Support Your Local Bookshop
This is interesting: Let's Have a Local Bookshop Year, in addition to the suggestion that you buy a book to give to someone rather than the giveaway which has meant publishers are producing books to give away for free (loss leaders?), which doesn't benefit booksellers or authors (and not publishers, for that matter).
I was going to say I don't have a local bookshop, now that Albion has closed to make way for a second branch of Subway. Albion was part of a chain,albeit a limited one. We had a branch of Methven, which was at least a smaller chain, and stayed open until about 8pm. Now, it's another quasi Italian restaurant, because this town doesn't have enough quasi-Italian restaurants, aside from Little Italy, Pinnochio, Strada, Ask, Zizzis, Pizza Express and Pizza Hut. Now we have a Waterstones and a Wottakers which back on to each other - Sussex Stationers closed last week.
Of course, there's shop on campus, where I get a 10% discount.
We're told that the way in which local bookshops get squeeze ahead is on service. In seven years I ordered three books from them. I'm assuming one of these arrived without any trouble. The other one I ordered that day turned up on a shelf in the shop, and they had no trace of my order. The third one they'd never heard of, and had difficulties in finding online to order the day before publication. The book? Michael Moore's Dude, Where's My Country? Or possible Stupid White Men.
Guess which book was number one on Amazon when I asked them to scroll up through the list?
I would much rather shop local. And shop small. But sometimes, some people don't want to sell.
I was going to say I don't have a local bookshop, now that Albion has closed to make way for a second branch of Subway. Albion was part of a chain,albeit a limited one. We had a branch of Methven, which was at least a smaller chain, and stayed open until about 8pm. Now, it's another quasi Italian restaurant, because this town doesn't have enough quasi-Italian restaurants, aside from Little Italy, Pinnochio, Strada, Ask, Zizzis, Pizza Express and Pizza Hut. Now we have a Waterstones and a Wottakers which back on to each other - Sussex Stationers closed last week.
Of course, there's shop on campus, where I get a 10% discount.
We're told that the way in which local bookshops get squeeze ahead is on service. In seven years I ordered three books from them. I'm assuming one of these arrived without any trouble. The other one I ordered that day turned up on a shelf in the shop, and they had no trace of my order. The third one they'd never heard of, and had difficulties in finding online to order the day before publication. The book? Michael Moore's Dude, Where's My Country? Or possible Stupid White Men.
Guess which book was number one on Amazon when I asked them to scroll up through the list?
I would much rather shop local. And shop small. But sometimes, some people don't want to sell.