Long Live The Pineapple Chunks!
Remember New-Age bookstores? Remember when there were so
many bookstores around that they could actually specialize? Carroll and Barbara,
the owners of Volumes of Pleasure, where I work in Los Osos, used to own a bookstore
in Laguna Beach. They called it A Different Drummer. The store specialized in Women’s
and Gay and Lesbian issues. VOP has a spiritual leaning but we carry everything from romance, crosswords, mystery and vampires books side by
side with Ram Dass and Pema Chodron. You can't afford to specialize too much anymore.
Years ago I worked in a family owned custom framing shop next door to a Metaphysical bookstore in a small center
in downtown Malibu. I managed the framing shop, Deborah (who is still one of my
closest friends) managed the bookstore. I have fond memories of she and I
standing in front of our shops when things were slow talking about nothing and everything.
She would tell me about her latest conversation with (because it was Malibu)
Shirley McClain about her most recent new-age book and I would share my latest
conversation with (because it was Malibu) Miles Davis about…well whatever Miles
wanted to talk about. The shopping center was warm and friendly and all
independently owned stores. We all knew each other and supported each other. By
the time I moved away from Malibu it was already changing. The independents
were disappearing and the chains were flowing in. Which in Malibu (because it
was Malibu) were high-end chains.
I have been reading lately that Malibu is fighting back
against this onslaught. And (because it is Malibu) they have Dick Van Dyke as their
spokesperson. Cool! Every town has the right to and should fight to protect
their rural or small town to quirky or country or hip or whatever feel that the
people who live there know makes it special.
In my novel Connie and Monique’s Power Trip, Connie,
who owns a struggling independent bookstore in San Francisco, expresses an understandably jaded view of the American retail world, “…a big bowl of fruit salad
with identical bite size pieces of apples, bananas and grapes, Walmarts, Starbucks,
and Home Depots, floating around in a great white mass of ordinariness. A few
chunks of pineapple manage to add the illusion of exotic flavor but they are
quickly disappearing.”
Long live the
pineapple chunks!
Long live the pineapple chunks! And maybe a few pomegranate seeds? What a fun time that was--the era of the indie bookstore. So many of them were hubs for spiritual and intellectual activity. But first the big chains put most of them out of business and now the ebook may be killing them off altogether. Now those communities are all online. Not exactly the same. But at least we can find quirky stuff somewhere as our retail world becomes one huge Big Box.
ReplyDeleteYes, a few pomegranate seeds would be lovely! Sites such as Etsy are wonderful for artisans and crafters...and shoppers for that matter. Online communities are becoming our communities in so many ways. Thanks for the input.
ReplyDeleteI remember browsing my way through one independent bookstore after another in Santa Monica. One used-book store featured floor to ceiling shelves made of clean pine boards and cinder blocks (a la College 1960s - 1970s). Another place encouraged quiet meditation by way of dark wood furniture, incense and candles. And then there were the thousand volumes of books about Buddhism and all manner of Eastern philosophy and theology. Yes, we can still "browse" the clickable shelves of online books, but the special ambiance of an independent, brick-and-mortar store is missing. That and the quiet company of other book lovers. Long live Volumes of Pleasure!
ReplyDeleteAh yes...the bookstores in Santa Monica. I remember them well. Do you remember the Bodhi Tree? A wonderful old house with so many nooks and crannies, each with it its own brand of reading delights. Gone. So sad. Thanks for stopping by, Anthony and for the memories!
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