High5

Business is Booming
(What It Means to Bookstores, Authors and Creative
Entrepreneurship.) (by Susan James)

Everything is cyclical and things move so fast these days, that
it’s great when the circle comes back around during the time
that I’m in it.

Business is Booming. Just look around.
Car Dealerships are bouncing back and building new
dealerships. Automobile corporations have bounced back on
their own, some without the government’s help.

Small Business is bouncing back. Contractors are getting
more work, building more homes and apartment complexes.
Creative types are using their creativity to develop their own
businesses. And these Creative types are finding ways to create
income while expanding every other facet of their lives.

But that’s not even the half of it.
Walmart is adding ‘Walmart Express’ to its line of retail
stores. They were going to build 30-40, but now it’s
hundred’s. (ref: WSJ digital 3/11 M. Bustillo ) They want to
compete with the Dollar stores. This will create more jobs,
while, once again, making our day to day lives a bit easier.
But still that’s not the really good news.

Walmart, which was one of the main reasons we in the U.S.
developed The Big Box concepts in stores, such as record,
retail, and bookstores, is now opening smaller convenience
size stores.

What this says about you and me is: ‘We value our time, just
as much, if not more so, as we do our money.’ Supply vs
demand. Demand is saying, ‘we want more time to spend in
our lives and less time  in big stores.’ Supply is answering via
Walmart Express among many others.

The Big Box Stores for all of their wonder, put the places that
we used to run in and run out of, out of business. It wasn’t a
bad thing, it was just a thing. For shoppers, it became in
many smaller towns, the only place to get anything was at
Walmart.

In addition to small retailers who suffered the big box brands
coming to town, and the Walmart vs Target competition,
independent booksellers were also feeling the pinch. Big Box
Booksellers such as Books-A-Million, and Barnes and Noble,
took their  toll on the local bookstores. They too, began
disappearing. Part of them leaving our town streets, also was
due to Amazon and other online book sellers, causing
booksellers to adapt and change or die. Many disappeared.
But that too, is changing.

I’m a writer-publisher, who also consults on personal and
business development. I spend a lot of enjoyable time on line.
And some days, I just want to go somewhere, that I can GO
IN and enjoy the experience. For me, that’s bookstores. Many
of us spend loads of time online, either for livelihood or play.

I love to just run into bookstores. I love to run into people
who read books and visit with them over why they read, what
they read. I don’t want to join a group or bookclub. I simply
want to have a nice intelligent conversation with a face. A
face which lights up at discussion over reading.

I love the smaller bookstores that don’t try and sell me a
membership when I go up to the counter to pay. That’s a Big
Box mentality, trying to keep us coming back out of fear that
we won’t.  But I won’t come back, if each time, some poor
sales person has to meet a quota and try and guilt me into
buying a membership card. And if they don’t make their
quota, then they may lose their job. What’s fun about that for
anyone? And is that good business? Is that good customer
service?

Independent Bookstores as in other business is beginning to
boom again. We once again will have our favorite places to
go and mingle and spend our money on things we love doing
and being.

Business is Booming again on small town main street, and
once again we just might have to be thankful to Sam Walton
for breaking the (big) box down for us, making way for
entrepreneurship at a new level.

It’s exciting to be both in and part of the moment where once
again, Business is Booming!

Susan James

Author of her newest book, The Done Deal and 7 other books
emphasizing personal and business development though ‘User
Friendly Physics and The Susan James Method of
Manifestation.’ Developing Projects: The Susan James
Branches, Castles and Privately Famous Dot Com.

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http://www.susanjamesbookstore.com
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