the smell of scotch tape

people have a conscience. they generally do. its one reason why small businesses survive, consumers can't keep shopping at big bad chain stores just to get the better deal, they feel they must support the underdogs. that's another thing. people love underdogs.

for the past year and a half, i've listened to people talk about this: how they like us because we know our books and we have a better selection. how big book chains are impersonal and ignorant. they always assume that the battle is between our store and barnes and nobles, or our store and amazon.com. but people run these large chains and people also run small businesses. so when i tell you that a small business seeks to monopolize the small business industry, will you believe me? will you believe me when a seemingly virtuous small business seeks to destroy another small business? its true.

our store has never had anything against barnes and nobles. sometimes they call us when they don't have enough books, sometimes we call them. they acknoweldge our expertise and we acknowledge their discounts and large stock. no, we've learned to live with that reality. its when another independent children's bookstore sets itself up as competition, that's when we worry, because people are beguiled by their consciences. what's supporting one independent over another? they're both underdogs in need of our aid.

this is happening to us now. a small business is seeking to monopolize our market, seeking to shunt us out. the owner of this other bookstore has always attacked barnes and nobles, has always condemned their impersonal business and now she is trying to set up her own chain of independent bookstores, completely at odds with her stated beliefs. not five minutes from our location, she is going to open a second independent children's bookstore. she knows that she will be stealing our customer base from us. and she does this knowing her other store, her first store, will suffer from neglect. she is out to get us. other bookstore owners have tried to open two bookstores, but they do so politely. they make sure their location is not in competition with other independent bookstores because they understand how hard business can be without competition.

i used to think my boss was paranoid about this woman. i never believed her when she said she was out to get us. but then i visited her website and i was appalled. everything, from the description of the store to the description of the merchandise seems tailored against us. she points out things that she knows are sore points in our store. i couldn't believe it. she is using the book business to fulfill some kind of vendetta. either that or she wants to rule the children's bookstore industry. i don't understand why, but i know now that she is trying to bring us down. not even barnes and nobles has done what she is doing! their nearest location is at least 3 miles from our store while hers is two minutes away.

so.

it is not enough. it is not enough to have a conscience, it is not enough to feel compassion for the underdog. you have to be conscious of what is really going on because anything can be used as a coverup, as a facade to mask ulterior motives, even something as virtuous as independent children's bookstores.