12/22/2024
❤️ Small business matters! ❤️
Small business owners in your communities can see first hand what is going on at the local level.
The money they make goes back into the local community. They are passionate and fierce (because you have to be as a business owner). They passionately and fiercely do things to lift those around them up.
We love our communities and the people we connect with on a personal level.
This guy right here is a billionaire now. You know how you go into Target for one or two things and then you come out with an entire shopping cart full? He does the internet version of that. It's called Amazon. I don't know... You might have heard of it. 🤷🏻♀️
There's lots of things that Amazon does well but there's also lots of things they do to undercut small businesses, writers, and specifically booksellers.
One of the things that they do that literally puts thousands of bookstores out of business is they sell books cheaply.
Now, you might be thinking to yourself, "Hey! That's just capitalism at work! That's a great thing! Books should be cheaper!" And okay. I hear you. But what if I showed you in black and white that some of the books that they are selling are literally sold at the EXACT SAME PRICE they are brokered from the publisher? Meaning... he's not making a single dollar on Dogman. Again, one of the things they have figured out how to do well is how to sell you Dogman at the exact same price that it costs me or any other bookseller to purchase it from the publisher.
WHY would such a smart businessman do this? And why in the heck should you care if you get to walk away with a few more bucks in your pocket? Well... Because just like Target, they know that you are there for Dogman... But you are also going to walk out with a full "cart" of stuff. They will use every bell and whistle to make sure that you do! And IF you don't walk out with the full cart today, statistics show YOU WILL be back two days from now or a week from now, or at least within the next 20 days. You're not in fact getting a cheap book or a bargain. You are spending hundreds on annual carts full of stuff but, yes, you "saved" a couple bucks on Dogman. 🤦🏻♀️
Look. I did not design the system. I'm not even twisting the way it works and trying to make it sound more dramatic than it is. The reality is wayyyy more dramatic than I am describing! (And in fact I sell a really great book about this topic, penned and published by Lawrence, Kansas' The Raven bookshop.)
The moral of the story is that you can either participate in THAT vision of the future or you can seek out local, small businesses and support them as much as reasonably possible.
Obviously I want you to do the second suggestion!! If you need a new stapler and you want to get it from Amazon, I'm not going to be mad at you. I had to buy a pricing gun from there the other day. (Actually, I bought two since I have broke two already this past year.) But PLEASE try to buy your other gifts and personal splurge goodies other days of the year from local restaurants and retail shops!
There is NO ONE operating these kinds of businesses to get rich. Very few of these businesses are doing it for their ego. It's totally demoralizing paying your bills in February if you didn't have enough customers back in January. Trust me. I'm telling you this from personal experience.
We operate these local, small businesses because we think it has community value.
We LIKE seeing our customers!
We love how neighbors come together in our stores!
We enjoy putting together displays and pulling out new things that we're excited about. And we don't think that you should have to go online and have somebody deliver it to you from somewhere else.
We want to lovingly tell you about cool items, wrap them in tissue, and wish you well as you walk out the door!!
At one time this guy in the photo had a homemade Halloween costume. He understood the value of homemade back then. Local. Building it yourself. Please don't be like this guy and FORGET how important all those values are. It's not about quantity. It's about quality.
💟 Halley
P.S. I'm done with this school semester in a couple hours. This will finally end what has been my hardest semester and my hardest six months in business. So I'm going to celebrate just a tiny bit. I have opted to not be in the store today because I'm going to be on the phone lining up and organizing some things. My mom will be running Seven Stories from 10 to 6 today. She will be promptly closing at 6pm btw to do something wild and crazy... We're going to the movies! It's that balance thing that everyone keeps encouraging me to do. 😉 See! I DO take your advice!! 🤪 I will be back in the store on Saturday at 10am.... What... I like you! And I look forward to seeing you! A movie is balance!... 😆😆😆⭐️⭐️⭐️
