Saying Goodbye

I've been trying to articulate my feelings about the impending closure of Borders ever since the announcement was made a couple of days ago.

First, let me say that I've never understood the polarity in the publishing community over chain bookstores. As an avid reader and a writer, there has been a place in my life for ALL stores, online and otherwise. I've used Amazon when I needed something quickly or something obscure, Indies when I'm near one for the uniquely personal atmosphere and customer service (when I'm on tour, I stock up at Indies!), and Borders and Barnes & Noble in between.

But Borders in Middletown, New York was my hometown bookstore. We may be only an hour-and-a-half from Manhattan, but we might as well be on the moon for all the access we have to great bookstores. There is one B&N in Newburgh (about 45 minutes from here) and a great indie called Oblong Books and Music in Rhinebeck, New York (at least an hour from where I live).

That is, quite literally, it.

My Borders was twenty minutes away and in the local mall which made it convenient on a number of levels. If I had to drop the kids off somewhere and had time to kill, I could go in, get a coffee, browse, and usually buy an armful of books. Pretty much any time we were in the mall and had time before or after a movie, we ended up in Borders. This was the store I sat in before I was published. The one I would walk through, looking at the books on the shelves and dreaming of a day when I might have one there, too. It was a refuge and a haven. Whatever else was going on in my life, the atmosphere there was largely unchanged in every good way. The staff are some of the most wonderful, passionate booksellers I have ever met. The fact that they happened to be employed by a "chain" didn't make any difference in their level of book enthusiasm as far as I could tell. They allowed me space to host a teen book club and were always happy to spend time telling me what was selling and what wasn't.

I will miss the people every bit as much as the store itself.

But in truth, I'm not surprised that Borders is closing. I do hope B&N has a different fate, but I'm not optimistic. Not because of B&N but because of US.

We vote with our money, you see. It's something I've been telling my kids since they were old enough to earn a .50 per week allowance.

You vote with your money.

If you don't want to perpetuate something, don't buy it. If you do, you're sending a message that THIS is what you want.

Not long ago my son – who happens to work at Borders – was doing his stint as cashier during his shift. A very unpleasant woman came to his station to purchase books, complaining the whole time about how they were "so expensive" at Borders and how she could get "everything cheaper at XYZ Mega Retailer." My son tried to hold his tongue, but with the writing on the wall about the Borders closing and everything that had happened, he just couldn't.

So he politely mentioned that XYZ Mega Retailer was probably able to offer everything cheaper because of their unfair labor practices and the fact that they buy so much of their product from foreign manufacturers.

Now I don't want to get into a debate about XYZ Retailer here (my son was disciplined for his comment and took his punishment like a man). That's not the point of this post. The point is what the woman said in response, which was, "Look at me. I. Don't. Care. I don't care about anything except the money I can save myself."

And therein lies the problem. Too many people just don't care. So many, that they outweigh those of us who DO. And they're going to not care us right out of all the beautiful, graceful things that make this life wonderful. If it's one thing our children need to know it's this;

The things we do – and buy – have ramifications for the world we live in. The way we behave and the things on which we place importance shape the future of our world and society as a whole.

It's easy to feel like we can't – AREN'T – making a difference. But we do. One by one, WE DO.

It is sometimes a sacrifice to buy organic food and books in bookstores, to skip a commercially "big" movie in favor of an Indie, but every time we do, we're sending a message that THIS is what we want. And every time we don't, we're saying that we just don't care. That we won't miss these things when they're gone.

I will miss them. And I will miss Borders and all of the wonderful people who work there. I will miss the smell of coffee and the tactile feel of books in my hands, the ability to browse and look before I buy, to feel the heft of a book in my hand when I leave the store. I will miss the ability to wander into a completely new section, something unexpected that reminds me why books are so magical and why they open up any and all worlds to us.

I will make the trek to B&N or Oblong as often as possible, but the truth is, most days I won't get there. I will be too busy hauling kids, meeting deadlines, and just trying to manage the many responsibilities that make up my everyday life. I will still buy books, but without my local store, more and more of that buying will have to be done online out of sheer necessity, and I won't have the impulse purchases that so often resulted from my browsing. I will miss it all.

But I will keep voting with my money wherever possible, and I hope you will, too. Because when you get right down to it, we're all on the same side. We're all lovers of words and books.

And it's really very simple; If we want to keep our brick and mortar stores in business, we have to buy books there. If we don't, they'll be gone forever.