The grind don’t stop: Local Virginia bookstore pushes forward despite COVID-19

Leesburg is a small town in northern Virginia with a charming historic district that dates back to 1758. This area is home to many locally-owned businesses, shops and restaurants, and there is none quite as enchanting as Books and Other Found Things.

Tucked away in a side street, this second-hand bookstore does little to call attention to itself beyond an old, hanging sign. Once inside, however, it is filled with treasures. The shop consists of five rooms filled with floor to ceiling shelves stuffed with books as well as antique trinkets, locally made notebooks and a range of postcards. The faded books and dimness may give it the air of being as old as the town, though it is only 8 1/2 years old. 

Books and Other Found Things was owned and operated by Allen and Nancy Robinson until Nancy died of multiple sclerosis one year ago. Now, Allen runs it on his own. 

The journey to owning the bookstore, Allen said, was “kind of the story of the good, the bad and the ugly” and begins with his beloved wife. 

Nancy struggled with MS for many years, but 10 years ago it was under enough control to allow them to be caretakers for a 36-acre ranch on the big island of Hawaii. Life was nearly ideal there for the retired couple, as one can imagine. They lived a short drive from the beach where the weather remained 80 degrees year-round and sunsets stretched for miles and lasted for hours.

The catch, however, was there were no neurosurgeons on the island to treat Nancy if her condition worsened. So, they moved back to the states to live with their son in Leesburg, VA. 

As Allen contemplated how to spend their time together he came upon an empty building for rent.

“I went home and talked with her about it because the one thing we did have was a lot of books and a lot of bookcases,” Allen said. “We— like a lot of people— talked about, ‘Oh, wouldn’t it be fun sometime to have a little bookstore?’ You know? Wouldn’t that just be a nice way to spend your time in the world?”

Courtesy of Dara Lusk

Business owners are encouraged to have at least a year’s worth of money saved up before opening; however, Allen and Nancy had only just enough for the starting rent, electricity and a few necessities for the store. 

“Luckily, the owner of the property and the rental agents were willing to take a risk,” Allen muses. From the time he first suggested the idea to Nancy to when they opened was only a matter of five weeks. 

Perhaps the reason they were able to advance their business despite an unpromising start was that they didn’t go into it for the money. Allen explained it was never his hope to make a fortune through his shop. 

“This store has never been a huge money-making sort of thing; then again, we never opened it thinking it was going to be the way to make a million dollars,” Allen said. “It’s a place to meet nice and interesting people.” 

Allen began his shop with three main reasons in mind. The first was for himself. He wanted to find something he truly enjoyed and that he would want to spend his time doing. Secondly, as an environmentalist who worked for many years outdoors and as a strong advocate for global warming issues, he wanted to do something that would “have a smaller footprint on the planet.” All his books are either second hands he buys or ones donated to him. 

“I like the idea of taking something that already exists and has been used and putting it to its best purpose,” Allen said, “and doing that in a way that doesn’t use a lot of fossil fuels and stuff like that.”

The main reason for his shop, though, was for his wife. Because Nancy suffered for many years with MS, she often couldn’t participate in common activities of life. The majority of the people she met were either nurses or doctors. She was lonely and wanted to “talk about regular things with regular people.” The store became that place for her. 

When it first opened, she decorated the shop and staged it to be the homely, charming atmosphere it is now. When her health permitted, she sat in the store with Allen and cheerfully interacted with their customers. It was a place she could be free and happy, which is one of the many things Allen has grown to love about the shop. 

“Some of the things I really love about the shop is: 1. There are a lot of kids that when their family comes to town, this is their place that the family has to come to. I think that’s pretty cool.” He laughed. “And I really like that I can see people as they come in the front door and they usually can’t see me. But I can literally see people walk in and within two steps kind of slow down and their breathing slows down and it’s like giving a little bit of comfort to people.”

“There was a lady who came in a few years ago and just looked around,” Allen remembered with an amused smile, sitting up to reenact the event, “and she raised her hands,” and according to him, happily exclaimed, “‘Oh! All of my friends are here!’ And I just thought that was such a good way to kind of capture what we were trying to do.”

It seemed, in the beginning, many fellow independent book stores were closing. Luckily, Books and Other Found Things has grown steadily, if only slowly.

“I guess it’s been an interesting time to have opened and run a bookstore,” Allen said. “Because in that kind of 8 1/2 years was the period when e-readers and Kindles really came into play.” 

Although technology certainly has impacted his business’s dynamics over the years, nothing has hit quite as hard as the current COVID-19 pandemic. Since the virus, Allen has reduced his hours. Now, he is open for only three hours in the afternoon five days a week. 

Masks are required while in the store and, upon entering, customers are asked to wash their hands in the back before browsing. The maximum number of customers had been limited to 10 at a time (two to a room). They are also asked to limit the number of items they touch. Meanwhile, Allen keeps his own mask— as well as a large container of hand sanitizer— always at the ready. 

How he orchestrates his store hasn’t been the only change brought on by COVID-19. As expected, he’s seen a dramatic drop in customers. Previously, on a normal Saturday, he would have 100 or more customers. The Saturday previous to this interview, he only had two.

“On a normal weekday,” Allen explained, he would “probably have somewhere between 15 and 20 or so customers come in. Since the Virginia lockdown happened I’ve had maybe a total of 25 customers over that whole time.”

Allen is among the luckier of small businesses at this time because through these hardships, he carries on with hope and is currently in no fear of closure. It is his hope that the people of Virginia, as well as the United States, move forward safely, smartly and someday he will be able to greet his customers without restrictions. 

—dara.lusk@outlook.com

@dara_lusk