Bringin' It All Back Home: Localism Comes to BEA

The burgeoning localism movement took center stage at the session "Localism ... Is the tipping point at hand?" -- part of the American Booksellers Association's information sessions on Saturday, June 2, at BookExpo America. Featuring Bill McKibben, author of Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future (Times Books/Henry Holt), the session looked at "local first" efforts and how independent retailers are working together to preserve the diversity of their communities.

ABA COO Oren Teicher, author Bill McKibben, and ABA President Russ Lawrence listen to comments from the audience during "Localism ... Is the tipping point at hand?"

In kicking off the well-attended session, ABA COO Oren Teicher told the audience, "Some of us at ABA think we know the answer to whether the tipping point [in favor of local independent businesses] has arrived, and we are convinced it has." Looking at the booksellers in attendance, he stressed, "You are a part of that."

Over the past six years the number of local first coalitions has grown exponentially. "When the American Independent Business Alliance (AMIBA) ... formed in 2001, there were three independent business alliances. Now, there are 32 alliances affiliated with AMIBA," Teicher said. "Similarly, BALLE [Business Alliance for Local Living Economies] formed in 2001 and now has 52 networks across the country. People are getting it."

Teicher also pointed out that the Hometown Advantage, a local first newsletter by Stacy Mitchell, senior researcher for the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, has compiled a list of 18 communities with formula business restrictions and 31 cities, towns, or counties with store-size caps.

Noting that with each new economic study, it is more obvious that independent businesses offer more to their communities than do chains, Teicher said that ABA is currently working with Civic Economics to create a prototype of the recent San Francisco Retail Diversity Study, so that "every community can create a similar economic study." An official announcement about the economic study prototype is expected this fall.

Following Teicher's comments, ABA President Russ Lawrence of Chapter One Book Store in Hamilton, Montana, introduced McKibben, whom, he noted, was one of the first people to report on man-made climate change, in The End of Nature (Random House). Describing McKibben as "a very deep thinker and always ahead of the curve," Lawrence said, "Deep Economy argues that our lives are better when we live locally.... I find I mention his book [in some context] nearly every day."

"One of the great privileges of writing books," McKibben said, "is going out and talking about them." He told the audience that, when he informed his publisher that he didn't want the obligatory link to Amazon.com on his website, "the publisher was okay with me saying don't buy the book at Amazon. I think that speaks about where things may be going. I am much more optimistic [about localism], and ... I'm not the most optimistic person. After all, I wrote a book called The End of Nature."

McKibben explained how the food industry is perhaps the most advanced in terms of localism. Farmers markets are growing at a 10 percent to 12 percent clip per year, he stated. "That's quite remarkable. So why? The food and the quality are, of course, reasons." However, these factors are only "half the reason" why people will choose a local farm market over a supermarket.

The other half comes down not to food choice or convenience -- far from it, McKibben said, it comes down to socializing. He pointed to a study in which sociologists followed shoppers in the supermarket -- the consumers would go in, shop, and emerge with the same baskets of goods, with the only conversation being perhaps whether the customer wanted "paper of plastic."

In contrast, at a farmers market, when sociologists followed shoppers, they found that they had "10 times more conversations," McKibben reported, "which means it's not just a different method of acquiring calories. It's a different human experience. The local farmers market is not the anomaly -- what's an anomaly is this thing [the supermarket] we built in the last 50 years on the back of cheap oil."

The result of this sociological revelation is indicative of what's at the root of the growing trend toward localism: a need to renew a social connection with fellow community members. Following World War II, America experienced great affluence, which has resulted in "ever larger homes, ever farther apart," with a predictable result: "We see fewer people ... and that's a significant change for a social animal."

And not coincidentally, according to McKibben, one thing that has not grown in America is people's contentment. The percentage of the U.S. population that considered themselves happy peaked in 1956. By contrast, in Western Europe, which has at its core towns, cities, and villages built prior to the invention of the automobile ("walking cities"), the rate of happiness among the general population is far greater. The reason that people in Western Europe are happier, McKibben noted, is because these "walking cities" provide residents with a much greater sense of community. Simply put, people are closer together and interact more.

"At some level, everyone realizes there's an emptiness to [the present way of life in the U.S.]," he explained. "The moment is incredibly ripe for one of those sea changes. It's begun to happen with food."

McKibben urged booksellers to help lead the trend. "The natural tendency of retailers is to be neutral and inoffensive: 'The customer is always right.' But this is carried to the most painful extremes. Wal-Mart comes to town and retailers are afraid to fight, for fear of offending someone." He noted how Russ Lawrence's battle to institute a size cap actually helped increase sales at Chapter One Book Store.

McKibben stressed, "The idea that [localism] breaks conservative or liberal is a trap not to fall into. There's no way to tell if a farmer's market is liberal -- we need to get away from the polarizing [labels]. This is about community versus selfishness." He pointed to a local first movement in a conservative town in Wyoming that helped local independents out-compete a local War-Mart. "It wasn't a question that these store owners experienced a sudden conversion to Vermont liberalism. It wasn't a question of that, it was a question about neighborliness."

Attendee Betsy Burton of The King's English in Salt Lake City, Utah, concurred, and noted how Local First Utah has succeeded in a very conservative area. "There's no political implications to it," she said, adding that the group's membership includes Mormons and non-Mormons alike. Indeed, McKibben said, people of all political stripes "really want to have affection and attachment to their place." As such, the ideal of localism crosses the political divide.

In conclusion, McKibben said, "Bookstores have an absolutely crucial role to play [in the localism movement]. You're not peddling a commodity like others. What do you sell? Yes, it's entertainment, but really what it is, is a sense of ideas, an expression of culture.... You're selling the bookstore more than the book." --David Grogan