Bookstore needed help moving around the corner — so the entire town formed a line outside the store

Community support can take many forms. It showcases how people show up, how they participate and how they make space for one another. One TikTok video captured that kind of moment, as a small town showed up for a local shop in a way no one expected. Shared by the owner of Serendipity Books (@serendipitybooktok), Michelle, a bookseller in Chelsea, Michigan, the video shows how their neighbors stand shoulder-to-shoulder, passing stacks of books down the street to help their local bookshop relocate. The shop was moving just around the corner, so the community decided to form a human chain and carry it around themselves.

The caption read, "POV: Your community shows up 300 strong to help move your entire bookstore around the corner to your new location. Today was so beautiful. Thank you, Chelsea!!!" From one pair of hands to the next, they passed the entire inventory, one book at a time. The video panned across a long stretch of sidewalk where hundreds of people were lined up from the old bookstore to the new one, with many of them chatting, smiling and holding stacks of paperbacks. People on the platform filled the comments with admiration after watching the video.

@cadiebug007 said, "This is phenomenal. You are rich in life. You won the lottery." @linzjennings chimed in, "All news is so depressing right now. Thank you for sharing an uplifting, heartwarming story." @backporchbelle commented, "And every single one of those stories got passed through many, many hands that were already carrying their own." Some shared similar anecdotes. @xistentialite2.0 recalled, "The village I live in did this one year to move the library over a few blocks!! It was way before I moved here, but what a cool way to build community!" @buggermom added, "Love this! When our local library was renovating, they had patrons check out a whole shelf of books and return them when the renovations were over so they didn’t have to box up and store them."

@bottlesncans said, "We were in Chelsea today for a basketball tournament and saw this. Seriously, it makes me want to move here." @biglife_tinyhome quipped, "I love that so many people showed up that they had to have two lines." @annie_1028 mentioned, "My dad was there! He was in the store taking the books off the shelves!" @stl.tegan added, "The kids singing 'Take One Down, Pass It Around' made me giggle." @chrislynn727 joked, I would slow the line down because I would be pulling out my phone, making notes on what books I wanted to buy, lol." @koalasarenotbears_ penned, "I guess this means you can place them on the shelf as soon as they get there instead of sorting through boxes."

The same kind of community support showed up across the world in a very different way. In this story, when 18-year-old Tom Oswald opened his café in Adelaide, Australia, he expected a few customers to trickle in. Instead, the place was empty. He filmed a short video, showing the untouched pastries and quiet street, with the caption, "Still waiting for a customer." The clip reached 1.4 million views, and people connected with the honesty of the post and wanted to help. Oswald kept sharing small updates over the weeks. Within five months, the café had become busy. In an interview, Oswald said that although the café had a rough start, it slowly picked up, thanks to the TikTok videos.

You can follow Serendipity Books (@serendipitybooktok) on TikTok for more book content.