I Just Ordered a Book From McNallyRobinson.com
McNally Robinson shouldn’t have expanded into the Ontario market. That was a mistake. It is done. They don’t need to be reminded. They will be haunted by that decision for a long time. But here is the thing — they haven’t gone out of business. Their demise is not a forgone conclusion. They made a mistake. A simple, well meaning, grow-or-die kind of decision. That is capitalism for you. That is the way business works. Right?
Here is an argument in three parts.
Statement one: I realize mistakes happen.
Statement two: I want McNally to stay in business but my local store is already closed so I can’t help them out.
Final statement: I just ordered a book from McNallyRobinson.com.
It goes without saying I don’t have $30 dollars to spend right now, but I do have $30 dollars to give to McNally. Out of pity? No. I am not giving them a bailout. I am giving them a chance to win and keep my business.
I have never bought a book from McNally. I have never been in one of their stores. I don’t know anyone that works there. I don’t know anyone that has been laid off and I have never tried the soup in the Prairie Ink Cafe (although I hear it is good). By ordering a book from them today I am giving them a chance to win me over. Only McNally can save McNally at this point. I figure now is as good as time as any to give them a chance to save themselves.
That is about it.
I am not starting a facebook group.
I am not creating a #shopMNR hashtag for twitter.
I am not putting a badge like the ones below in the rail of my blog to show my support.
I am buying a book.
I am buying a book they have in stock.
I am buying a bestselling book to ensure McNally’s margin is healthy.
I am buying a hardcover bestseller to ensure McNally’s share covers — in the very least — the sunk cost of having the thing picked, packed, and shipped to me.
I am definitely not encouraging you to do the same. There isn’t enough people that read this blog to make a difference, so don’t tell your friends. Seriously it isn’t worth it. 140 thousand people would need to spend $30 on books that have a 50% margin for McNally to begin to even see the light.
140,000.
That is a lot of people. Certainly more people than buy books in Winnipeg in any given year. Certainly that is more people than buy books in Manitoba. It would be really really hard to even have 140, 000 people show support for McNally on Twitter. There is not even that many people on the internet that care about books.
In an earlier post I mentioned I had just watched Paperback Dreams. If you don’t want that movie spoiled then stop reading now. The movie starts with Kepler‘s closing. It ends with Cody‘s closing. That isn’t a fun arc until you consider Kepler’s re-opened 50 days later because a) it got community support and b) it got serious about changing the way it did business. Kepler’s still might not make it. That was two summers ago.
My point is I don’t want to see this movie again. I don’t want to see Tory, Paul, or Holly McNally on public television in 8 months complaining the internet killed them. Hopefully nothing will kill them but they could — if they wanted to and if they had the time — get community support on the internet. They could get their enemy to work for them. They could turn their event cam on themselves and post — non-pseudonymously and with open comments — on their blog. They could tell me who they are and why I should care. They could come into my home and ensure that I spend another $30 dollars next month. I am not sure what that would look like — part petition, part pledge-drive, part marketing-campaign. But I do know the McNally community is bigger than they think they just need to come onto the internet themselves and ask around.
Here is the $60 version and the one for $100.
An interesting post that I’m again late at responding to.
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