“In the time it takes you to read this sentence, Jeff Bezos got even richer. Not to get all “You’ve Got Mail” on you, but Amazon is killing independent bookstores. Need proof? Look no further than the Don’t Box Out Bookstores event, which featured installations at local bookstores around the country and launched in conjunction with Amazon’s Prime Day: View this post on Instagram 🚨 Amazon doubled its net profit this year. 🚨 ⚠️ Meanwhile, more than 1 independent bookstore has closed each week since COVID-19 shut the country down. ⚠️ Don’t let bookstores be #BoxedOut. 👏 This #PrimeDay, remember: ➡️Sales by Amazon & third-party vendors—in 2018 alone—accounted for $5.5 to $7 billion in uncollected sales tax. ➡️In just 1 year, Amazon sales displaced the equivalent of 540 million sqft of retail space & 900,000 retail jobs. (Civic Economics, 2018) This isn’t just capitalism and fair competition: ➡️Warehouse conditions ➡️Treatment of employees ➡️Competing unfairly with traditional retailers ➡️Strong-arming publishers ➡️Avoidance of sales tax collection for decades ➡️Demanded special tax rebates & subsidies This isn’t just about bookstores. Local businesses everywhere are being affected similarly. You have the choice to shape the world you want to live in. Where 👏 you 👏 shop 👏 matters. 👏 #ShopLocal #BoxedOut Photo credit: (1) 📸 @tommynoonan735📍 @cafeconlibros_bk, (2) 📸📍 @greenlightbklyn, (3) 📸 @tommynoonan735📍 @communitybookstore, (4) 📸📍 @solidstatedc, (5) 📸📍 @ravenbookstore, (6) 📸 @r__watkins 📍 @avidbookshop A post shared by American Booksellers Assoc. (@americanbooksellers) on Oct 14, 2020 at 12:45pm PDT According to the American Booksellers Association, Amazon doubled its net profit this year, while “more than one independent bookstore has closed each week since COVID-19 shut the country down.”The rallying cry is clear: You have purchasing power, and if you want local bookstores to exist in a post-COVID-19 world, you need to support those bookstores now. If you’re like us, you still have a stack of books that you purchased early in lockdown and you’ve been consistently adding to that collection, regardless of whether you’ve read the first pile. Or maybe you’re not reading at all right now (zero judgment; we’re all just trying to get by here). What we’re trying to say is, if you want to support independent bookstores without actually buying, well, books, there are other ways to do it.And, spoiler alert, those ways are very stylish. Light-years ahead of the popularized merchandise movement of the moment, bookstores have always had incredible merch that extends far beyond tote bags and mugs (although those are great, too).Below are 13 fashionable ways to support independent bookstores around the country. And be sure to look for merchandise from your local bookstore, too.Shelves Bookstore Reading Is Freedom SweatshirtShelves Bookstore (Charlotte, North Carolina)Get the Shelves Bookstore Reading Is Freedom sweatshirt for $40Vintage Strand SweatshirtStrand Book Store (New York City)Get the vintage Strand sweatshirt for $24.95 Powell’s St. Bernard Ringer T-shirtPowell’s Books (Portland, Oregon)Get the Powell’s St. Bernard ringer T-shirt for $25Large McNally Jackson ToteMcNally Jackson (New York City)Get the royal blue large McNally Jackson tote for $20Harriett’s SweatshirtHarriett’s Bookshop (Philadelphia)Get the Harriett’s sweatshirt for $40 Semicolon ToteSemicolon Bookstore & Gallery (Chicago)Get the Semicolon tote for $15 Fulton Street Long SleeveFulton Street Books & Coffee (Tulsa, Oklahoma)Get the Fulton Street long sleeve for $24.99BookPeople BandanaBookPeople (Austin, Texas)Get the BookPeople bandana for $15Chop Suey Books Flying Book Adult TankChop Suey Books (Richmond, Virginia)Get the Chop Suey Books flying book adult tank for $15 Explore Booksellers Embroidered Baseball CapExplore Booksellers (Aspen, Colorado)Get the Explore Booksellers embroidered baseball cap for $22.50Books Are Magic Book Wizard Tie-Dye T-shirt View this post on Instagram Trippy new merch alert! 🧙♂️ Our new tees have an extra dash of magic in a cotton candy colored tie-dye! 🍄 ⚡️Book Wizard Tees are now available in Adult and Youth sizes! 🍄🔮 Tap the product tag to buy! A post shared by Books Are Magic (@booksaremagicbk) on Sep 2, 2020 at 10:50am PDT Books Are Magic (New York City)Get the Books Are Magic book wizard tie-dye T-shirt for $26Solid State Books Wire Mandala Tote BagSolid State Books (Washington, D.C.)Get the Solid State Books wire mandala tote bag for $15 Greenlight Bookstore T-shirt View this post on Instagram Our merch wall’s had a refresh! All new merch is now available in both stores and online!! . . . AND if you didn’t have luck in the last few weeks of giveaways, we’ve still got some freebies up our sleeve for tomorrow’s party… See you there? . . . In addition to giveaways, we’ll have kids activities and 20% off throughout the Fort Greene store all day! At 6:30, we pull the bubbly out and get the party started. Visit greenlightbookstore.com/10yearsofgreenlight for more info.(P.S. it’s our sister store @yourstrulybklyn’s bday too! Sneak next door for 20% off there as well) A post shared by Greenlight Bookstore (@greenlightbklyn) on Oct 18, 2019 at 10:30am PDT Greenlight Bookstore (New York City)Get the Greenlight Bookstore T-shirt for $18.95
