Boycott Barnes and Noble

To the Editors:

During the blackout, one of Barnes and Noble’s front windows was shattered. This was a non violent action not aimed just at economically hurting this huge corporation (it possibly had no real economic impact at all, but hopefully it did), but more importantly to send a message to Oberlin College students that their continued support of Barnes and Noble is the sole reason it exists here, and is both hypocritical of the supposed liberal beliefs of the school and classist (and racist) towards the residents of this town and surrounding areas.
This is the problem: fewer voices, fewer choices, and a multimillion-dollar corporation establishing itself in a small rural town in Ohio, further challenging independent bookstores in the area. Are Oberlin College students do-nothing liberals who don’t have the energy to care what happens to this community during or after their four year stint? Are they all talk? Residents have no say in the future of Oberlin’s economy, completely at the whim of the demands of a few thousand privileged youth. It is the demand that OC students create that brought this monster here, it is the obligation of OC students to kick Barnes and Noble out.
If you weren’t aware of the problems Barnes and Noble creates all over: today there are strikingly less independent book stores than there were a few years ago. (For instance there were over 120 feminist bookstores in 1995; there are less than 83 now!) Independent publishers are going under. Distributors have less to distribute. Writers have fewer publishing opportunities. We, THE READERS, have less to read. Internet sales and book chains control the market.
What we can (must) do:

* Order books through small presses.
* Demand universities to buy from independent bookstores.
* Write about this threat to newspapers and magazines.
* Post this information all over town.
* Send it in a mass e-mail.
* Help start a co-op bookstore in Oberlin, like there used to be!
* STOP SUPPORTING B&N IN ANY WAY!

What are the consequences of inaction? Independent presses and bookstores are sold or go out of business here and all over the country. Big bookstores tell the publishers to publish only big money makers; writers outside of today’s mainstream can’t get published. I hear you screaming “What! Barnes and Noble has a huge selection. Look at all those shelves.” Indeed, there are a lot of books at Barnes and Noble, but they are all books that are available through major book distributors (primarily Ingram). Barnes and Noble buys books at huge bulk rates, and therefore gets immense discounts from the distributor. It is good business.
What is wrong with the practice is that there are a huge number of titles out there that are not picked up by the distributors because they don’t sell in high enough volume. For a person to get a copy of one of these books, their local bookstore must be willing to place an order directly with the publisher.
Barnes and Noble doesn’t like doing publisher orders — they cut a huge chunk out of the profit margin and make up a very small niche in the bookstore business. Until customers started complaining and trekking back to independent bookstores, Barnes and Noble would just say these books were unavailable. That independent bookstores are closing their doors in huge numbers. Little independents are just not viable against the large chains, with Barnes and Noble as the king. When the independents are go the way of the purple buffalo, the publisher orders disappear, too. Why is this niche market important, you may ask? By limiting access to small press books, Barnes and Noble is effectively controlling the literature the American public is exposed to.
In sum, a few big businesses increasingly control what we read; ultimately, our very ability to think critically, our independent thought and spirit are in jeopardy.

—Greg Mallen
Oberlin resident