Hi Shoppers,
It isn’t an easy topic to talk about …
Yet it’s what we should be doing: talking about it.
Instead, today we (waves hand at society) immediately “cancel” anything that doesn’t seem quite right.
If we destroy the past, how can we expect to learn anything from the future?
Don’t we run the risk of repeating mistakes that have already been made?
Shouldn’t we individually and collectively want to be better …
To learn as much as we can, help as much as we can, and just be good overall?
And then somehow pass that onto our kids?
In a totally meta move, today I’m looking back at a piece I wrote last year.
Here’s an excerpt from a Profit in Pumps I wrote in December 2020 — which still holds lessons for today …
So I am a huge lover of books. When my son was very young, we read tons of books together and he kept that love of books also, up until a couple years ago.
Now he just reads everything off his phone. UGH! He is still reading but not reading books like he used to.
So every opportunity I get I try to incorporate books into his gifts, which I am sure he just loves.
Ha! Yeah, right!
For his eighth grade graduation I bought him the book Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. This is so good! Written in 1953, it is still so relevant today.
I highly recommend it if you haven’t already read it.
I am pretty sure he hasn’t read it, yet, but I did write a nice motherly note on the inside cover so he will, hopefully, keep the book and actually read it some day.
Every Christmas, I make sure to buy him a couple of books. As he is getting older it is getting more difficult to find a book he will actually open.
This year’s book is about careers: what’s out there, what kind of schooling you need, income expectations, etc. Definitely something he can just pick up and leaf through, like I said hopefully.
A colleague has just recommended a book to me and as I scoured all the online book retailers (NOT Amazon!), every single one was out of stock!
WTH! And this isn’t the first time this has happened. I buy books often and somehow, with no other choice, end up on Amazon. Grrrrr….
As you know, I am a proponent of the little guy, the independent business owner, especially vs huge monopolies like Amazon. But come on! If you plan to stay in existence you need to have the books people are looking for!
Which reminds me of my write up “Etsy vs Amazon: Shopping Showdown.” It was November 27th and Etsy shot up that day from $148 to $160 and Amazon was trading $3216.
I predicted Etsy would trade up and recommended a call spread that unfortunately, it was too short dated. But Etsy is now trading $170 and Amazon closed at $3116 on Friday.
Yay for the little guy!
But let’s go, people, you have to have the books!! How do you expect to stay in business?
After reading Fahrenheit 451, you will be looking for alternatives to the big guys like Google (YouTube), Twitter, and Facebook, too, hopefully. But don’t get me started on that!
Epilogue
First, I’ve bought about a dozen books since writing that piece — with good success when it comes to smaller retailers.
Second, on Friday, Etsy closed at $221.14 — up nearly 25% since December.
Amazon, meanwhile, is down more than 10% in that time.
Yay for the little guy again!
Thanks for reading … See You Next Tuesday!
Licia Leslie
