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Independents Matter
 What
is Independents Matter?
Independents Matter
is a national grassroots campaign with a community focus created by
Canadian Booksellers Association to encourage booksellers to
celebrate their independence and promote the benefits of shopping
locally at independently-owned stores. Independents Matter is
part of a momentum-gaining movement in support of the idea that
shopping locally offers the best value, the best retail experience
and the best support for vibrant, vital and prosperous communities.
CBA wants to help members spread this message through
Independents Matter.
Among the many great reasons to shop at your local, independent
bookstore:
-
Local bookstores build
community character, contributing to the distinct flavour and
entertainment value of a neighbourhood.
- Local booksellers offer personalized service and recommend books
with expertise, passion and unique insight into the tastes and
interests of the community.
- Local bookstores support local causes—your teams, schools,
charities and arts organizations.
- Money spent at your local bookstore helps sustain the local
economy and create local jobs.
- Local bookstores offer you more choices—especially Canadian and
regional choices.
- Local bookstores are literary and cultural hubs, bringing members
of your community together to discuss books, exchange ideas and meet
authors.
These are just a few of the many ways Independents Matter.
What is Independents’ Day?
On October
16, 2010 independent booksellers all across the country will celebrate CBA Independents’ Day—a day designed to promote the importance of
locally owned businesses to lively communities, which serves as the
official launch date for CBA’s Independents Matter campaign.
Why should I participate?
Environmental, financial and cultural factors are combining to
create a growing will among consumers to reclaim their communities.
Now is the time to cultivate this desire by promoting how your store
contributes to the economic health and unique identity of your
community, as well as what consumers have to gain from shopping
there. By taking part in Independents Matter you join with
hundreds of other like-minded stores to identify yourself as a
convenient, creative, one-of-a-kind, welcoming place to shop.
Neighbourhood Independent bookstores offer more than books; they
offer an enriching cultural experience that allows consumers to feel
good about driving shorter distances, keeping jobs and money within
their own communities and discovering and supporting local authors
and business owners.
When you take part in Independents Matter by
circulating or posting marketing materials, presenting an event or
promotion, or raising awareness of this message among media and the
public, your efforts combine with those of your fellow booksellers,
amplifying the campaign’s voice on a national scale, all the while
highlighting your store’s importance to its own community.
How can I get involved, and how do I promote my involvement?
View the
Bookseller
Idea Kit for ways to get involved in and promote the event.
Marketing material
Click
here
to download graphics, posters, bookmarks and video clips and to find
out what other Independent Matter material is available to CBA
Members.
Independent Testimony: authors tell us why they love their local
Independent
"Long before I was a
novelist, I was an independent bookseller, working at Toronto's
Bakka Books--and ever since, I've made a point of supporting
independents whenever I can; they are the heart and soul of the
Canadian book trade, the people who are in it for the love of good
books. There's nowhere I'd rather spend an afternoon than browsing
in one of Canada's many find independent bookstores."
- Robert J. Sawyer
“Long before Canadian writers became
known internationally, the independent booksellers were devoted to
encouraging Canadian readers and Canadian writers, and committed to
forging the bond between them."
- Jane
Urquhart
“I revere and celebrate the
independents because they are about literature, not merchandising,
and hence stand in spiritual opposition to the times—much like the
best of the books they carry.”
- Steven
Heighton
“Independent bookstores have a
relationship with their customers built on trust and respect. This
work is personal, as personal as writing is to an author.
- Donna
Morrissey
Think Independent Read Independent Buy Independent
Links
Official Site for Bill McKibben
IndieBound
American Independent
Business Alliance Canada
Canada Small Business Week
The 3/50 Project
Business Alliance for Local Living Economies
The Relocalization Network
The Next
Bubble to Burst - Jan 2009
Independent Booksellers in the News
Bakka Phoenix Books, Toronto ON
(Three
Bookstore Owners Offer Their Advice For Success, Toronto Star)
Westminster Books, Fredericton
NB (Local
store thrives despite big chain stores, The Aquinian)
Audreys Books, Edmonton AB (Buy
Books: Audreys, Greenwoods Keep It Local,
SEE Magazine)
People's Co-op Bookstore, Vancouver BC (Bookstore
capitalizes on its socialist history,
Globe and Mail)
Brome Lake Books, Knowlton QC (Fred
Langan on the 'romance' of owning a small bookstore,
CBC News)
McNally Robinson Booksellers, Winnipeg MB ('Graveyard
party' nets local bookstore visit from author,
Winnipeg Free Press)
Gulliver's Quality Books & Toys, North Bay ON (Celebrating
small business,
North Bay Nugget)
Titles Bookstore McMaster
University, Hamilton ON (Mac's
Titles wins top award, Hamilton Spectator)
Little Sister's Book & Art Emporium, Vancouver BC (Little
Sister's Named Specialty Bookseller of the Year, Xtra! West)
Collected Works, Octopus Books, Nicholas Hoare, Ottawa ON (Quaint,
Charming & Bookish, Guerilla Magazine)
The Ginger Press Bookstore,
The Downtown Bookstore, Owen Sound ON (Book
stores, library plan annual walking tour, Owen Sound Sun
Times)
North of 60 Books, Fort
Smith NT (Blending
books and beans, Northern News Services)
McNally Robinson Booksellers,
Toronto ON / Winnipeg MB (Bookseller
offers red, white or a reading, Toronto Star)
Pages, Books on Kensington, Calgary AB (Reading
addict keeps Pages turning, Calgary Herald)
Pages Books & Magazines, Nicholas Hoare, TYPE Books, Toronto
ON (Independent
bookstores turn the page, Toronto Star)
Bibliophile, Montreal QC (A
bookstore owner who can read her customers, The Gazette)
Gulliver's Books & Toys, North Bay ON (Independents'
Day: local authors pay tribute to book store, North Bay
Nugget)
Oxford Book Shop Ltd., London ON (Putting
customers first the key to Oxford Book Shop's longevity,
London Free Press)
Munro's Books, Victoria BC (Victoria
shop in the good books, Globe and Mail / Tom Hawthorn's blog)
Canadianbookseller
articles
Getting Vocal on Shopping Local,
by Emily Sinkins
For more information on CBA Independents’ Day, contact Emily Sinkins
at 416-467-7883, ext 230, or
esinkins@cbabook.org.
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