As part of publicizing the concept of buying local, Susan L. Weis, owner of breathe books, Baltimore, Md., has encouraged customers who plan to buy any books online to do so through her New Age store--even if the titles aren't New Age. As she wrote customers recently in her weekly newsletter, "We can get you most books (not just New Age--but ALL books) in a day or two."
The enthusiastic response led her to write in her next newsletter: "As soon as I hit 'send' [on the previous week's newsletter], the phone began ringing and e-mails began coming in with book orders. You helped make this an extraordinary week at breathe books. Please keep the orders coming! We are here for you, and if you are there for us, we will continue to be here for you!
She also offered "to send books directly (and quickly) from our distributor's warehouse to your house (or anywhere at all) for just a few dollars. We can even gift wrap your purchases and insert a personal note."
The message continues to resonate. Last Sunday night while shopping at Whole Foods (but of course!), Weis was, she wrote, "literally stopped in my tracks by two customers who said they were taking their Amazon wish lists and e-mailing them to me. They said they had no idea I could get them any kind of books and they were so happy to throw the business my way."
Weis called this "such a huge lesson for me. I thought people understood that a bookstore is a bookstore is a bookstore. But breathe books is so entrenched in customers' minds as a New Age bookstore that they didn't realize I could order anything for them. Sometimes what's so obvious to us is not so clear to the customer. People need to be reminded and then they will be there for you! It's been an incredible few weeks and I look forward to a super holiday season."