Re: Our Public Flogging

Last week we did a small piece on the folks taking pictures of our staff picks table so that they could then go and order the books online. A few days later, we got this (anonymous) response in our comments section:

Hey, you should probably stop getting upset at your customers (Thanks for yelling at me today, Woman With Long Brown Hair, and I didn't even take a picture) and do something about it. If most people are "buying it on Amazon," maybe you should consider SELLING it on Amazon. Duh? If you want to stay in business, take a shot at progressing with technology instead of being against it.

I responded with brevity and sensitivity in the comments section, but then realized -- hey, I could cut and paste this on our blog and take care of a day's posts. Win-win!

My response:

F**k that. If we started pretending to like every idiot that walks into our store, then we'd be no better than those amnesia cases greeting folks at the entrance to Wal-Mart. One of the benefits of working at an independent bookstore is independent thought -- please don't try and take that away from us. And as for your zinger of an idea about selling on Amazon...stupid. No bookstore in America gets the discounts that Amazon gets. Therefore, no bookstore in America is going to be able to successfully undersell Amazon...especially not on Amazon. (To quote the bard: "Duh.") But hey, no one's stopping you from shopping there. In fact, from this day forth, we're encouraging you to. Just don't express mock shock and faux regret when all of the rest of the indie bookstores in the country close their doors for good. It was the self-centered, penny-pinching, anti-localism spending habits of 'progressive' folks like you that caused it. Oh, and as for your "take a shot at progressing with technology" barb: You posted it on our blog.
Thanks for commenting!