Danny Givens of Givens Books/Little Dickens in Lynchburg, VA

Like most retail during this difficult period, we've been pushed to our limits trying to find creative and undiscovered methods of reaching our customers and doing business. Unprecedented and unimaginably challenging times have brought new levels of anxiety. One small byproduct of this for us has been innovation.

Our goal is to support our customers at home while maintaining their sense of connection with being in our store...the ambiance, warmth, staff friendliness, and overall positive experience. We are seeing the "live local" mentality continue to gain momentum. People are concerned for their communities, scared for the loss of jobs, and more determined to keep their communities alive and thriving as much as they can.

We remind people of this point in nearly every post, every receipt, every bill they get, ads we produce, and television spots we run. We even have a hold message on our phone system that grabs attention with interesting science and history trivia, then relays facts about shopping locally.

We are amplifying the "support your community" message with banners along with curbside pick-up services and regular posts on Facebook and Instagram. Personal thank you notes are dropped into each curbside bag we hand to our customers.  We will be doing virtual story time, along with book chats covering various genres, and videos with staff's favorite reads. Our book discussions and book clubs, led by Angie, are suspended for now, but we will resume when all this settles. Angie has been a strong force behind these book discussions and hopefully will continue them virtually.

Our social media people have been doggedly creative. Zander has done film and make-up professionally and he loves working with humor, visual techniques, and editing practices to give our posts an extra touch. Because much of our product is non-book, it gives us a little more license to work with levity. We got in some ride-on toys and we promptly made a post with me racing on this unicorn against another employee with derby music in the background. It was a big hit and brought laughter and smiles. We'll be doing more with juggling, kendamas, outdoor toys, posting our staff playing the new games.

We're now doing posts on our school supplies, to let parents know we are here to help lessen boredom and increase structure at home with workbooks. We also believe parents can enhance family connection and fun with games and puzzles. Our puzzle sales are triple what they've been in the past. We're contacting principals and schools to see what their needs are for families wanting structure and learning for their children. We've sent out images to them of workbooks and curriculum aids, and available discounts.

Our approach through all of this is to connect with the community and customer frequently and with a lightness which people need after a lot of dismal news. We are getting more likes and shares than we ever have with many of these posts. But, we're also promoting the message of staying safe, practicing physical distancing, all while pushing hard our curbside pick up service and web ordering.

We're looking forward to maximizing great tools that publishers are offering. This ordeal will also help us explore broader community posts where even more businesses unify together in spreading this crucial message of how small local businesses are what truly bring strength, diversity, personality, and vitality to our communities.

Surviving this will be a challenge and ultimately, we are hoping to come out with new business models , a larger customer base for our website, regular curbside pick up, newer fresher ways of doing social media, a community that more than before feels the importance of supporting their local businesses, realigned values, more cherished family time and hopefully...new leadership.