3c hapter - Index of

114 Locavesting
In New York City, Greenlight and The Community Bookstore
are just two examples of a surprisingly vibrant indie book scene.
“I feel like there’s an increasing sense among people who love
books that there’s a value to an independent bookstore, that
there’s something you can get there that you can’t get from clicking
on a button on the Internet—and that’s great for us,” says
Greenlight’s Stockton- Bagnulo. “But the story is not that independent
bookstores are dying. Independent bookstores are evolving
and are still a piece of the picture.” 8
In the last couple of years, more than a dozen indie bookstores
have opened in Manhattan and Brooklyn, even as behemoths like
Borders and Barnes & Noble have struggled. Barnes & Noble,
for example, announced the closing of about 50 stores across the
country in 2010. Most were B. Dalton outlets, but the company’s
four- story Manhattan fl agship across from Lincoln Center was
a notable casualty. Borders Group closed hundreds of stores before
fi ling for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in February 2011. It’s
not just books. Blockbuster, the video megachain owned by Viacom
that put many independents out of business, fi led for Chapter 11
the previous fall. It may turn out that the operating model of the
big chains—massive cookie- cutter scale and corporate cost structures
predicated on generating ever- greater growth and profi ts—is
simply unsustainable, especially as more sales go online. As these
behemoths slowly dismantle their vast retail networks, the independents
will be left standing, providing their neighborhoods with that
modest but inimitable mix of service and community.
A Store to Call Your Own
As we’ve seen, many community- funded businesses are born out
of crisis. But lately, entrepreneurs are designing community support
into their business models in a more proactive way.
Saranac Lake is a picturesque town in the New York Adirondacks
with a history dating back to the early 1800s. Over the
decades, its mountains, lakes, and clean air have drawn summer residents
such as Albert Einstein, Theodore Roosevelt, and composer
Béla Bartók. This quiet town, whose year- round population of 5,000