Small Bookstores
Bookstores have long functioned as a “third space” providing a place to connect with the community and learn what’s happening. This is particularly true of niche-subject bookstores like queer or minority-owned ones, so it’s particularly disappointing to see so many fail.
It’s awfully convenient to order books online, though, and most of us do, from time to time. Now you can leverage those purchases to support a small bookstore, too!
How to do it:
Bookshop.org based their business model around the value of small bookstores. Every purchase you make supports a small, local businesses by sending 30% of the list price to a bookstore you designate. While they don’t offer Amazon Prime’s free shipping, you get can feel good about your online purchases, and there are sometimes shipping specials.
If you don’t have a favorite small bookstore listed, your purchase will fund an equal distribution across all member stores, but you could also choose for activism! Pick a city currently under attack by ICE. Using the bookstore locator, find local shops (you can also filter by minority ownership) and designate them as your beneficiary. You could also choose a lower-income zip code to help keep bookstores available to everyone, or reward a book store you read about that’s engaged in resistance. Change your designee as often as you like.
