Dear West Side Bookies,
‘Tis the season for festivities with family and friends, the season where personal warmth helps us get through the cold outside our doors. But sometimes, seeing how the season is described in various media outlets, one may get the impression that what we’ve really entered is the season for strange mass marketing campaigns and designated shopping holidays. We encourage you to shop whenever you want! We also encourage you to think about where you want to shop. Whether your Fridays be Black and your Christmases be White, and however your Hanukkahs and Kwanzaas and Festivii may arrive in between, we hope your individuality shows in where you spend your time and money, and what kind of gifts you share with your loved ones. Many alternatives to big box-store mania have been proffered by different groups; there’s Plaid Friday, Small Business Saturday, Buy Local Week and Buy Nothing Day, just to name a few. We appreciate the sentiments of all of these alternatives for various reasons, but we think that you should shop whenever you want, and call it whatever you want. You don’t have to call it anything at all! Gift giving is an intimate act, and the experience of selecting that perfect gift can be made easy and enjoyable by locating a smaller business with specialized knowledge and inventory and a staff who share a passion with the person you are shopping for.
We’re shopping at small, local businesses this year, because it’s a lot more fun, a lot more personal and rewarding, and the gifts we end up giving are much more personally tailored than they would be in a box store or chain outlet. We look forward to seeing you out there on the streets, and we look forward to seeing you here in the store!
Happy Holidays,
West Side Books
