Booksellers Urged to Participate in Post-Holiday Survey

On Thursday, January 5, American Booksellers Association bookstore members were sent an e-mail from ABA CEO Oren Teicher with details about how they can participate in an important post-holiday survey of independent businesses [1]. This is the fifth year that ABA has partnered with the Institute for Local Self-Reliance [2] and a number of other indie business groups in conducting the survey. (The e-mail’s subject line is “A Very Short Survey With a Very Big Payoff.”)

Teicher noted in his e-mail that each year the survey “has resulted in a very informative and useful data — and, given the anecdotal reports that we have been hearing from a number of member bookstores, we believe that this is an especially important year to conduct the survey.”

The short survey has two goals:

• To gauge how independent businesses are faring in today’s economy.
• To assess whether people are more aware and supportive of locally owned, independent businesses.

The deadline for survey responses is midnight PST on Tuesday, January 17.

Last year, more than 2,700 businesses completed the survey and its findings were featured in more than 200 stories in local and national news media. The survey provided unique and important data about the viability of independent businesses and the effectiveness of “Buy Local First” initiatives, and it documented increased public support for independent businesses. Among other things, the survey showed that more holiday shoppers deliberately sought out locally owned businesses and that, once again, indie retailers in cities with active “Buy Local” or “Think Local First” campaigns reported stronger holiday sales than those in cities without such campaigns.

Teicher’s e-mail contained a link to the online survey [1], which should only take a few minutes to complete.

The survey does not solicit the names of booksellers or their businesses, and only aggregate data will be viewed and released. All individual responses are completely private.

Booksellers with questions about the survey can e-mail David Grogan [3], ABA senior public policy analyst.