Main Street Takes Center Stage at GLBA Show

The theme of this year's Great Lakes Booksellers Association fall trade show was "Making It on Main Street," and the GLBA plenary session on Sunday, October 10, focused on building local alliances to strengthen Main Street businesses. Betsy Jackson, president of The Urban Agenda, an urban development consulting firm located in Ann Arbor, Michigan, acknowledged that booksellers interested in building effective downtown business coalitions may sometimes feel "like the blind leading the blind."

But Jackson -- the former president of the International Downtown Association in Washington, D.C., who has worked in the field of downtown revitalization and management for more than two decades -- noted, "For 20 years, booksellers have been the linchpin for moving these [issues] forward." A key reason, she said, is that booksellers are adept at recognizing the import of trends and then incorporating relevant changes in their businesses to respond to those cultural forces.

The approximately 60 booksellers attending didn't have to take her word for it. Panelists Karl Pohrt, owner of Ann Arbor's Shaman Drumshop, and Julie Norcross, owner of McLean & Eakin Booksellers in Petoskey, Michigan, shared their ongoing experiences in building alliances among business in their communities. Pohrt, a president of his business association for four years and the founder of Ann Arbor's Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE) chapter, exhorted booksellers that "we are going to be driven over by a Mack truck if we don't get political or get active.... This is what we are called on to do," even as he acknowledged that he keenly understood that "we are all dancing as fast as we can" running bookstores.

ABA COO Oren Teicher, who moderated the 90-minute panel, underscored Pohrt's call for civic involvement, reminding those in the audience that they are respected members of their communities. "I tell booksellers, You have more influence in your communities that you often realize.... You can fight city hall and win."

Local businesses possess another important quality, Jackson said. Bookstores and other community-based retailers and cultural institutions offer a unique experience to consumers, who have grown increasing jaded by ubiquitous national chains. When businesses can organize within both local political and business institutions to offer people reasons to return and to sample different experiences -- and multiple opportunities to purchase products and services during their visits -- they will make great strides in creating vital and profitable main streets and business districts.

Jackson and Lisa Dugdale of Michigan's Washtenaw County Living Economy Network (affiliated with BALLE) offered advice on initiating the process. Dugdale emphasized the importance of "just doing something -- and [getting] someone well known [in your community] involved." Launching a project as simple as creating window decals for allied independent businesses sharpens awareness of the importance of a healthy local economy among shoppers and community leaders. Simply, if it exists, people will talk about the organization and its key issues, she said.

To read more about Main Street alliances and advocacy issues, click here.

For additional information, visit the Web sites of the American Independent Business Alliance, www.amiba.net; the Business Alliance for Local Living, www.ballenetwork.org; and Civic Economics, www.civiceconomics.com. --Dan Cullen