For me–a former bookseller and current publishing person–it comes down to community and distinctiveness. Can I promise that commenter that he’ll have a different experience buying a book from an independent than from a chain? No, but I think it’s likely that if he shops there regularly, and if he’s personable, he will. He’ll become familiar with the staff. He’ll start to take notice of their staff picks and recommended titles, and, if he’s adventurous, he’ll start to get an idea of who on staff has tastes that align with his. He may even find some books that way that he would never have encountered. He’ll likely see fewer tchotchkes and more books, and he’ll likely see more uncommon books.

He’ll also be keeping his money closer to home; the dollars he spends won’t all be hoovered up to a corporate office; instead, at least a fair portion will be spent nearby. He’ll help keep his local street bustling and interesting, and he’ll help ensure that at least one storefront doesn’t host a bank branch.

Is that enough to make up for the possibility of lower prices at a chain? For a lot of people, frankly, the answer is always going to be no. But I’ve spent enough time in local retail on both sides of the counter to know there’s nothing like it, and given a choice, I’ll always pick it.

One more thought: I worked at a bookstore in London for a while back in the mid-90s. It was part of a small London chain, Books, Etc., and it was a nice little shop with a good staff. But there was nothing about our branch to make it distinct from any other branch (aside from the handful of Middle East-interest titles we carried because of the composition of our neighborhood) of the chain.

In contrast, last week when I was in New York, I went to four different independent bookstores, and each one was obviously different, obviously designed and stocked to cater to a different clientele. Their stock overlapped in some places, sure, but in each store I saw books stacked or faced-out that I hadn’t seen in the other stores.

Thanks for your responses, Levi. One point in particular that you bring up goes right to the heart of the issue brought up by this commenter. He/she seems to assume all bookstores are the same and sell the same books, displaying them alike, with the same stock on their shelves. Not so at all. Each store of course has a personality. And since it’s likely this person hasn’t gone to an independent bookstore in some time, he just doesn’t know what he’s missing. So your points on this for me zoom in on the fact that for some people buying books is like buying anything else. For me it involves lots of emotions and opinions. Hence, it’s hard for me sometimes to get outside of that way of thinking, and see how others just dismiss all bookstores as places of employement for cloned middlemen and women hawking the same stuff everywhere.

Not remarkably long ago, I guest-posted this at Three Percent: http://www.rochester.edu/College/translation/threepercent/index.php?id=2472

It’s not especially helpful, but bear with me. Overlooking, as one should, the misplaced terror at the appearance of Google Preview, a neighborhood gent saw fit to respond and it sounds quite a lot like this poster. You can read more here: http://culturephiles.blogspot.com/2010/02/survival-of-bookstores-uncertainty.html

But the real points are these: independent bookstores do not have corporate axes to grind and independent booksellers are just that–independent, even of their shops. We’re here, as I’ve said before, to put the best of what we know in your hands. What we offer is a physical and curatorial experience. We’re up front about our agendas–such as they are–and we’re supportive of a culture of thinking, challenging people in the community at large. We’re a-corporate and interest is rarely in the bottom-est of bottom lines. We’re interested in serving our customers, informing and supplying them. And that I can (sort of) make a living doing this is one of the joys of my life.

Others will argue a bit differently. They’ll tell you how your indie booksellers live in your communities and money spent in the community is good for your local economy. And they’re right, but this isn’t important to the Amazon shopper, if they’ve thought about it at all. For a lot of people, the world ends when you turn off your computer. For me, it’s not merely about the product, but also the book’s journey to me.

[...] Quite Getting ItShareOver at The Constant Conversation, Matt Jakubowski posts about an, errrr, ignorant experience across the Atlantic: I wanted to point out the following argument, found at the top of the comments [...]

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by nyrbclassics, Brewster North and Godine, Publisher, Andrew Ervin. Andrew Ervin said: RT @nyrbclassics: RT @ScottEsposito: "I don’t understand the concern about the survival of independent booksellers." http://bit.ly/caea9p [...]

I always shop independent bookstores, because I prefer to support local business and not encourage the corporate model. Also, I find the available selection is much more in line with my taste at independent bookstores. Big chains always leave me wanting.

As the author of the Culturephiles blog post Jeff mentioned above, and someone who feels more than a little torn over the whole topic, I would further like to ask the folks here: what IS local? I think this is a critical distinction to make when we talk about the value of independent, *local* bookstores — whether that value is in curating books, the formation of community, or whatever it may be. How local does a bookstore have to be to be my local bookstore? If Jeff’s bookstore is an hour away from me by train (the coast of each ride being $2.25 right now, just getting there and back costs me 2 hours of time and $4.50 on top of the premium I will pay per book for the curation/community), is that still considered local? Both the Co-Op and my home are in Chicago..but how far is too far to travel to pay what I call the “indie premium,” and how much inconvenience should be considered acceptable? What if it’s too far away for me to take consistent advantage of the community? And I don’t want to throw cold water on the uniqueness of anyone’s individual book-curation abilities and literary expertise, but I can also get great information about books online, at fantastic blogs (like this one) and websites. Can’t the great book-blogs I read serve the same function as the independent bookshop owner, steering me in the direction of great books that I can then purchase at a huge discount from Amazon?

As I said in my blog post before, independent shops like Jeff’s need to make economic sense for customers not be purely about the emotions of book-buying (or the politics or morals of book-buying). Look at it from a consumer standpoint: I can get great suggestions and criticism online, I can get community from Goodreads.com, and I can save a bunch of money at Amazon. Anyone can look down their nose at those options, but I don’t think there’s a McDonalds/Fancy Steakhouse analogy to be made. After all, let’s not paint with too broad a brush – Amazon has a great book blog too, and can generate great, interesting suggestions; some of the folks who work at Borders might be just as well-informed and passionate as the folks at indie shops (if not moreso); and my friends are on Goodreads – my friends who know me and my literary tastes better than even the best-informed bookshop employee.

We all know that other booksellers support the old-fashioned model of indie shops, but “lay-people” (like myself!) must still be convinced somehow. I’m not here to say whether that is right or wrong. It just is.

Again, many thanks to those who’ve joined this discussion.
Martin: I have to say that yes, the question of what is and isn’t local becomes a problem when bookstores are nowhere near home or require a crazy amount of travel to get to them. Making those kinds of trips, while it might seem noble in some weird way to some people, sounds more like a wacky pilgrimage than anything else. (Not that there’s anything wrong with wacky book pilgrimages…I could tell stories, but will save that for later.(Almost turned part of my honeymoon into an academic tour of famous authors’ homes.))
Yet from a wider perspective, statewide and nationwide, and beyond!, I always have to argue for diversity of shops and merchants, kind of for the greater good, based on my personal anti-monopoly principles. Losing the smaller businesses to larger companies narrows the way ahead. We’ve seen Amazon’s tactics when they face companies and publishers and other industry entities they don’t agree with: buy buttons start disappearing, and ebooks are vanished from ebook readers. I don’t particularly want that crew running the whole book show.

[...] become something of an event, as described in this Times article. Apropos of comments about this earlier post, “Like any independent bookstore, Politics and Prose is a reflection of its [...]

Martin,

I enjoy local bookstores as well as local retail along several different points:

First, I enjoy window shopping and spending a couple of hours walking along the sidewalk and seeing what is available in multiple shops of interest. I think good retail stores provide interesting objects to see which stimulate curiosity and please the eye. In short, for me, brick and mortar stores provide variation and interest in my life.

Second, shopping at brick and mortar shops are more energy efficient. Brick and mortar shops receive a number of goods with less packaging in larger shipments. With an online store, however, goods are shipped to them and then reshipped individually. This means more energy consumption. Since I take public transit and generally combine my shopping and browsing at various stores in one trip, my carbon footprint is less.

Third: I am supporting taxation and dispersal of money in city. The taxes I pay on retail goods goes back to the city. Additionally, people in my city are being employed by the money I spend. Additionally, supporting independent stores means better chances of shortening the gap between the have and have-nots by helping support independent entrepreneurs.

Fourth: I am engaging in a human face to face contact and conversation. I am not an extrovert but I find it enjoyable to talk with knowledgeable people about books or yarn (I love knitting). Sure, I discuss many of my favorite pastimes online as well. However, I find that nothing takes the place of physical human interaction since there is body language, eye contact, and all that interesting other means of communication besides verbal language.