Emmaus’ Let’s Play Books reopening doors to physically revamped bookstore

Let's Play Books Bookstore

Emmaus' Let's Play Books, which has been a mainstay since 2013, is working to keep community up and business safe during the coronavirus pandemic.Courtesy of Kirsten Hess

For many, there’s nothing like browsing a bookstore, a timeless escapade filled with faraway places at your fingertips — which is why having that opportunity for the first time in five months at Emmaus’ Let’s Play Books Bookstore is such a beacon of light in the darkness.

The bookstore is opening its doors again on Saturday for appointment shopping after totally restructuring the inside of the store. Like most other small businesses, Let’s Play Books closed in March as the coronavirus hit, moving to a strictly online and curbside pick-up methodology (those options will still be available now).

Instead of its regular seven rooms filled with stocked shelves, the new layout has condensed the store down to four rooms, two on the main floor and two upstairs, to better facilitate the flow of customers, owner Kirsten Hess said.

Though, at least initially, there won’t be many customers in the building. Appointments will be limited to one family or small group of people for a half-hour each with a window of buffer time on each side — essentially, one group per hour. Hess said that eventually two or three groups will be allowed in at a time, but it’s safer to start with one and go forward from there.

Appointments can be made on Let’s Play Books’ website. Currently, appointments can be scheduled a week in advance. While this weekend is booked up — no pun intended — there are open slots from Wednesday to Sunday.

The call-in shopping and pick-up methods were actually going well for the beloved bookstore, well enough that Hess considered waiting even longer to open. “But our amazing customer community wants to come,” she said, “and we want to be here for them. So we’re going to try it.”

Hess noted that a subsection of that community was full of parents who had decided to have their children do school remotely for the upcoming school year, and that resulted in Hess turning the third-floor event space into a makeshift classroom that people can rent.

Much of how the new version of Let’s Play Books was determined was from a survey that Hess sent out to the community members. “We got over 350 responses,” she said. “I was blown away. I expected about 100.”

One of those survey questions was how members would feel if the bookstore moved out of their current digs and into a bigger location. Hess said that Let’s Play Books has never really fit in its location, and with the current emphasis on social distancing and limited in-store customers, operating this way just isn’t sustainable.

But as the store opens up this weekend, it’ll be the start of an experimental, transitional phase that Hess described as “connector between pre-COVID and post-COVID.” She’s expecting it to last at least until 2021. Online events and fundraisers will be a big part of the store’s revenue. National Independent Bookstore Day, which is usually held in April, is now on Aug. 29, and Let’s Play Books will turn it into a two-day event with online sales and shortened in-store appointments to facilitate more people in and out.

Hess said she’s going with the flow for now. She knows what the bookstore can and can’t handle, so for now, she’ll focus on the community that’s kept the store afloat.

“We’re really excited that we’re still here,” she said. “It’s because people have chosen to shop here.”

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Connor Lagore may be reached at clagore@njadvancemedia.com.
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