Indies

Fundraising for a good cause Death of the Machine

Indies

I love to shop at independent stores (i.e., not chains). Whether it's a bookstore, art store, music store or a local restaurant, these independent proprietors never fail to intrigue, interest and well, help me spend my money on cool things. pretty pin

From art via etsy, books from a great indie bookstore, or music, the special touch given by independent non-chain stores is beyond price.

An example (shipping notification email from CD Baby):

Your CD has been gently taken from our CD Baby shelves with sterilized contamination-free gloves and placed onto a satin pillow.

A team of 50 employees inspected your CD and polished it to make sure it was in the best possible condition before mailing.

Our packing specialist from Japan lit a candle and a hush fell over the crowd as he put your CD into the finest gold-lined box that money can buy.

We all had a wonderful celebration afterwards and the whole party marched down the street to the post office where the entire town of Portland waved "Bon Voyage!" to your package, on its way to you, in our private CD Baby jet on this day, March 15, 2011.

We hope you had a wonderful time shopping at CD Baby. In commemoration, we have placed your picture on our wall as "Customer of the Year." We're all exhausted but can't wait for you to come back to CDBABY.COM!!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Sigh…

We miss you already. We'll be right here at http://cdbaby.com/, patiently awaiting your return.

Can't beat that, can you? Every single time I get a communication from them, I grin.

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Sure, the prices are cheaper at the chain stores (sometimes) but frankly, being able to get a personalized autograph from Neil Gaiman (thanks to Mysterious Galaxy), a lovely collection of folk tunes by author Seanan McGuire or gorgeous jewelry at Cemetery Cat Designs trumps price in my book. The experience totally outweighs the cost–and you can't get this kind of unique product/service at a chain. Nope. No sirree.