I came across this post from Larry Portzline over at THE BOOKSTORE TOURISM BLOG. I thought the sentiment was so well expressed and I couldn’t agree more strongly so here it is:
I had a pleasant email exchange with a visitor to my blog a couple of days ago about the temptation to buy new books online. With the price and convenience, who can blame anyone?
But here’s what I told her:
I often look up books on Amazon just to get the title, author and ISBN number, and then I send off a quick email to my local indie and ask them to order it for me or set aside a copy. And sure enough a couple of days later I get an email back saying they have it ready. (In fact I just got a reply this morning.) It’s so nice, because it’s ALMOST as easy as ordering on the web, and I can pick it up at my leisure — usually when I go in to browse [and end up buying at least one more book]. The price is a few bucks more, but I know the money is going to a good cause.
And that cause, of course, supports my local indie bookstore, independent business in general, AND my local economy.Corporations in other states already get enough of your hard-earned cash. Why not keep more of it local? Thanks to the Internet it’s easier than ever, and once you get in the habit, you’ll wonder why you were ever tempted to go beyond your city line.
I understand this completely, and I agree!
Every morning I pass 2 different Starbucks locations to get a nice cup of mocha at my local indie coffee shop.
Being the owner of an “under threat” Post Office I find it amazing (and amusing) just how people like to keep it local in my particular community.
Price is merely one consideration I find. The fact that they can order (and have delivered) a 15Kg. bag of dog food having priced it on the internet at a couple of quid cheaper and then… do. Of course, it helps that we offer a high level of customer abuse (i.e. sarcasm tinged with a hint of genuine wit) to our visitors.
I have not shopped for any everyday thing since we moved to this village. The thought of ordering my groceries on-line leaves me cold (my one experience proving that the replacement products were never quite right backs that up) when I can walk up the road to my “real” butcher and get a rolled shoulder of lamb that’s delicious… and I drive past the farm they’re farmed on.
Oh, I should also mention that I am a book seller but that’s another story entirely… shop locally. It makes environmental, financial and common sense!
That’s great Brian, my wife went to Starbucks yesterday and I reminded her that Starbucks Corp doesn’t really need our coins but the guy across the street could use them.
David – We have a nice local fish shop here that we love to support and it seems in general local support seems to be growing.
I agree with this completely, thanks for the post
Price is merely one consideration I find. The fact that they can order (and have delivered) a 15Kg. bag of dog food having priced it on the internet at a couple of quid cheaper and then… do. Of course, it helps that we offer a high level of customer abuse