Amazon Prime days will soon be upon us – this year they are July 11 and 12. Now that Amazon takes such a big bite out of all of our sales, it’s easy to forget that their first target was bookstores.  But the American Booksellers Association, whose members have been hard hit by the online giant, continues to fight back.

The ABA has just launched its The Future Is Indie campaign, which “champions the importance of independent businesses in shaping the future. The campaign seeks to inspire consumers to actively engage with independent businesses and make conscious choices that contribute to a better future — more economically sound, more vibrant, more interesting, and more diverse.”

Making clever use of the concept of predicting the future, the ABA uses a tarot deck as its theme. In place of the traditional tarot icons such as The Fool, The Magician and The Lovers, their graphics feature The Bookseller, The Bookstore, The Reader, The Star, The Sun and The Devil (any guesses who that is?).  

The message of the campaign is aspirational: 

The future will be…

• More Diverse

• More Community-Oriented

• More Local

• More Authentic

All independent retailers share these goals – and it’s easy to see that they will not be reached through customers shopping on Amazon. You could join your bookstore colleagues in their #ShopIndie and #ShopLocal campaign, or the Indie Retailer Month campaign started twenty years ago as a week-long celebration of the buy local movement. Encouraging shoppers to support independent shops everywhere makes us all stronger.

Happy Retailing,

Carol “Orange” Schroeder