How much do we value local bookstores?

One of my favorite types of stores are bookstores, particularly independent ones. I can spend hours soaking up the ambience, browsing through books, and sipping a warm cup of tea in the café. However, like many people, I have used Amazon many times (often not for books) because everything is at your fingertips, and of course the items are comparatively cheaper because of low overhead costs. Amazon’s latest strategy of an app for smart phones that encourages people to scan the barcodes of books at bookstores (and then compare prices with Amazon and buy online on the spot) has caused me to reflect on the impact my occasional purchases – combined with millions of other peoples’ purchases – are having on my beloved local bookstores.

I have already noticed the closing of bookstores and other small businesses in the areas I have lived in during the past few years. But it's not just about bookstores - our purchases based on convenience and cheap prices have an impact on all kinds of local stores, the livelihoods they support, and the numerous other tangible and intangible ways they contribute to the fabric of communities. To what extent are the purchases of convenience worth it, if this means losing the charming places that shape the character of neighborhoods?

Do the abundant sources of cheap items result in us purchasing too much of what we don't need from large corporations and leave us unwilling to pay true prices for meaningful shopping at small businesses - businesses that are invested in the communities they are part of? Learn more here: Local Bookstores Ask Customers To Boycott Amazon Over New Price Check App Offer

First Core Strand: Earth & Community

Here's the beginning of a web page we've put up outlining one of WIN's four core strands. We've called this strand "Earth & Community". (The others are Deep Democracy, Whole Economics, and Climate Justice, all underpinned by a contemplative dimension. The aim is to articulate a clearer framework for what WIN represents.) The development of this strand is ongoing as our ideas evolve and develop. Feedback is very welcome.

The Earth & Community strand comprises an intention to move: away from corporate domination and consumerism;
towards simplicity, sharing and a deeper connection to the earth & its diverse communities.

Introduction: What Do We Love?

The Qur'an succinctly draws attention to one of the trappings of the world:

"And you love wealth with boundless love!" (Qur' an: 89: 20)

One of the patterns of the human ego, or the self that needs transforming - is a compulsion for unbounded wealth and power. This can trap us into seeking the infinite from a finite outer world, resulting in a disturbance of the mizan or balance in both eco- and social systems.

And yet, this compulsion does not end at us humans. Indeed, the expression of this pattern, of this drive or love for power and wealth, can be magnified through corporations.

Corporations: Power, Profit, and Privileges

As corporations gain more wealth and power, their increasing influence on socio-political structures gives them privileges otherwise unavailable.

From the relationship of commercial banks with government, to yet another supermarket invading a local community, fossil fuel companies influencing climate politics, and pharmaceutical companies leveraging the medical profession, examples of corporate privilege are visible almost everywhere.

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