Celebrate Independence!

We’ve fallen behind on updating this blog, and hope to change that in the coming weeks. We’ll be posting photos from our spring events, and sharing news about upcoming summer happenings, so stay tuned!

In the meantime, we’ve also failed to mention that we are IndieBound! Last month the American Booksellers Association announced a new initiative that honors and supports local businesses, especially community bookstores throughout the nation that celebrate free-thinking and unique retailers.

We’ve got the Declaration of IndieBound up in our store and these Ten Reasons to Shop Local on our website. You can learn more about the IndieBound mission here. In the coming months, we’ll share additional news about this initiative , as well as an alliance with a similar spirit being created by independent booksellers in NYC.

This July 4th Weekend, remember to celebrate and support all your local independent retailers!

Book Culture’s Biggest May Sale Ever!

Shopping local at Book Culture saves you money and provides hometown advantages for the entire community! We hope to see you in the store this weekend!

Sales Tax Fairness

Some thoughts from Book Culture’s owner, Chris Doeblin, on sales tax and the greenness of local business:

Governor Spitzer has proposed a plan (the Internet Sales Tax provision) that will require out-of-state online companies to collect New York State sales tax on goods they send to addresses in New York. One estimate suggests the state could be losing out on $50 million a year. Independent business organizations have been bringing the issue to Albany for years, but our current budget hardship is certainly the door opener here. It’s our issue because books are the first big item sold on the Internet and the mainstay of Amazon.

The latest twist is Amazon’s reply to the plan. They have sent Paul Misener, Amazon’s vice president for global public policy, to Albany to battle the plan. Personally, I have had enough of giant corporations molding public policy with elite executives walking into our halls of governance and justice. I prefer to have public policy support independents, small business, diversity of ownership and taxation fairness.

Many excellent articles have reported on this news. I direct you to Saul Hansell’s article in the New York Times on February 13. And I ask you to write to Governor Spitzer and support us by backing his plan to require companies such as Amazon to collect sales tax. The sales tax that we collect for ourselves makes us part of our communities. On the one hand, no one wants to be taxed – but let’s face it— we all want all the social benefits that our taxes provide us with.

Louisville Dispatch: Be the Bookstore and Shop Local!

With coursebook rush running smoothly, our Executive Manager Annie Shapiro was able to skip town to attend the American Booksellers Association’s 3rd Annual Winter Institute in Louisville, KY. She took time out between sessions to file this report:

The Winter Institute is two and a half days of intensive professional training specifically for independent booksellers. That’s heaven on earth for me, someone who lives and breathes bookselling (ask my boyfriend!) Actually, the first time I walked into Book Culture (then Labyrinth), several years before I thought of working here, I had the strange and overwhelming desire to be a bookstore. I turned to the friend I was with and told her, and she said, “What do you mean? Do you want to work at a bookstore? Do you want to own a bookstore?” I had no idea – I just wanted to be one! Well, I feel like I’ve come pretty close…

I’ve attended some excellent sessions and heard a couple of very inspiring speakers (including the CE-YO of Stonyfield Farm), but the panel that spurred me to action was a report on the Shop Local movement from four veteran booksellers. These booksellers from Austin, Salt Lake City, Menlo Park and Tampa have each been actively involved in creating and promoting a local business alliance in their community. This is a movement we’ve been aware of and promoting in a low-key kind of way, but I think the time has come to really educate ourselves, our staff and our community about the value of shopping where we live. After the session was over I turned to a fellow New York City bookseller who was sitting near me and together we vowed to take on New York, to do whatever it takes to create an understanding and appreciation for independent businesses.

The first step will be to educate myself on the subject, and naturally I already have a list of books lined up that I want to read. A couple that we have in the store and that are of general interest include: Big Box Swindle: The True Cost of Mega-Retailers and the Fight for America’s Independent Businesses, by Stacy Mitchell and Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future, by Bill McKibben.

To learn more about the Shop Local movement, check out the American Independent Business Alliance (AMIBA).