There are somethings we never get tired of at Reiter's. A good book is one, and another is the effort to keep independent stores alive. We are an independent bookstore. We've been in Washington since 1936 assisting people from all walks of life find the books they need to learn whatever it is they wanted to learn. From grad students at GWU, to the security guard at the front desk of our building, we try to do the absolute best that we can, when it comes to getting the right book for you. We've expanded over the last few years to try to encompass a much larger audience. Our children's section is expanding at a rapid click, to get young inquisitive minds going early, as is our selection of posters from small graphic designers and artists from all over, which bring a fresh trendy vibe to our store. And as much as we try to please the community, and have what it is people want, it's becoming a very steep uphill battle. While we won't do the gloom and doom story, it's very easy to imagine what it's like to be a small store in a sea of big stores and increasingly titanic-sized stores online. Add that to shape of our economy and we've pretty much gotten into the gloom and doom we didn't want to talk about. So, one day last week, while tweeting on our twitter (here), we stumbled upon this new thing that a wonderful person named Cinda Baxter came up with. The basics of this "thing", called the 3/50 Project, is to help independent stores thrive without the added hostility that so many other projects have toward big box stores. Cinda asks participants to pick 3 independent stores they would love to see stay in business, and spend $50 in those stores each month. And according to her, just the commitment of $50 is enough to do wonders. We at Reiter's are fully on-board. We absolutely love this idea. Everyone on our staff has their own list of three stores and some of us have already gone over the $50 since we saw it last week. If you want to learn more about The 3/50 Project, visit the project's home page, go to Cinda Baxter blog, or search for it on google. And even if we aren't in you top-3, the good you do by being a part of this project helps us all in the long run.
