On the Appeal of Indie Bookstores
“This is why I am always wary of the full-scale attack that so many people level against Amazon, aside from the fact that it is exhausting.”
Stephanie is one of my favorite booksellers, online and in person, and WORD Brooklyn is one of many examples of why that Slate article that has everyone in a tizzy right now is so wrong and stupid. Better to read her thoughtful, reasonable take on Amazon than give that troll any further satisfaction.
Personally, I believe Amazon and local indies can—and will continue to—co-exist, because they serve two very different types of readers, and where there is overlap (like me), they offer two very different experiences that the other can’t match. Sometimes I want what I want, and I want it cheap and with free two-day shipping. Other times, I don’t really know what I want, but I love to browse the shelves of our local indie (Montclair Book Center) or B&N, willing to pay full price for whatever serendipity puts in front of me.
While some people undoubtedly use indie bookstores only as a showroom for scouting Amazon purchases—they’re called assholes—instead of seeing that as something to be outraged about, I prefer to see it as an opportunity to convert a browser into a customer. Foot traffic FTW!
Rather than simply focusing on the commodities on the shelves that Amazon sells cheaper, the emphasis should be on the tangible factors Amazon can’t match—personal recommendations; creative curation of related but lesser-known books; in-store events; hyper-local products (not just books); and the convenience of online shopping via IndieBound.
One of my favorite bookstores is the tiny Fountain Bookstore in Richmond, VA, one of the smallest retail spaces I’ve ever been in, but whose shelves were filled with carefully chosen handfuls of books in each category—including a shelf of recommendations from Rebecca Joines Schinsky, a local book blogger—a nice selection of signed books and interesting non-book items, and one of the friendliest people I’ve ever met behind the counter, Kelly Justice.
There are a number of challenges indie booksellers face—a shit economy being the biggest of them—and there are many that won’t succeed, not because Amazon put them out of business but because THAT’S WHAT HAPPENS TO MOST BUSINESSES. There are many neighborhoods that simply can’t (or won’t) support a local bookstore, and that’s perfectly normal, too.
But to pretend that bookstores across the board are doomed because you’re a socially awkward twit who likes to shop at Amazon is just being willfully ignorant and trollish.
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