Support Your Brick and Mortar
We all order from Amazon, because it's fast and easy. They're the fast food of book buying. Which means it's not really good for you, it's just convenient. But keep in mind, they have an endgame. That is to outlast everyone and then hold the monopoly on the market. Which means that those few dollars you saved over the years will be given back to them tenfold. So what can we book buyers do? We can support our local brick and mortar stores! We all felt the pain when Borders closed, with a little joy mixed in for the deals we got, followed a few years later by the loss of B. Dalton. Look around you and you'll see stores are failing left and right. Toys 'R' Us, Boston Store, big chains and little mom and pop storefronts are going the way of the dodo to be replaced by the "convenience" of shopping online. Therefore it is more important than ever to get out of your house and go buy locally. This doesn't even have to be at an independent bookstore, though please support those too, go to your local Barnes and Noble, go and show them that their store matters to you, not just when there are events and book signings, but as an integral part of your life.
Why I believe so strongly in brick and mortar stores is that you form a connection to them. A connection that can never be replaced by just putting a book in a virtual cart. Sure, there's the staff you get to know and form a relationship with, but I think it's more than that. When you find that perfect book in a store you don't just remember how much you love that book, you remember where you were when you found it. You remember hunting through the shelves of the store and stumbling across it. The whole experience of finding the book and reading the book becomes a precious memory and that memory couldn't exist without brick and mortar stores. So this summer I'm going to make brick and mortar shopping my rallying cry! I CAN NOT lose any more stores to Amazon or the fickle economy. I am going to share with you the stores that I love and the books I found there. From local stores I frequent regularly, to the stores located regionally that I plan my excursions around, to stores I've visited once or twice on vacation that are located farther afield, and to the independent bookstores I've only ever dealt with online but hope to one day visit. Let's get this party started! Go out there and start shopping people!
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