A bookseller on the East Coast experienced the heartbreaking loss of their parent who lived on the West Coast. The challenges of travel across the country during the pandemic, missing work, settling their estate, and the costs to pay for the parent’s funeral, were significantly more than this bookseller could afford. Thoughtful colleagues stepped in and […]
Category Archives: Bookseller Stories
The pandemic has been hard on dental health. Among other sources, the New York Times has reported that many people are delaying dental care due to cost, lack of insurance, fear of exposure to the virus, and limited appointments. This has all resulted in horrible pain from teeth grinding, jaw pain, cracked and chipped teeth in need […]
Everyone deserves a safe and affordable place to live, but a bookseller found themselves grappling with housing insecurity when their building was unexpectedly sold. Finding a safe place to live was proving impossible since they needed to come up with the necessary cash to cover a security deposit, two month’s rent, and the utility deposit […]
It’s no secret that single parenting small children is tough under the best of circumstances. When a bookseller, who parents three small children, needed to take a week off work to care for all three of their seriously sick children it sent the family’s financial situation into what could have been a downward spiral. This […]
We sometimes hear that a bookseller or comic employee is so worried about a possible medical bill they put off going to the doctor or dentist for a long time. We had this kind of inquiry this week. With the encouragement of their co-workers, Stephanie* reached out to Binc after being in pain for weeks. […]
As Hurricane Ida approached, Jamie*, his partner, and their two cats evacuated from New Orleans to an out-of-state hotel. With the city and surrounding communities battered by flooding and often starting clean-up without power, Jamie and his family didn’t know when they could return or what they’d be returning to. There was so much uncertainty […]
Sean* owns a thriving bookstore housed in a turn-of-the-century building in a charming town on the Atlantic coast. Hurricane Florence, which brought more than 24 inches of water and multiple days of high winds, put the store’s future in jeopardy. The bookstore and many other structures in the town were damaged. Water came in around […]
Bad Things Happening to Good People could be the title of Yvonne’s* story. To receive assistance from Binc, a book or comic book store employee must experience an unforeseen financial hardship, referred to as a “qualifying event.” When Yvonne contacted Binc, she had experienced eight separate qualifying events in the previous 15-month period. First: After suffering a […]
Carl is the sole income earner in their two-person household. Years ago, they were diagnosed with a rare disease that required surgery. The lengthy recovery and bills from that first surgery diminished their personal financial safety net. Recently they were notified they would have to have a similar surgery . . . again. That’s when […]
Recently, a bookstore’s building flooded from heavy rains causing extensive damage to the business. Most of the store fixtures were damaged beyond repair, books and inventory were destroyed, and, due to structural damage to the building, the business was forced to close for nearly a month for repairs. All these losses on top of the […]