Goshen, IN –

So much has been lost in the last year that it is hard to fathom, some days. But there are glimmers of hope and stories of what has been gained all around us that the mainstream media doesn’t have the time to cover. One small book store in a quiet corner of Indiana helped it’s community weather the storm of the pandemic and not only survived – but thrived.

Some of you may remember our profile of Fables Books a few years back. Not only did they have a successful launch, but two years later they are still going strong. During the worst part of the pandemic they were integral to maintaining that sense of community the downtown Goshen area so treasures. Through setting up a Thursday virtual children’s story time and adult & teen book clubs via their social media pages, Fables Books made every effort to be as available to the community as they could.

In an interview last summer with “Downtown Perspective” Co-Owners Kristin Saner and Veronica Weirich Berkey described how they reacted to the initial shutdown: “We had to sort of immediately create an online system, so that our customers would know what was here.” Further measures were taken to keep things clean, and to make sure people felt comfortable coming to the store once things were re-opened. A simple method was to have everyone come through the back door of the store. “Easily the most inconvenient,” Kristin said with a laugh, “though effective at limiting the number of people in the store.”

Through it all, this independently owned bookstore has remained open and willing to serve the community of Goshen. Now that the pandemic restrictions are being lifted, Kristin and Veronica would be delighted to see more readers come to the shop. They understand that people may still be leery of crowds, so they do offer scheduled after-hours and masked only shopping experiences. This is all in an effort to make sure that everyone in the community feels safe shopping at Fables Books.

Despite the big-box corporate stores taking more and more sales from small local businesses, Fables Books is proving that sometimes, the little guy can win. Well, isn’t that nice?

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