After showing the documentary, Paperback Dreams, at the bookstore last night [01/09/09], I found this note in an online journal. I had seen the film about the struggle of two Bay area booksellers before but I was struck once again at how oblivious most customers are to the perilous plight that their indie retailers are in, especially now that the economy is tanking. And it is no one’s fault, this lack of understanding that keeping money in the local economy feeds that local community and keeps it afloat. It is up to us to teach each other so that the lovely things in our lives remain and do not drop into the category of ‘fond memories’ as this writer suggests.
Indie Survival ‘All Depends Upon Us, the Consumers’
“These kinds of shops are facing a long, bloody battle–and one which, without significant reinforcements, they are likely to lose. As we hear of the travesty of another brilliant independent going down, we’ll mourn the loss, wring our hands and damn Amazon and the supermarkets and Waterstone’s. Yet perhaps the most important detail we’ll probably keep under wraps: the last time we actually spent any money there. Murder One closing its doors for the final time is undoubtedly a .38 shell for independent bookshops, but whether it’s body blow or a warning shot all depends upon us, the consumers. No one, no matter how iconic or established, can exist on fond memories alone: just ask Woolworths. Use these shops now, because it doesn’t take a master sleuth to deduce what will happen if we don’t.”
–Stuart Evers, writing in the Guardian about the closing of a legendary Charing Cross Road bookshop.
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