Killing Indie Bookstores (and Local Economies)
Decatur Metro | March 22, 2009In complement to the previous post, this morning’s NY Times used the closing of a Chappaqua, NY bookstore to examine what’s putting indie bookstores out of business.
And while I don’t think the article’s conclusions would be considered earth-shattering (surprise! It’s Amazon and big-boxes!), I thought this quote resonated…
There’s so much noise in American life that we tend to hear only the loudest: Obama-mania! A.I.G. Mania! March Madness!
Way down on the decibel scale is a buy-local movement struggling to be heard. On the Internet, in small business groups, even from groups focused on local bookstores (www.indiebound.org) its message is that if people want local stores, a downtown that’s vital, they should shop there, even if they can get the Tylenol cheaper at Target and the John Grisham book cheaper at Amazon.
Nothing is forever, certainly not an independent bookstore. A lot of things killed our bookstore, including the terrible economy and the incessant information overload that makes reading a book like a quaint rite from the past. But if we lost it out of indifference, or to save a buck or two on Amazon, we lost a lot more than we saved.
Buy local.