David vs. Goliath: Which side is the SBA on?
Would you allow me a moment on the proverbial soap box?
I recently joined three other metro area independent bookstore owners for an online meeting with two members of Senator Amy Klobuchar’s staff. The senator serves as Chairwoman of the Subcommittee on Competition Policy, Antitrust, and Consumer Rights. The Main Street Alliance organized the call.
This was our chance to express our dismay with what I’m guessing is a little-known fact among most book lovers—Amazon was a corporate sponsor for the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) National Small Business Week this past spring.
Just sit with that for a moment. Amazon. A sponsor of Small Business Week. Can you just smell the hypocrisy? (VISA was a sponsor, too. But that’s a topic for another soap box.)
During the meeting, each bookstore owner was invited to introduce herself and ask questions. My two questions: 1) Have sponsors for Small Business Week 2025 (May 4–10) been decided yet; and 2) How much did Amazon’s 2024 sponsorship cost?
The answers? 1) No, at least not publicly; and 2) $30,000.
Let’s sit with that another moment. Amazon paid $30K for that sponsorship. Thirty thousand measly dollars. Jeff Bezos could have dug up that pocket change from under his couch cushion.
Let me share a few more little-known facts:
· The bad news—after Bezos launched Amazon in 1995, more than half of all independent bookstores shuttered between 1998–2020. By 2021, only about 2,000 indie shops remained
· The good news—currently, there are more independent bookstores in the Midwest than there were before the 2020 pandemic
I’m not naïve. I know Amazon continues to pose an ongoing threat to the future of indie shops. But I’m also an optimistic realist, and I’d like to believe indie bookstores are currently experiencing a renaissance. Why? Because of loyal customers like you who understand and appreciate what small businesses mean for your neighborhoods and your local economies.
And if you’d like to join the good fight to express your thoughts on who should (and should NOT) sponsor National Small Business Week 2025, you can contact the SBA at smallbusinessweek@sba.gov.
~ Beth
