet – your choice).
We will be charging $10 for this service to anyone who does not make a
purchase, $5 to anyone making a purchase under $20, and anyone who purchases
over $20 worth of books will have the fee waived.
Sorry to be
so long-winded. These are strange
days. But we look forward to working
with you again in this brave new world.