It’s no secret: independent bookstores everywhere are struggling to stay in business. This is in part an (arguably) inevitable result of the rising popularity of the e-book. But most people would still agree that printed books will always be around. It’s also a result of the challenge of staying competitive with national chains.
Everyone knows that shopping at a locally owned store is a good idea. It keeps dollars in your community and creates higher paying jobs for your friends and family. It’s also great for your relationships: local business owners are your friends and neighbours. Supporting each other makes for strong community spirit. Remember that your local business owners are twice as likely to support local charities, events, and teams than national chains. We all love the personality that is infused into the local bookshop.
It doesn’t take much! Spread your dollars around.
An independent book store in California recently created the One Book Pledge. When customers of Bookshop Santa Cruz asked what they could do to help make sure the local bookstore remained a part of their community, they responded: make a commitment to buy, in any given month, one fewer book at a big box-store and one more book at you local independent bookseller.
From the Bookshop Santa Cruz website:
A recent study found that even customers who define themselves as loyal independent bookstore customers only buy four out of every ten books from an independent bookstore. Imagine what would happen if everyone dedicated themselves to buying that fifth book from an independent as well. For a store like ours, it means more local jobs, more author events, the ability to carry unique, small press titles, and more money flowing to local schools, libraries and public safety through the collection of local sales tax and store donations.
See www.bookshopsantacruz.com/one-book-pledge for more info.
Drew Lorimer, a bookseller in Victoria, BC recently crunched the numbers and found that “if roughly 5% of households in [his local community] spent $30 a year on average at our store, we’d be doing okay. $40 and we’d be successful.” That’s two books a year for just a tiny percentage of the community’s families. There’s no doubt that more than 5% of families are buying two books a year. For more on this bookstore’s challenges and successes, see Drew’s blog at www.talltalesbooks.ca/?page_id=925.
So go ahead and shop at your favourite national chain, but don’t forget your local independents. Your decision to buy from them could make or break their business and the result will change your community.
Not sure who your nearest independent bookseller is? Find out here: www.cbabook.org/find.html.
Taryn
