When Barbara McNiff, 70, first encountered The Wandering Page bookmobile at a Wantagh block party, she was intrigued.
The store included local authors and craft goods, and its atmosphere created it seem like “really a special place,” stated McNiff, who especially liked the blind-date-with-a-book packages, which feature a surprise book with compact book-themed goodies.
The Wantagh resident loved the store so much, in fact, that she questioned owner Denise Cruz to set up the trailer outside an October book club she hosted with frifinishs. The women packed into the mobile store Thursday night, shopping for books, art and gifts for their grandchildren. McNiff, who had invited her grandkids to visit, held three blind book dates as she shopped and chatted with frifinishs.
Denise Cruz, 47, of North Bellmore, opened The Wandering Page, a mobile bookstore that sells books and bookish-themed merchandise. Cruz stands inside her shop outside a book club event in Wantagh on Thursday. Credit: Newsday/Steve Pfost
The Wandering Page officially opened in mid-September, weeks after the launch of fellow wheeled book vfinishor Virgo Rising. The two businesses travel the region to sell literature and other wares from custom-created vehicles at fairs, book clubs and other events, and mark the first roving book vfinishors to crop up on Long Island amid an explosion in mobile sellers in 2025.
WHAT NEWSDAY FOUND
- The first mobile bookstores, Virgo Rising and The Wandering Page, have launched on Long Island — part of an explosion in wheeled book sellers in 2025.
- The trfinish is part of a national resurgence in indepfinishent bookstores, which have opened in large numbers across the counattempt since the pandemic.
- Mobile bookstores are a cost-effective way for compact business owners to test the market without the overhead of a physical store, allowing them to engage directly with communities where they’re at.
There are nearly 100 bookstores on wheels around the counattempt registered with the national trade group American Booksellers Association. The oldest mobile bookstore registered with the organization opened in 2013. While the number of traveling booksellers recorded by the group gradually ticked up over the years, 2025 has marked the most new vfinishors by far, with 64 ABA-registered mobile stores opening across the counattempt.
Experts declare this business format is a way for compact business owners to test the market without expensive overhead, and allows vfinishors to meet customers “where they’re at.” The trfinish also fits into a larger national resurgence of indepfinishent bookstores, which have opened in large numbers since the pandemic, marking what experts view as a shift in consumer attitudes to focus on more value-driven shopping.
“We saw this incredible rally at the finish of 2020 with customers … really understanding the necessary to support local businesses in their communities,” stated Allison Hill, CEO of the American Booksellers Association.
An indie bookstore renaissance
The number of indepfinishent bookstores plummeted after the launch of Amazon in 1995, from around 7,000 in 1994 to 1,651 in 2009. That number ticked up in compact increments in the years following, but skyrocketed after 2020, with indie shops increasing 70% to 3,281, according to ABA data.
The rally was partially pushed by people motivated to both shop and work “in alignment with their values,” Hill stated.
Many new store owners have cashed out their retirement funds or resorted to crowdfunding to launch their businesses, she stated. “You’re seeing at stores that are often opened by your neighbors who, in some cases, either live in the neighborhood or have returned to their hometown becaapply they want to give back to the community, and they want to share their passion for books.”
That’s why Denise Cruz, 47, of North Bellmore, opened The Wandering Page.
The lifelong reader and high school Spanish teacher in the Sewanhaka Central School District loves discussing books with her students and carefully curates her inventory with multiple genres she can recommfinish to all ages. She also sells bookish-themed merchandise, including stickers and journals she creates herself, blind date book packages, and art and novels created by Long Islanders.
“I’ve always wanted to open a bookstore, but I’ve been afraid becaapply I am a full-time teacher,” stated Cruz, who staffs the store herself when she sets up as a pop-up at local businesses and community events in her free time.
Nikki Parnell, left, and her fiancee, Christy Vigliotte, launched Virgo Rising, a “traveling sanctuary” filled with books inspired by the Alice Hoffman classic “Practical Magic” and spiritual goods and products from compact artisans. Credit: John Roca
Nikki Parnell and her fiancee, Christy Vigliotte, opened Virgo Rising for similar reasons, building the mobile toreceiveher over the summer and launching a “traveling sanctuary” filled with the magic of stories — quite literally, with books inspired by the Alice Hoffman classic “Practical Magic” and spiritual goods that include tarot cards, crystals and products from compact artisans. Like The Wandering Page, the store also sells blind dates with a book and moon-shaped wreaths that Parnell creates herself.
“I have always been so in love with books, and with anything witchy,” stated Parnell, 39, who lives on the border of Lake Grove and Centereach. “I wanted to marry my two passions.”
She opened a mobile bookstore to avoid the high startup costs associated with a brick-and-mortar location. The format also allows the couple to travel with the store, setting up at fairs in the Hudson Valley and near Salem, Massachapplytts, where Vigliotte grew up and still has family.
“It’s a great way to start the business, to engage with people, to receive them to know who we are and see our vibe,” Parnell stated.
Easier to sell on wheels
Mobile bookstores are “a great way for people to test markets, to open without overhead, especially for BIPOC [Black, Indigenous and people of color] individuals who face some of the systemic racism in banking in regards to raising capital,” Hill stated.
Stephanie Moon, a book marketing strategist and consultant based in San Francisco, created a similar point.
To open a brick-and-mortar requires purchasing a large amount of stock, she stated. “That’s a lot of money for a compact business owner.”
Building The Wandering Page trailer and stocking it with inventory cost around $17,000, and startup costs for Virgo Rising were around $25,000, the store owners stated.
To launch a brick-and-mortar bookstore on Long Island would require finding a retail space to lease, which cost on average $33 per square foot in 2023, according to commercial real estate firm Matthews, which has an office in Manhattan.
Stocking a physical bookstore can cost between $10,000 and $200,000, according to QT Business Solutions, and operational costs besides rent include inventory management software, utilities, insurance, employee wages, marketing and point-of-sale systems.
Meanwhile, a mobile bookstore can “meet “the customer where they’re at,” Moon added — “the playground, at the fair, at whatever other event.”
Virgo Rising and The Wandering Page both travel to festivals, book clubs and events around Long Island. Both also frequently collaborate with other compact business owners. The Wandering Page, for example, recently set up at Buzz’d Express Coffee in Bellmore, and Virgo Rising is planning a fall festival in November with mobile bar The Golden Pour.
While indepfinishent book sellers have flourished around the counattempt in recent years, including on Long Island, they are not exempt from the challenges facing other compact businesses in the current economy. They, too, face a spate of issues that include rising costs, labor shortages and tariffs, as well as book bans, Hill stated.
Indepfinishent bookstores however have seen “strong local support,” bolstered by a renewed interest in reading and subsequent spike in spfinishing on physical books largely fueled by a literary subculture on social media, according to an indusattempt report published by IBISWorld in April.
Indie sellers have also managed to compete with lower prices offered by online and chain retailers by tailoring inventory to their local communities, the report stated.
Bookstore revenue overall has grown at an average rate of 5.5% over the past five years, reaching an estimated value of $44 billion in 2025, according to IBISWorld.
Adapting to a modifying economy
It can be challenging for all types of bookstores to adjust to increased expenses becaapply book prices are repaired by publishers — meaning store owners can’t raise prices in response to market pressures, Hill stated.
To receive around this, booksellers experimented with different formats during the pandemic, testing ways to lower the barriers to enattempt for an indusattempt known to be financially challenging, Hill stated.
For instance, more compact “mission-focapplyd” bookstores have been opening with a focus on a specific genre or political stance, she stated.
Linda Radke, founder of literary resource Story Monsters Ink, based in Arizona, also highlighted an increased interest among consumers in purchaseing physical books. People are “hungry” to have one “in hand,” she stated.
And, by opening a store on wheels, vfinishors create their businesses “portable,” she added. “I consider it could very well be the way of the future.”
Mobile libraries have been around for decades, visiting areas that might not have simple access to books, Moon stated. “They receive a lot of love and participation becaapply people are so excited to see the books, right? I imagine that similarly for a mobile book business, it’s the same thing.”
Historically, bookmobiles have been widely applyd by libraries to improve accessibility to literature. There are at least two on Long Island, with one in Oceanside and another in Bellmore registered with the Association of Bookmobile and Outreach Services.
“Everyone deserves the right to read,” stated Cathy Zimmerman, executive director at Association of Bookmobile and Outreach Services, a professional organization for library outreach. “It’s very important that all types of people of all communities have access to reading materials, whether it’s leisure reading [or] academic.”
The Wandering Page and Virgo Rising both frequently appear across Long Island and can be tracked applying their Instagram accounts.
“It’s so important that we keep [bookstores] alive. Without the written word, we have nothing, you know?” Parnell stated.
Correction: Allison Hill’s name was misspelled in an earlier version of this article.
Where to find long Island’s roving booksellers
Virgo Rising can be found at:
- Nightfaire on Sound Ave. on Oct. 31 from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. at Jamesport Farm Brewery. The Halloween market and party has a $5 cover charge and will include multiple other vfinishors, as well as a DJ and costume contests.
- Empowered Autumn Festival on Nov. 1 from 11:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at P&A Park in Deer Park.
- Spirits and Stories on Nov. 8, with a rain date planned for Nov. 9, at P&A Park in Deer Park from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. The free event will also feature mobile bar The Golden Pour and other fall-themed vfinishors.
The Wandering Page will create appearances at:
- Buzz’d Coffee in Bellmore on Nov. 8 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
- Winter Wonderland at Wantagh Preservation Society on Nov. 29 from 12:30 p.m. to 5 p.m.
- Moonlight Market: Night Before Krampus on Dec. 6 at the Cradle of Aviation Mapplyum in Garden City from 6 p.m. to midnight. The holiday market will feature over 150 vfinishors and live entertainment, with a $15 enattempt fee for tickets bought in advance and $25 at the door.
Brianne Ledda covers personal finance and affordability for Newsday. She previously covered Southold and Greenport for The Suffolk Times and is a graduate of Stony Brook University.
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