Fireside Books faring through pandemic

PALMER — Fireside Books has successfully navigated through the pandemic over the last year, adapting their services and maintaining their connections to the community due in large part to their loyal base of customers, according to owner Mary Ann Cockle.

“We’ve been keeping busy with our regular, loyal customers. So, thank you,” Cockle said.

Fireside currently has six employees. Cockle said that she was thankful she’s been able to retain all her staff throughout the pandemic. She said they’re still restocking their shelves after the holiday season, but that’s taking longer due to a disruption in the supply chain.

Cockle said they’ve overcome many challenges, but they’ve been able to keep up with the ever changing situation.

“We’re doing what we can. I’d say overall we’re managing alright… It’s been slim but we’ve been managing. We’ve had to adjust and make quite a few changes,” Cockle said.

According to Cockle, they’ve had to limit their intake of used books since it takes time to quarantine them.

Fireside is still offering curbside pickup for people who call ahead or order online. They offered book delivery services for a time, but ultimately opted out since it wasn’t being utilized very often. She said it was probably a sign that a lot of people want to get out of their homes after being cooped up for so long.

“Not many people took advantage of it,” Cockle said.

Fireside is currently holding their book club meetings virtually over Zoom. Cockle said there’s currently one active book club that’s still meeting and accepting new members.

Cockle said the limited amount of space they have in the store has kept them from participating in their usual amount of community events and activities, but they’ve been able to maintain some connections thanks to the Greater Palmer Chamber of Commerce’s creative and socially distant planning. She said that she was glad they were able to participate in Trick or Treat Street, the chamber’s outdoor Halloween event in October.

“We try participating best we can, but we’ve got cramped space,” Cockle said.

Cockle said that her fellow business owners across Palmer seem to be faring through the pandemic as well.

“I haven’t heard too much negative talk... The advantage of small businesses is that we can adapt a lot more quickly than large stores,” Cockle said.

Cockle said the support between businesses owners and community members has been a big part of how her store and other small businesses have been able to keep up. She said the community support is the biggest silver lining from all this.

“I’d say we have been fortunate. The community is really supportive. The community support has been really encouraging. The community support makes us so happy, so very happy. I think everybody is doing the best they can; that’s us, that’s our customers,” Cockle said.

Fireside is currently in the middle of a district wide book fair that goes through the end of February. They’re also in the middle of a book drive put on by Mat-Su Moms for Social Justice.

Cockle said the Mat-Su Moms for Social Justice group set out to help fill the shelves of local libraries with the help of the community. Customers can make monetary donations, or they can view a wish list of book titles to purchase for the drive at Fireside or by visiting their homepage. The book drive runs through Feb. 8.

“I think it’s a great idea that this group chose a topic to address and found a creative way to address it; and we’re happy to be able to help them with that,” Cockle said.

Looking forward, Cockle aims to keep Fireside firing at all cylinders to make it through the unforeseeable challenges they’ve yet to face.

“We’re not quite sure how to plan for the summer... We just don’t know, not only the virus but tourism. We don’t know how many people are gonna be willing to travel,” Cockle said. “It’s hard to plan anything since we don’t have a timeline… We’ll be here, hopefully.”

For more information, call 907-745-2665 or visit goodbooksbadcoffee.com.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman reporter Jacob Mann at jacob.mann@frontiersman.com