Independent bookstore
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Independent bookstore is a term used in to identify bookstores that are primarily owned and operated by local people. They tend to have strong ties to the community and are frequently involved in non-profit community events as well as in cultivating the work of young writers. Independent bookstore selection tends to be more esoteric and less mainstream than chain bookstores.
Independent bookstores are under considerable financial pressure due to competition from amazon.com and other online sellers, chain bookstores, mass market sellers (Costco, BestBuy), and even publishers themselves. Thousands of bookstores have closed in the past decade and there have been recent high-profile independent bookstore closures (the original Cody's Books on Telegraph Avenue, Berkeley, California, A Clean Well-Lighted Place for Books in San Francisco and Printers Inc. Bookstore in Palo Alto). In some cases, the community has risen up to save an independent bookstore that threatened to close (Kepler's Books in Menlo Park and Cover-to-Cover Books in San Francisco).
Portrayal in film
Two documentary films, Indies Under Fire (2006) and Paperback Dreams (2008), explore the difficulties faced by U.S. independent bookstores in the new economy.
The competition between chain and independent retailers was fictionalized in the 1998 film You've Got Mail.
See also
