A Public Essay about Small Stores…by Robert M. Katzman
Robert M. Katzman’s Amazing Story: www.differentslants.com/?p=355
© October 27, 2014
Why support small Brick-and Mortar stores? Why bother? Some old man or woman selling a limited selection of whatever they sell or create. Walmart, Target, E-bay, Starbucks are infinitely more accessible, have mountains of things to sell and are coast to coast enterprises. You see one, you’ve seen them all.
Then why travel? Why visit little villages with unique pottery or cool coffee shops? Why go anywhere or meet anyone with the passion to create an imaginative, determined and one of a kind store? The odds of success are irrational. Some shopper can usually buy anything the small stores try to sell for so much less online. Brick-and Mortar shops?? Why not kill ’em all and just stay home in bed punching buttons and have stuff brought right to your door? That’s the life we all want, isn’t it?
No. It is a nightmare of computer selected items governed by region and recorded last purchases. You are no longer a person. You are a blip in a Cloud that knows all about you and what you want.
When you die, you are deleted.
Click.
Small stores are the beating heart of every neighborhood, artistic dreams peering out of a series of different shop’s windows, a person making a chair, designing a dress, rescuing a tattered old periodical so it may survive another hundred years.
Small stores represent the triumph of Hope over Logic.
Small stores supply an unexpected thrill when a unique item purchased there and given as a gift actually conveys the comprehension that the buyer of the gift bothered to take the time to do something special. That means, besides whatever one person presents to another, they are also expressing emotion that says: You are important enough for me to take the time to find a special gift.
Small stores sell magical emotion that the giant box stores can never duplicate no matter what they do.
Am I advertising?
No, I am one of those whom I describe here. I know the mind-numbing experience of staring out a wide store front window at an empty street. I know very well the sinking feeling of: What-do-I do-now? I am seeking to awaken the general population to a reality that indifference to supporting local stores creates empty storefronts, which hollow out neighborhoods. People who open small stores have dreams too. Help make them come true.
Be a mensch.
Shop local.
If possible, to anyone who reads this and understands how to use the social media effectively, please find a way to make my heartfelt plea, my cri de coeur, be able to be seen by many more people or newspapers, which like small stores, are also dying. I don’t have that sort of modern skill. Thank you.
The Old Magazine Store.com 4906 Oakton St Skokie, Il 60077 (847) 677-9444
(This store closed 18-month later on April 10, 2016, ending my 31 years in the antique paper business.)
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Publishing News!
Bob Katzman’s two new true Chicago books are now for sale, from him!
Vol. One: A Savage Heart and Vol. Two: Fighting Words
Gritty, violent, friendship, classic American entrepreneurship love, death, heartbreak and the real dirt about surviving in a completely corrupt major city under the Chicago Machine. More history and about one man’s life than a person may imagine.
Please visit my new website: https://www.dontgoquietlypress.com
If a person doesn’t want to use PayPaI, I also have a PO Box & I ship anywhere in America.
Send me a money order with your return and contact info.
I will get your books to you within ten days.
Here’s complete information on how to buy my books:
Vol 1: A Savage Heart and Vol. 2: Fighting Words
My books weigh almost 2 pounds each, with about 525 pages each and there are a total together of 79 stories and story/poems.
Robert M. Katzman
Don’t Go Quietly Press
PO Box 44287
Racine, Wis. 53404-9998 (262)752-3333, 8AM–7PM
Books cost $29.95 each, plus shipping
For: (1)$3.95; (2)$5.95; (3)$7.95; (4)$8.95 (5)$9.95;(6) $10.95
(7) $11.95; (8) $12.95; (9)$13.95 (10)$15.95 (15)$19.95
I am also for hire if anyone wants me to read my work and answer questions in the Chicago/Milwaukee area. Schools should call me for quantity discounts for 30 or more books. Also: businesses, bookstores, private organizations or churches and so on.
My Fighting Words Publishing Co. four original books, published between 2004 and 2007 are now out-of-print. I still have some left and will periodically offer them for sale on my new website.