Tacoma book store booming during quarantine

TACOMA -- Within a little room that makes up King's book shop in Tacoma is a world of fantasy, knowledge, and perhaps most significantly, an escape from the virus that's turned so many lives upside down.

"We've been actually doing a robust amount of business surprisingly," says owner sweet pea Flaherty.

While so many businesses, especially ones that are small and local, are struggling to stay afloat, King's Books hasn't had that problem.

"We've been shipping orders since March and we just started curbside pick up this week," Flaherty says.

The orders have been steady and consistent, showing that many are finding comfort and entertainment in a good page turner.

"There's definitely a lot of escapist reads, because of, well, the world, and a lot of people are getting books that are kind of obscure that have been on their list of a while and now they have time to read."

The shop misses getting to talk to their customers face-to-face and having book clubs meet, and the store cat -20 pound Herbert - likely misses the extra attention, but all in all, they feel very lucky to still get to share stories with people when we may need them the most.

"We're still trying to provide books for people and create communities and create ways for people to get not just the books they know but books that they're interested in," Flaherty says.