I grew up in a small town, and one of my fondest memories was walking down the street to Tallent's Drug Store. One dollar could buy a kid 100 pieces of candy, and owner Reece Tallent would press a box of Chicklets into the hand of any child he saw. At the time, the only chain store in town was a Kentucky Fried Chicken.
Fast forward many years, and all that has changed. Mr. Tallent and the drug store are long gone, and the four-lane highway which bypassed the historic downtown is now filled almost entirely with chain stores, one right after the other. The fact of the matter is, we're now entrenched in a global economy, and there's no going back to the shopping ways of the past, just as there probably isn't a place left where you can get a hundred pieces of candy for a buck.
That's not necessarily a bad thing. In her blog, author Tess Gerritsen wrote that every time she goes to a country like Switzerland and Germany, she's amazed by how many readers she has. Despite heavy rains and gale-force winds, hundreds of readers came to hear her speak in Hamburg, and afterwards they stood in an endless line, some of them carrying armloads of books to be autographed.
Still, the new business realities of chain-store malls and a global economy have taken their toll on independent stores, such as the recent closings of high-profile mystery book stores like New York's Murder Ink and Black Orchid. Some, such as the Murder on the Beach Mystery Bookstore, are still holding their own, as a recent article in the Florida Sun-Sentinel profiled. According to the article, owner Joanne Sinchuk has seen a decline in store book sales since opening in 1996, with most sales now online. Thus, book signings have become a staple for the store, drawing foot traffic as well as providing added value to book lovers. On average, about 40 books are sold at these book signings. Sinchuk also partnered with the restaurant next door, offering "Literary Lunches." For $29, people get lunch and quality time with an author and a signed copy of their book. They've hosted 1,300 lunch guests this year. "We're more in the entertainment business than book business," Sinchuk said.
I'm not an overly nostalgic person, although I do often find myself rooting for the independent stores to survive. Authors are understandably happy to have as many marekts as they can, be they chain, independent, local or international, but it's hard to imagine a child today walking in to the local Barnes and Noble and taking away any lasting memories other than how much they really like those Starbucks strawberries and cremes.
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