Back by Populist Demand -- Celebration of Independents Week Unites Local Businesses and the Community

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Two years ago, inspired by the Book Sense 76, the owners of Inkwood Books in Tampa, Florida, put all of the month's 76 titles on sale during the week of July 4 to celebrate the Independence Day holiday and to bring attention to their store as an independent business. The response was strong enough to convince Carla Jimenez, co-owner of the store, to contact other locally owned independent businesses to help celebrate "Independents Week" from July 1 through 7. This year, close to 20 different businesses are participating in the week, which will include raffles for gift certificates donated by each business.

Publicity for the event asks community members to "celebrate our nation's independence [by] celebrating your independents -- for all your shopping, dining, and entertainment needs."

Jimenez explained, "Almost every one of these [participating] businesses is threatened by national chains -- the pharmacy, record store, restaurants. This way, we are joining together with like-minded stores to demonstrate all the attributes of local independent businesses. We offer community service, personality, accountability, and diversity. We are the ones that offer economic stability since recent studies have shown that every one dollar spent with us returns an average of five to the community in wages, taxes, and our purchases from each other." Jimenez said she feels that focusing on these positive qualities is far more productive than bashing the chains.

Best of all, said Jimenez, "this is so easy, an overworked bookseller could do it with very little effort." Participating businesses are asked to prominently display a common poster, place a listing in the Inkwood Books newsletter at a cost of $20, and donate at least $60 in store gift certificates. Each store will receive gift certificates from a selection of other participants equal to the dollar amount it donated. Businesses will all hold individual raffles for the certificates on July 8 and can divide the total any way they wish -- with one grand prize winner or several smaller ones.

"Last year, we got a lot more media attention than we expected," said Jimenez. "Big stories with photos were in both Tampa papers and the local Fox affiliate had a popular announcer broadcast from a different participating business each day of Independents Week."

Jimenez would love to see this relatively modest event form the basis of a full-scale, independent business alliance, "like the fabulous one in Boulder, [the Boulder Independent Business Alliance]." But, for now, she explained, this is "an incredibly simple way to get some attention, without a well-funded, well-staffed organization. This event has brought all of us closer together and made us more aware of our commonalities."

Watch for more articles on local business alliances in upcoming issues of BTW.--Nomi Schwartz