Talking the talk, clicking the click

So another day in my life: I was interested in getting a book for my kids. OK, if you must know, the Manga Guide to Electricity. My 7-year-old will read anything that has bubbles coming out of mouths, so I figure she might as well be learning about electricity while she’s doing it!

I did my usual few steps: First, check the Santa Cruz Public Library. This is where I always go first, because why buy something before you know if your kids are going to like it? And besides, we just love our library!

The library did have the book, but only as an e-book. This is a great option for many books, especially technical books that will go out of date almost as soon as the library can shelve them. The library also has a wonderful e-book service called Tumblebooks, which my daughter still loves even though she can read just fine. Tumblebooks are animated books that are read out loud to the child. As the words are read, they are highlighted so the child can follow along. It’s a fabulous thing for emerging readers.

An e-book of manga, however, is a lost cause. First of all, they can’t fit an entire page on my screen, so I have to scroll to read the book. Second, I can’t just leave an e-book lying around for my kids to discover. This is one of my most successful ways of teaching my kids. I call it accidental learning, but I do it on purpose!

So my next step was automatic: Type Amazon.com. It’s easy, straightforward, and beautifully executed. (OK, I would believe it’s beautifully executed even if my husband and I weren’t friends with the guy who built their system!)

It is, however, the very opposite of shopping local, which is what I keep telling myself (and everyone else) to do. Even when it’s not quite so convenient. Even when it costs a bit more. Even when my hands type “ama” and the link comes up in my browser. So yes, of course, Amazon had the book. And if I added the Manga Guide to Molecular Biology (which my son wants to study), I’d get free shipping, tax-free, to my house.

Ah, temptation.

However, I recently had a very nice conversation with Neal and Ryan Coonerty. Santa Cruzans and those who follow the plight of independent bookstores need no introduction to the Coonertys. Neal and his wife Candy motored into Santa Cruz in 1973 and bought Bookshop Santa Cruz from its previous owner. They proceeded to turn Bookshop into not only a popular store, but an anchor of downtown Santa Cruz. I remember before I lived in Santa Cruz I came here for two reasons: Bookshop Santa Cruz and India Joze. India Joze is long gone (though I had Joze’s cooking at the Avant Garden Party recently), but Bookshop is still going, now under the leadership of Neal’s daughter Casey. [Read my article here.]

Independent bookstores are the anchors of many a community, but they are dying a slow, agonizing death. First, it was the chain stores, which used their buying power to be able to offer books at lower prices and artificially inflated large inventory. (Ask me about my experiences as a publisher with Barnes & Noble sometime!) Then, it was the Internet.

Amazon.com poses two problems to outfits like Bookshop: First, they can offer things at lower prices. But this is always true of big guys vs. little guys. Bookshop outlasted Crown across the street (in fact, Crown went belly-up after their attempt to put Bookshop out of business). They are co-existing with Border’s down the street. (Hey, Border’s was my local bookshop when I was a kid!)

But Bookshop can’t get away from the tax problem. Yes, as a local bookstore, they have to charge sales tax. And these days, that’s about 10% of your bill. Amazon.com, as a Washington-based company, argues that they don’t have to charge sales tax. And so they don’t. And no one seems to care.

Except Neal and his family. And all the other independent booksellers who are attempting to compete fair and square with a competitor who not only can offer everything, but is being allowed to do it tax-free.

So here’s the thing: I went to Bookshopsantacruz.com. I searched for the book in question. They had Biochemistry on the shelves, and said they could get Electricity in 1-5 days. I ordered them both for free shipping if I pick them up a the store. Their software, yes, is a bit idiosyncratic. (Our friend who designed Amazon.com’s software makes sure that nothing he does is idiosyncratic. It works. You don’t notice it. That’s why he got paid the big bucks to do it.) But their software worked, and my order got submitted.

Within seconds, I received a nice e-mail:

Thank you for your web order. We currently have Molecular Biology on hold for you at the Information Desk. Manga Guide to Electricity has been ordered and should be here late Friday afternoon. We will call you when it arrives.

We REALLY appreciate your support!

Clytia

Bookshop SC

And they really mean it! How do I know? Then I got a phone call. I don’t know if it was Clytia, but she was very nice and she told me that my book was in (the one they had on the shelves). I pointed out to her that a second book was on order. “Oh, yes,” she noticed. I told her I’d pick them both up when they were both there. “Cool!” she said.

The Santa Cruz experience. No one at Amazon.com is going to call you up. They aren’t going to say, “Cool!” as if you just executed a rad move in the surf.

We live in a place. We chose this place because of the place it is. In order to keep it the place that it is, we have to do a few things. One, we need to pay a little bit more to the people who own our local businesses. Two, we have to deal with a bit of idiosyncrasy. Three, we need to love our idiosyncrasy.

As the Bookshop Santa Cruz t-shirt and bumper sticker says:

Keep Santa Cruz Weird

And, I would add, Keep Santa Cruz Local.