Where We Shop for Books

Old habits die hard. I still read an insider, daily newsletter for the book industry called "Shelf Awarness". I enjoy keeping up with the business, because it is so dear to me. A bookstore ranks right up there with schools, civic cnters, city hall, and other icons of public gathering. In my case, they are as important as Wrigley Field and Lambeau Field.

You don't have to read insider newsletters to know that independent bookstores are in trouble. Both the big box chains and the internet threaten the independents with thier ususal tactics of cherry picking their product selection and preditory pricing. Let's face it, you can buy a hardcover copy of the latest best seller for 20-30% off at the big box chain bookstore or you can go to the we've got everything under one roof retailer and get it for less and if you know where to go on the internet you can get it for even less (>$10 @ zooba.com)

All of these venues have their advantages and disadvantages, but none of them offer the feel of an independent bookstore. Independents are often small places if you look at titles per square foot. Cramped aisles and impossibly high shelf's testify to the cost per square foot of retail space today. The location of these stores are usually less than the 100-90% desirable retail space that their competitors garner. One of things I like is that none of look like the other, each venture into a new bookstore is an adventure

With rare exceptions the people working in big box are retail people who need a job in retail or are building a career in retail. People that work in independent bookstores are Booksellers (The cap on the word is no mistake).

I often tell my friends that book selling is a "sip the kool-aid" kind of job. You either love it or you don't do it, because there sure as hell isn't any money to be made. And might I add unlike some businesses that underpay their workers and make fabulous profits, I don't think the owners of the businesses do that well either.
I could go on and on about how the chains have made life miserable for the independents and how their community friendly, we're just folks like you attitude disappears once they dominate the local market. How they suck money out of a community and put as little back into as they can, but that could be a book and in fact many of them have been written.

Recently I read an article in Shelf Awareness where an owner of a specialized bookstore, who was making the decision to stay open on a month to month basis, said what I've heard so many times before, "If people want to have a bookstore in their community, they have to make the decision to buy their books there." Everything else is irrelevant. Enough said