I’ve had the opportunity to talk with a lot of you via email (savebooksellers@gmail.com) over the past week about your thoughts regarding the current situation and I’ve enjoyed the fantastic ideas many of you have. Let me encourage you to keep them coming as the Booksellers’ staff has been very interested in your ideas. Before I delve into the final way to help save Booksellers, I would like to address the most frequent comment I’ve received about the petition since I started it a little over a week ago: “Signing the petition is a waste of my time because it won’t actually do anything.” I’m sure many of you who have signed have also heard similar comments when you’ve mentioned the petition to others. To help refute this common misconception regarding petitions and the specific purpose of this one, I’d like to list the ways that this petition WILL do something with every signature gained: 1. It gives our cause legitimacy. What’s the purpose of a potential investor listening to just a couple hundred people talk about a bookstore that’s going out of business? When an investor sees thousands of people showing their support for a local store, it forces them to consider the possibility of investing in Booksellers. With every signature we add, we are gaining legitimacy in regards to how serious this petition is taken and the potential impact it can have on local investors. 2. The increasing number of signatures keeps this story in the news. For nearly 10 days now, there has been at least one new story about Booksellers every day. Keeping this story relevant is one of the most important ways to keep Booksellers alive. 3. Lastly, why wouldn’t you want to part of something historic? If Booksellers is saved, you’ll be able to look back in several years and feel good about helping save a bookstore you and your community love. Way #5: Support Local Businesses You might be asking “What?”. I thought this was a petition about Booksellers? Well, let me assure you it is; however, supporting your local businesses is an important aspect of helping Booksellers and here’s why. If we lose a local bookstore that is one of our most important local businesses we have in this city (not to mention one of the most unique bookstores), it does not spell great news for other, smaller local businesses. We cannot allow the unfortunate news regarding Booksellers to set a trend in Memphis where local businesses are considered less important in our city. Memphis is a place with deep ties and historic support of local businesses. Without this support, Memphis would probably not have great barbeque or be a focal point of trend-setting music. Who knows what else Memphis will miss out on if we allow this moment to define the atmosphere of local businesses in the future. By supporting other local businesses, you are, in the same way signing this petition shows interest to investors, displaying that there is still a market for local businesses, which in turn keeps current local businesses open and encourages more people to open them in the future. So, next time you’re out and about, think about where you can shop to support a local business. Remember that #MemphisGetLit, Emmett Miskell