Ok all you anti-Buy Nothing Day people over at Pandagon. Shop if you must, but shop local — especially if you live in San Fran. Via the SF Chronicle, I found out about San Francisco’s Shop Local First Week, from Dec. 5 to 10.
Why’s it important to patronize local shops? In a Chicago neighborhood study, local stores returned $68 for every $100 to the local economy, while chain stores returned only $43 of $100. If you live in San Fran, you have lots of options: go here, here, here and here for resources. If you live in LA like me, however, the options seem to be limited, but not nonexistent!
As a grad student, I’d like to start with books. One indie bookstore owner was quoted as saying that “If people just buy 12 out of 20 (books at independent stores), that’s all you have to do and we’ll be fine.” Apparently, Borders returns only $13 out of every $100 spent to the community, while independent bookstores returns $45. BTW — The LA Borders have been switching over their cafes to Starbucks’ owned Seattle’s Best. I guess dominating Barnes & Noble wasn’t enough for the mermaid.
Anyway — May I introduce you to my fave indie bookstores:
Beyond Baroque. 681 Venice Blvd. Venice. 310.822.3006. Prolly the most avant-garde bookstore in the LA area, this shop’s also the most notoriously difficult place to actually shop — but also the coolest. Unless you can make it there on Fridays from 11AM to 6PM — its offical store hours — get there during a reading — The store’ll be open before, during, and after those. It’ll fulfill all your experimental poetry chapbook desires –
Dawson’s Book Shop. 535 N. Larchmont Blvd. Los Angeles. 323.469.2186. An antiquarian bookstore with lots of great rare books about Los Angeles, and a lil gallery with interesting modern photography. The owner’s also a great supporter of experimental poetry. We used to have cool readings here, before Andrew, who organized the readings, quit organizing to spend more time with his band –
Book Soup: 8818 Sunset Blvd. West Hollywood. 310.659.3110. My fondest memory of this place is a talk and Q&A by Lauren Greenfield, photographer and author of Girl Culture. The staff there has great taste — I recommend their recommendations. Parking’s tough, so try to get there via public transport. It’ll be well worth the effort.
Dutton’s Brentwood. 11975 San Vincente Blvd. Los Angeles. 310.476.6263. I haven’t been here in a lil while cuz the last time I was there, the cafe dude was rude to me and it pissed me off. However, don’t let that scare you away from the bookstore itself! It’s a real book browser’s paradise. The stacks are narrow, but packed with cool stuff, and — the disgruntled cafe guy aside — I’ve found the people there to be very knowlegeable, helpful and friendly.
Skylight Books. 1818 N. Vermont Avenue. Los Angeles. 323.660.1175. I love this place, but I haven’t been there in a while cuz it’s simply too far away from my fossil-fuel hating heart. But I love how they’re a self-described “fiercely independent” bookstore, and I wish I coulda been there for the Bret Easton Ellis reading earlier this year.
These are just my five faves — There are many others, and I hope they stay around. I also know we have some amazing indie kid’s book stores in la la land, but as a happily child-free girl, I don’t keep track of those. Feel free to mention them in the comments, however :)
Filed in: books bookstore losangeles local shopping
And in point of fact “relocalization” is one of the elements that helps one drive a bike more, or walk to the store more. Half of the non-auto process is knowing the local shops are there, and to make an effort to use them *first* even if you ride there in a car. The other half is to remember to walk, bike, ride (transit) to get there, maybe on a Weekend Off day. (Grin).
By shopping locally — no matter how you get there — you also assure the continued vitality of your area to support non-automibility in the future . . .
Comment by Roger, Gone Green — November 30, 2005 @ 10:36 am
cheers for shopping locally! I try and do the same thing; my business goes to the local library, and then to the local bookstore.
Comment by Leah — November 30, 2005 @ 3:30 pm
Sadly, none of these bookstores are walking distance — or even reasonable running distance — from me :( The library, however, is only a stone’s throw away :)
Comment by Siel — December 1, 2005 @ 10:07 pm
I have long been in the battle for the Indys. My main gripe is (Riggio said, “The progress I brought to bookselling was to treat books like any other commodity.”)that the chains make no distinction between books save saleability and margin. According to Reluctant Capitalists, a recent book about booksellers, B&N threatened publishers that if they didn’t cooperate on margins, B&N would boycott their titles!
I would love to send you samples of what I do. My students said to say, “For the first time in the history of reading, you can mark your exact line, find it fast and never hurt the book.”
Give me an address for freebies or look in Duttons or the great Vromann’s.
Comment by bob williams — August 22, 2006 @ 5:21 pm