Main Street/Shop Local

This July, 250 independent bookstores will participate in the fifth anniversary year of Find Waldo Local, a shop local challenge co-sponsored by Candlewick Press and ABA.

Melanie Green, owner of Bluebird Books in Hutchinson, Kansas, has designed a bingo game card for adults, a grown-up version of the store’s summer book bingo for kids.

Bookmark It in Orlando, Florida, recently shifted from selling books at a stall in the local market to renting space and organizing events at other small businesses and in cooperation with area nonprofits.

Former B&N staffers Vina Castillo, Natalie Noboa, and Holly Nikodem are seeking to raise $70,000 by June 23 to open a general-interest bookstore in Queens, New York.

Main Street businesses, such as bookstores, that create relationships with their local farmers’ markets can benefit their own bottom lines while contributing to a community environment that nurtures social ties.

In the opening plenary at BookExpo America, small business expert Stacy Mitchell addressed the challenges facing the localism movement and gave an overview of key policy issues and advocacy goals.

Indie booksellers reported bustling stores, extraordinary sales, happy customers, and soaring community spirit following Independent Bookstore Day on April 30.

A new report from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance explores six strategies that cities are using to create an affordable environment where local businesses can thrive.

To celebrate Independent Bookstore Day, April 30, booksellers in Vermont and New Jersey are launching programs to showcase the range of indie bookstores each state has to offer. 

Hundreds of bookstores across the nation will participate in Independent Bookstore Day on April 30 with all-day celebrations featuring book-themed refreshments, poetry on demand, animal adoptions, and more.

Booksellers at BEA are encouraged to join Stacy Mitchell, a nationally recognized expert on small business and healthy local economies, for an insightful plenary talk about the evolution of localism from primarily a consumer movement to one that also includes policy development and political change.

Three video clips featured in the ABA Booksellers Forum education session “Indie Bookstores and the New Localism: What You Can Do” are now available on the ABA YouTube channel.

Starting April 1, certain remote retailers will be required to collect and remit Louisiana sales tax, as a result of e-fairness legislation passed earlier this month.

Kevin Gillies of City Stacks Books & Coffee and Nina Barrett of Bookends & Beginnings will be using some of the many resources in ABA’s New Localism Toolkit to educate customers, elected officials, and others about the need for public policies that ensure the health of locally owned businesses and their communities.

In an op-ed that first appeared in the Daily Californian, Amy Thomas, the president of Pegasus Books, explains why we should all be concerned that Amazon continues to create an existential crisis that affects more than bookstores.