Annual Post-Holiday Survey to Arrive Monday

Bookstores should be on the lookout for an e-mail from the American Booksellers Association arriving on Monday, January 6, with a link to the seventh annual post-holiday survey conducted this year by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR), a national nonprofit research and educational organization, and the the Advocates for Independent Business (AIB) coalition.

The survey, which generally takes less than 10 minutes to complete and is completely confidential, has three goals:

• To gauge how independent businesses are faring.
• To assess whether people are more aware and supportive of locally owned, independent businesses.
• To identify some of the main challenges and policy issues affecting independent businesses. 

Past surveys have provided unique and important data about the viability of independent businesses and the impact of the localism movement. Last year, more than 2,300 local businesses completed the survey and its findings were featured in dozens of national and local news stories across the country.