COVID marks new chapter for independent bookstores
Updated Feb 16, 2021;
Posted Feb 16, 2021
Zelmon Zee Johnson adjusts the shelves in her Olive Tree Books-n-Voices, a community bookstore on Hancock Street in Springfield. (Don Treeger / The Republican)
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SOUTH HADLEY For Joan Grenier, owner of the Odyssey Bookshop across from Mount Holyoke College, 2020 was a year of constant reinvention and gratitude.
With business interrupted by the coronovirus pandemic, Grenier said she was faced with the possibility of closing. The crisis prompted her to set up a GoFundMe online fundraiser seeking help from longtime customers and supporters of independent booksellers.
Grenier said she was overwhelmed when donors came forward with $70,000 to help the bookstore stay open and make payments on bills totaling nearly $150,000.