How are we doing at Borderlands?

by Alan Beatts

A lot has happened since my last update, a month ago.  Or was it two years ago?  I'm not sure because corona-time is strange and elastic. Regardless, much has happened.  Jude and I have been filling mail-orders as fast as we can (and that is fast indeed) but it's been hectic.  Selling 20-40 books over the counter is a moderately busy day but not at all a strain.  Processing, packing and shipping out 20-40 books in a day, however, is an awful lot of work.  We've been thrilled to do it -- both serving our customers and getting a little income makes us very happy -- but it's been busy. We'll be continuing to fill mail-orders for the duration and we're happy to send you anything you'd like.  You can check out our inventory at Biblio.com - https://www.biblio.com/bookstore/borderlands-books-san-francisco

This is a good time to mention that Martha Wells' much anticipated Murderbot novel, Network Effect, just arrived today and we expect to be shipping out a lot of copies of that.  We're also going to have our first socially-distanced, drop-in signing with Christopher Moore on Friday.  He'll be signing copies of his newest, Shakespeare For Squirrels.  If you'd like to get a copy of that, or any of Chris' other novels, inscribed to you, just drop us a line at orders@borderlands-books.com and we'll be happy to take care of you.

While Jude and I have been being the mail-order-monkeys, the rest of the staff have been working from home on various things, many of which I'm excited to announce today.

Thanks to a bunch of outstanding work on the part of Amy (with help from Jeremy), we have a new website.  It seems that 2005 called recently and wanted its website back, so we made a new one.  Please do check it out and let me know what you think - http://www.borderlands-books.com

We've also improved some other parts of our presence on-line.  Maddy has set up and is managing an Instagram account for us at borderlands_books so, if that's your thing, please do follow us there.  Maddy is also in the process of producing a series of videos that we'll be posting on our channel at YouTube.  The first should be up this Friday and we're hoping to post on a weekly basis thereafter.  If you want to be sure to hear when the video is up, please subscribe to our channel at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgvLsi-6ZyU0fuY09DIAt3A

The final major thing that we've been working on is setting up our own shopping cart / ecommerce system.  As good as Biblio.com is and as great to work with as they are; our own system will work better, since it'll be specifically matched to our business, and we'll also save on the commission that Biblio charges.  Jeremy's been working on that and it's getting close to ready for a test run.  We hope to have it ready for ordering specific new releases within a week or two and to offer our entire inventory by next month.

Finally, I have been working on getting one of the Small Business Administration's Payroll Protection Program loans.  If you've been following the news about that, you won't be surprised that it's been a complicated and frustrating process.  However, despite my expectations, we did receive the loan on Sunday.  Granted, we applied on the 8th of April but, better late than never, as they say.  Thankfully, the decision about whether to accept the loan was simpler for us than it was for many others because we had kept the whole staff on payroll from the outset of the shelter-in-place order. Consequently, we didn't have to make the hard decision about whether to bring people back from furlough while still very unsure what the coming months would hold.

Thanks to that loan, we are currently in much the same financial position that we were in at the end of February.  Depending on what the next six to twelve months hold, it is still possible that we will be in a tricky financial situation at some point but, for now, things are looking relatively good. Not great, mind you, but pretty good. Certainly, we are not at risk of going out of business.

That said, your support is still very welcome and needed.  Ordering books from us to be shipped has made a huge difference over the past month and will continue to do so for as long as we keep the shop closed.  It's looking like we will be able to start offering curb-side pickup of books sometime in the coming weeks.  When that happens, continuing to shop with us would be a huge help in these trying times.

Though our original opening date at the new shop on Haight Street is now a thing of the past, I will be starting work there again this week.  The sheet rock crew will be starting on Monday, the 11th, and I hope to keep the work there moving forward at a good pace.  Perhaps by next month I'll have some idea of an opening date.  Sadly, I fear that we will have to wait for the opening party extravaganza that I had planned but, that will just make it even sweeter when it happens.  Because it will not only celebrate our new location but will also celebrate the existence of a vaccine for COVID-19!

So, until I see you again at the store -- whether it be outside the window, picking up a bag of books, or inside the shop, peering at me over a mask -- take care of yourself, your people and your world, be kind and patient, and stay safe.