Local Business is not a Teddy Bear:
With Kepler’s Books closing last week after 50 years in business and a spirited conversation at Readerville about the role of independent bookselling against the cold truths of capitalism, what it means to survive as an independent retailer in 2005 has been on my mind lately. So I was particularly annoyed when I saw this piece in SFGate about Mod Lang, an institution for record collectors and music geeks based in Berkeley. Mod Lang is an independent music retailer specializing in “European imports and indies, classic and rare re-issues, contemporary U.S. indies, the latest in electronica, and music memorabilia.” According to the story, their top selling artists this week are The New Pornographers and The Lovemakers. They have an entire section devoted to 80s vinyl. Gives you an idea how much they care about catering to mass tastes.
That said, Mod Lang must still survive in perhaps the most brutal climate for music retailing in history. Tower Records has already filed for bankruptcy. Record labels are hemorrhaging money for reasons everybody knows. Downloading is not only rampant but painfully easy. The days when you needed to go to the “record store” to get music are long over.
So how does the scrappy Mod Lang stay afloat? The article says nothing. Not a word. Doesn’t mention how they pay their bills in one of the most expensive regions in the country, doesn’t mention what the store and its owners are doing to adapt, doesn’t breathe the word “iPod” at all.
Instead we get how the store began and where it got its name, what cool jobs former employees have and what rock stars shop there. It overlooks how Mod Lang manages to stay in business because, obviously, that’s a lot less sexy than the import Richard Hell bought there once.
I’m really tired of this, tired of this cloying, ignorant attitude towards the years of toil independent business people put into operations that are essentially labors of love. Small, local businesses are not teddy bears, not cute collectible baubles that will always be there when we need them. Most hang by the thinnest of threads, in a region, in an era, when they can vanish in an instant and all our loyalty, memories or good intentions don’t make a bean’s worth of difference. This can happen because they are businesses and this is capitalism and those are the rules. Business people know the rules and do their best to serve their customers, their community and assure themselves and their families some kind of future. They don’t exist in a vaccuum of our misty-eyed sympathies.
Their work and their struggle deserves our respect. Writing about Mod Lang and leaving out how it stays open, how it exists it a world that says it shouldn’t, is not just poor journalism. It reduces Mod Lang to a curiousity instead of the result of dedicated professionals. Must nuts and bolts always be postmordem like it was in the coverage of Kepler’s closing? That’s a deminution we who believe in local business can ill afford.
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10 Replies to “Local Business is not a Teddy Bear:”
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I think that a lot of times pieces like this are justified on the basis of ‘well, we’re giving them free publicity.’ So the author can indulge in fanciful coverage of the business because they feel that they’re helping to bring customers in.
I think that a lot of times pieces like this are justified on the basis of ‘well, we’re giving them free publicity.’ So the author can indulge in fanciful coverage of the business because they feel that they’re helping to bring customers in.
And doing so by not treating the business like a business.
And doing so by not treating the business like a business.
We’re embroiled in the homogenization, not just of the U.S., but the entire world, where, in the not too distant future, every town will have the same chain stores, the same chain restaurants, and the same lifeless feel to it.
Amazons and Borders, Walmarts & Home Depots, even Starbucks & the Gap–they’re like cancers eating away at individuality and character. The process pre-dates the internet, although the net’s made it much worse.
One doesn’t support local stores to help the local stores–one should do it because it helps preserve the character of your community–the reason you moved there in the first place. But we might as well be talking to a lamp post–if we could find one.
We’re embroiled in the homogenization, not just of the U.S., but the entire world, where, in the not too distant future, every town will have the same chain stores, the same chain restaurants, and the same lifeless feel to it.
Amazons and Borders, Walmarts & Home Depots, even Starbucks & the Gap–they’re like cancers eating away at individuality and character. The process pre-dates the internet, although the net’s made it much worse.
One doesn’t support local stores to help the local stores–one should do it because it helps preserve the character of your community–the reason you moved there in the first place. But we might as well be talking to a lamp post–if we could find one.
Dude, no one wants to read about how they stay open financially. And business owners probably don’t want to talk about it. It’s like asking a person how much they make at their job.
I understand where you’re coming from, but these articles are about selling dreams, not realities.
Which is probably why the first thing most people think of when they dream of opening their own bookstore is how comfy their sofas will be and what kind of readings they’ll have…not how they’re going to sell books.
Dude, no one wants to read about how they stay open financially. And business owners probably don’t want to talk about it. It’s like asking a person how much they make at their job.
I understand where you’re coming from, but these articles are about selling dreams, not realities.
Which is probably why the first thing most people think of when they dream of opening their own bookstore is how comfy their sofas will be and what kind of readings they’ll have…not how they’re going to sell books.
Rachel,
Much as I admire Atomic and the work you guys do, I have to disagree. The purpose of a newspaper article, even one about an independent business is to tell the story of that business, not sell a fantasy about it. Joe Selvin is a journalist, not Mod Lang’s PR Agent. The story of a successful independent record store in Berkeley in 2005 can’t avoid a discussion of how that business stays open. And if asking a business how they survive as a business is unseemly then A) journalists are paid to ask unseemly questions and B) not holding independent businesses to the same standards of business reportage and accountability is living in a dreamworld. And they will disappear just as fast as waking up.
Rachel,
Much as I admire Atomic and the work you guys do, I have to disagree. The purpose of a newspaper article, even one about an independent business is to tell the story of that business, not sell a fantasy about it. Joe Selvin is a journalist, not Mod Lang’s PR Agent. The story of a successful independent record store in Berkeley in 2005 can’t avoid a discussion of how that business stays open. And if asking a business how they survive as a business is unseemly then A) journalists are paid to ask unseemly questions and B) not holding independent businesses to the same standards of business reportage and accountability is living in a dreamworld. And they will disappear just as fast as waking up.