It’s Not Charity, It’s Just Good Sense
The logic of the local indie bookstore
Some years ago, during the holiday season, I was flipping through a magazine and stumbled across a list of non-profit organizations that readers were encouraged to donate to. My heart twisted when I saw “local indie bookstores” on the list. Were things so dire for brick-and-mortar bookstores that we now had to view them as charity cases? I knew the situation was bad, but this seemed like a new level of tragic.
For three years in my twenties, I worked at an indie bookstore in a small town. The owner was perpetually stressed about money, rarely turning enough of a profit—after paying bills and paying her staff—to cut herself a paycheck. She told me about all the ways Amazon was single-handedly stripping America of the local indie bookstore. I came to see the situation a bit differently; rather than blame Amazon itself, I blamed all the morally compromised consumers who continued to support such a soulless, greedy, community-crushing corporation. Inwardly, I fumed any time I saw a customer stealthily snap a few photos of books they obviously planned to look up on Amazon later, then leave without buying a thing. I did my best to keep my agitation in check each time less discreet customers asked me to look up the price of certain books, then inform me they could buy them cheaper on Amazon. I wanted to tell them that because of Amazon’s vast inventory, selling non-book items for high profit margins, the company could afford to take a hit on books. I wanted to tell them about Amazon’s tax avoidance or the company’s meager wages for warehouse employees. Each time, though, I bit my tongue.