Dying Bookstore to NYC: Just Treat Us Like You Treated Amazon

It makes sense that they're making the same arguments, but sadly I think the difference is that unlike Amazon, this book store can't just pick up and go somewhere else. They inherently have no bargaining power, other than saying we'll go out of business.

If anything, it seems like being part of a community and sticking with it is almost a detriment these days. Companies move to where labor is cheap, and design processes to have replaceable people perform them quickly and efficiently. These tax breaks only go to companies that are pitting different areas against each other, which are very rarely any small or local business.

This happened to Borderlands in SF. Bookstores operate on such low margins that an increase in worker pay to livable levels in expensive markets puts the bookstore into the red (costing more to operate than it brings in) the owner had a community meeting to announce that the store was closing. Someone asked “what it would take to stay open and can we just give you that?” Borderlands now has a great membership program with neat incentives and invitations to private events. It was so successful that the owner took the bold step of buying a building since future rent increases were the next big threat.