Shopping Local

As the constant readers (few that they may be) who read this blog may or may not know, I live in Pflugerville. In downtown there is a billboard (nearish to Pflugerville HS) that reads shop local and has all the little things in Pflugerville that are owned by Pflugervillians.

I am all about shopping local. One of my favorite places to shop is the Book Box which is a locally owned resale shop. I think I have written a few blogs on this place but it still one of my happy places and Beth the owner knows me and mine by name and face. I love Ncredible Pizza which is also a mom and pop pizza shop in the same shopping center as the Book Box. And with Austin being in such close proximity there are also other many local places to shop so you can continue to support the local economy.

However, there is one local shop that I will never purchase from and (although I might get stoned by other Austinites) I have to get it out..../sigh. Book People.

The first time I walked into the store I did enjoy it. Of course the very first time was years ago in a theatre field trip (don't ask) when all we did was put on a stage production of Where the Wild Things Are for the older GMPs (Golden Myth Players). However I went there for a few signings within the last few years. One was for Christopher Moore when Fool came out and then a Kim Harrison.

I had noticed when I went to see Moore how excessively more expensive the books were there and I'm not talking in relation to the Book Box or even Half Price. They were more then Amazon, Borders, or Barnes and Noble. So while I love bookstores I had to forgo on buying anything that day since I was like "Yeah I can get this much cheaper elsewhere".

But what soured me was when I went with some girlfriends to see Kim Harrison. Most bookstores and authors have the rule that they will sign books other than new releases as long as you buy a book of theirs from wherever they're signing. Totally get and totally on board with it. When I went to see Sherrilyn Kenyon in Dallas a few years back I took three books for my Dad to get signed and bought one for myself as that was her deal.

So my friend who reads Kim Harrison (me and the other girlfriend were just along for the ride) bought the new book there to get signed. Afterwards she goes out to smoke and we linger and look for a few books. My friend has the same reaction I do when she sees the prices there so we decide to just skip out on purchasing anything and head on outside.

My other friend is out there upset and we ask here what happened. Turns out as she was leaving with her book in her hand (she didn't need a bag) an employee asked to see it to make sure it was brought there. She showed it to him and from her telling it he pretty much snatched both out of her hand to inspect it to make sure it was brought there since that is their deal or was for that particular signing. And of course she was upset because he was rude about it and made her feel like she broke the rules or something.

My opinion on this is this: this is why people don't like shopping local. Just because you're an indepenent store doesn't give you license to be a douchebag when people are paying for your wares. I'm like my friend Abbi--I'm all for shopping local and independence if I can only get it there. But when you have a store like this where you can go to virtually any other place (including HEB or Wal-Mart) and get the same book for like 5 dollars less? Then people are going there for the ambiance and just to support a local store. However I will go to a Barnes and Noble, Borders or just order the damn book on my Kindle just to avoid attitude like that and funneling money that way.

It goes back to the whole Maurice's incident. I understand that I am one lone little person. And I understand that not all independent bookstores are like this like the one I frequent here in P'ville. And I also understand days can be bad for some people and others love BookPeople. I'm just not one of those people. Books are high enough as it is without additional two extra dollars for an indepedent bookstore, not to mention where it is located (a good 30 minute drive for me) and it's located in one of the busiest areas of Lamar. When people go to places like this they should be treated like a person that the business is happy to see because they go to places to this simply to avoid being treated like just another walking billfold.

And that's my rant for the day.