EAST AURORA, N.Y. — During the COVID-19 pandemic, manager of The Bookworm in East Aurora, Jennifer Reisdorf, says the way sales are conducted has varied. For those who don't feel comfortable shopping in person, the store offers contactless curbside checkout and pickup. All people have to do is call or email.

What You Need To Know

  • During the pandemic, some people aren't comfortable shopping in person
  • Local stores are getting creative and finding ways to help their customers virtually
  • People are encouraged to shop locally 
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With a lot of single-copy used books, Reisdorf says it would be nearly-impossible to feature every single book online, so the store manager has worked hard to virtually show customers options.

"People would email me and tell me what they were looking for. Then I would come into the store and FaceTime them and show them the things that they were interested in," says Reisdorf.

With positive COVID-19 cases in Western New York on the rise and holiday shopping approaching, Reisdorf says the store is happy to help in any way possible. Another person who understands that making sales during an economically-challenging time like a pandemic requires ingenuity is Heather Sprague, who owns a local gift shop and general store in East Aurora.

"In the beginning, we even did local delivery. We basically did whatever we had to do to make it work. I had built a website about two years ago, so that was helpful. The customers, it gives them the option to still stay home and shop if they're in the population of at-risk people. For us, it gives us the opportunity to keep rolling," says Sprague, of Beulah's General Store. 

Regardless of what happens in the future with the pandemic, businesses are hoping that community members keep their holiday shopping local during a struggling economy and they're doing what they can to make the process seamless.

For more information about these stores and how to shop virtually, for The Bookworm, you can call 716-652-6554, email jen@eabookworm.com or visit eabookworm.com, and For Beulah's, visit beulahsgeneralstore.com.