A woman who lives in my home town, and calls it hers, came in today surprised to "find" my shop! I'm located in the middle of the commercial block on Main Street, so I too expressed surprise. After 21 years in business in the same location I expected everyone to know I was here. But, no! She drives past everyday to shop in the big chain stores 7 miles down the road. Our community has 5 banks, 2 bakeries, a nationally recognized hardware store, 3 bookstores, a dry cleaners, 2 barbershops and 3 beauticians, a 3 screen movie theater, card shop, toy store, 2 jewelry stores, a furniture store, appliance store, health food store, 2 computer stores, a dollar store, "gift" shops galore and 5 restaurants - all within walking distance in the Village! We have 2 municipal parking lots that will leave you no farther away from the shops than if you parked at the mall. Yet, she doesn't do any of her business in her hometown! And that is considered normal! I think it's sad - and irresponsible! How will small-town America - that Norman Rockwell bucolia that we hold as the "ideal" - survive?
Instead of just visiting local shops to ask for gifts for your penny social, ads for the church bulletin, and donations to the many and myriad worthy causes that crop up in our everyday lives, I suggest actually shopping there too!
This morning I learned that I am one of 250 independent booksellers in New York State, and one of 2300 nationwide. Our numbers are approximately half what they were 5 years ago! That's a scary statistic. Scientists could put us on the endangered list! Given this rate of decline, children born today may never know the joy of browsing the dusty shelves of a non-chain, non-big box book store. How sad is that?
We have the sustainable agriculture movement and the slow food movement, where people are encouraged to shop locally for their food stuffs to support the farmers. These are presented as ways to also preserve the small producer, and a way of life that is fast being eroded by big box supermarkets.
With that in mind I suggest a "sustainable bookseller" movement. (the other option - "slow bookseller" movement - just didn't sound right) I ask that as you seek out local providers for all kinds of services, please do the same for your local bookstore.
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Comments: 27
I wish you lived nearby!
( ----- WHEW ! I guess I can't wait :(
We are all living plots in someone else's fiction <- I said that
I rarely rant like this. -- There's been a nagging buzz in my head since I saw that gather "points" could be used in B&N booksellers - and even the "substainable" folks seemed to be eagerly awaiting that. THEN, that woman "found" me in her hometown, I guess I was just a little Testy after that! I'm better now
Thanks everyone!
Buy local!
Seriously, libraries everywhere but my hometown seem to be bending over backwards to do whatever they have to to build more community support and increase usage. My library wants to move out of the village from the Carnegie building (c1915) to a brand new big box library in the boonies! (instead of renovating and staying in their convenient location!) But to answer your question:
When I was on the library board we realized that to improve attendance at library functions we just had to add two simple words to the ad - Free Refreshments!
Independents are great and those that offer used and rare, all the better. This is a subject extremely near and dear to me and we can only hope that we never have to give up those dusty shelves and boxes, or the feel of a hand-tooled leather cover. Do you have a specialty? I think that helps distinguish a bookstore among other bookstores.
As far as the small-town shop-in-town mentality goes, I wish someone had a good answer for that one. Having lived in a town of approx. 2000 I know how sad it is not just to see a store go out of business, but to know that it is your neighbor really brings it home.
You ask about my specialty. I am actually two shops. One is a trade-in paperback shop with a strong literature and contemporary fiction section, and a few glass cases of "rare" stuff. BOOKTRADER - that's from 1985. The other is a publishing house/bookshop I bought in 1990 that was founded in 1959 - Hope Farm Press & Bookshop.
I specialize in books on New York State, cataloging the largest collection of NY related titles on or off the web. (Amazon & I started online at the same time) I ship all over the world, and have most of the titles on the my shelves of my brick & mortar shop, which is open pretty much every day on the main strret of my home town. Small town living is best..
I miss those Main Street shops - the ones where you might find a note on the door "Be back in 5 minutes!" but it's always worth the wait.
thank you for reminding us!!
and follow the links in the upper right hand corner. All the books I sell are about New York State, so you may not find anything to buy. and that's OK. Enjoy the content! (and thanks for the kind wishes)
I TOTALLY sympathize! Now I understand why jessie sent you over to read Main Street. I mourn the loss of all of the mom and pop stores along with the small town feel.
We're becoming "burbclaves" -- enclaves of suburban sprawl that are both cookie cutter and exclusive at the same time. Neal Stephenson wrote about this in his book "Snow Crash" (which you should have in your store).
Thanks for keeping it up. There are still supporters out there...
Be glad she made the effort to seek you out, Richard. She may be slow, but she's trying.