Good News for a Bookstore

for a change.

Six months after Buffalo Street Books became a community-owned bookstore and began selling ownership shares to stay in business, the store continues to thrive and receive community investments.

Letting locals buy in seems like a good way to deal wit the disconnect of everybody LOVING their locally owned ___________....then briefly missing it after it closes due to lack of local support. People are unlikely to forget the place exists if they have a few bucks invested.

“Borders really defeated itself. If you look at the history of that company, it’s a series of disastrous decisions and … near the heart of that is the decision to standardize itself,” he said. “More and more, they moved to this vanilla corporate model where the corporation was telling them what to sell and people respond that poorly. I think one of the strengths of the independent stores is that we’re unique to the community.”

The owners of Ithaca’s used and rare bookstores also said that they were minimally affected by the closure of Borders.

It's true that chains have almost no impact on used book stores- we operate on a different wavelength.

I disagree that Borders folded because people didn't like it's 'corporateness'. Borders actually had a much more eclectic, interesting mix of stock than Barnes & Noble, who have thus far survived the great bookstore die-off.

They ate it for one reason - ereaders.
Well, two reasons- Borders also handled music and video, and those segments were crashed much harder and faster than books by the digital revolution.
But B&N rushed their ereader out before last Xmas and managed to turn a profit, Borders didn't and that was the end.

It's comforting to pretend everyone sees things the way you do, that they appreciate the individualistic nature of locally owned businesses and the economic benefits of keeping money local. But with bookstores one consideration trumps all- have they got that book I want? That's why the big chains decimated the independents in the first place, and it's why the internet has decimated the big chains and further mangled what was left of the indies.

It's nice to see at least one indy finding a creative way to stick around.