Yet again I am the bearer of bad tidings.
After Luke and I enjoyed story time at the Woodland Public Library this morning, I decided to take us on a tour of Main Street and pop into my favorite bookstore for a cup of chai and a hello. As I approached The Next Chapter I saw a huge fluorescent green sale sign in the window. “Ooh, sale!” I thought. Then I got close enough to read the sign.
“Oh.... Sale.” Sigh.
The Next Chapter, after a long and desperate battle, appears to be closing down for good.
With a heavy heart, I went in and offered my condolences to the owners. John and Vicky at The Next Chapter have been customers of mine through The Yolo Crow for three years, and I’ve been a customer of theirs for far longer. Theirs is the only bookstore in Woodland and, unless I’m much mistaken, the only coffee shop downtown.
“Is it certain this time?”
“As certain as anything ever is around here.”
This is the third bookstore in the Woodland/Davis area to go out of business inside a year. The Next Chapter started out in Davis and retreated to Woodland when Borders came in. They survived a Walmart and Target, but not a Costco.
Yes, Costco has a huge impact on booksellers, not to mention grocery stores and a variety of other small businesses. Think about that when you proudly announce the $3 you saved on a hardback there. I hope you drop it on your foot.
So where do you buy your books, folks? How many times do I have to ask? My readership on this humble little blog is not far reaching, so far as I know. I would wager that 50% of my readers live within a 20 mile radius of my house. In a strange sense, my limited range has a large impact on my geographic area, my community. Where you spend your dollars affects where I can buy my books. And I’m pissed. No bookstores in Woodland. We’re down to just a couple independents in Davis. We’re running out of opportunities to redeem ourselves, and quickly at that.
When you buy your books at Target, Walmart, Costco, Borders, or Amazon you are selling out your neighbors and whoring off your right to choose anything but that which Corporate America chooses to shove down your throat.
There is a domino effect that falls into place when businesses like The Next Chapter go under. I’m not just speaking about little businesses like The Crow (though I highly doubt we’ll be able to stay in business without The Next Chapter for more than a year). It’s an anchor store for an already suffering Main Street. It brings people downtown. As I walked back to my car this morning, I passed more than one “Going out of Business” sign. Is this the sign of our times?
Perhaps some day in the future, local businesses run by people who care will be some sort of novelty and come back into fashion. Until that fad hits, it seems we’d prefer to live in a convenient, sterile strip-mall wasteland. Sounds like fun.
I have had numerous friends tell me that they prefer the coffee at Starbucks because no matter where they are, they know what they’ll get. I can see why that would be desirable. That way you’d never have to try anything new. No risks, no gains, no discovery, no learning. You could remain exactly the same just like your decaf mocha venti frappachino. Perfect. Sign me up.
To how many other areas can we apply this splendid new theory of being? Perhaps we should clone our fabulous, bland, American chains and spread them over the whole world so when we travel we don’t have to see anything new? That would be convenient for us. Maybe we should try to fit our kids into convenient, similar boxes with neat little labels. We could teach them all the same things and squish them through standardized testing for quality control. That would be fair and equitable. We could merge our radio stations into one big conglomerate that plays minor variations of the same crap and dispenses the same formulaic information. Why stop there? Let’s get the newspapers and the TV stations too.
Am I going to extremes here? Maybe.
Maybe not.
So where do you buy your books? When you go out to eat, do you hit that local restaurant you haven’t tried or do you get in your gas-guzzler and drive out to the freeway to find a chain with manufactured food and manufactured whimsy nailed to walls? What about your endorsements? When you write up a new book or movie on your blog, where do you link to? The Avid Reader in Davis has a website. Did you know that? You can order books in your boxers and socks on your couch without selling your soul to superstores.
I’m sorry if you’re taking this personally. Actually, I’m not. I hope you are. I hope you’ll look around and see something you can do. The New Oxford American Dicitonary defines “community” as “a group of people living together in one place, practicing common ownership.” There’s a give and take here. Make sure you are doing both parts.
I’m not claiming to be perfect. It’s not like I’ve never made an online purchase. I’ve consumed numerous beverages from Starbucks and I undoubtably will purchase more. I’ve bought chairs at places like Ikea instead of local furniture stores. I’m sure you could nail me on a thousand infringements similar to the ones I’ve railed against here. Please do. I’ve actually turned on comments on my blog today just to hear it. Make me a better person. Please. I don’t want to be a decaf venti mocha frappachino. I want to try new things. I want to learn and change.
It’s an election year. Please vote this November and please consider all the issues carefully before you do. But please realize that in our capitalistic society, you vote every time you lay a coin on a counter. Your money speaks louder than your words.
I hope it speaks well of you.