Saturday January 3, 2004

Independent Movement Works to Counter Chain Domination

KELLEY SHANNON
Associated Press

AUSTIN - Shelves of books by Texas writers. Lots of CDs by local musicians. A "Keep Austin Weird" T-shirt selection.

It's not the type of merchandise you typically find in a national chain store. And a growing force of Texas independent business owners wants to make sure you know it.

Adventurous. Unique. Weird, if you will.

Those are the buzz words of a movement among independent business owners in Austin and the nation who claim that domination by chains can turn a town into Anywhere, U.S.A.

"People are essentially tired of having everything be the same. It's a reaction to that homogenous world that they're being forced to live in," said Steve Bercu, co-owner of BookPeople, an independently owned Austin book store.

A strong local business presence keeps more money flowing into a city's economy and promotes the culture of a region, independents say.

In Austin, Bercu and Rebecca Melancon, publisher of the local magazine "The Good Life," founded the Austin Independent Business Alliance after Bercu took note of a similar coalition forming in Boulder, Colo., about four years ago.

"It has been incredibly successful, just remarkably so," Melancon said. "It started with Steve and I and a couple of other people just calling businesses we knew."

The American Independent Business Alliance, based in Bozeman, Mont., is pushing the independent idea nationally. Independent business coalitions have organized in Phoenix, St. Louis, Albuquerque, N.M., and other cities.

"This is the moment. It's happening all over the country," Bercu said.

Even in Dallas, sometimes identified with sprawling suburbs and big chains, one developer is trying to build a shopping center for independent stores, Bercu said.

The Austin group has amassed more than 200 members. It has a Web site and a directory promoting local businesses. The alliance organizes an annual "Austin Unchained" shopping day to urge consumers to buy locally. It also has gotten involved in efforts to prevent construction of so-called "big box" chain stores in environmentally sensitive areas.

"Certainly the chains have their place. I'm not anti-chain. I'm just pro-independent," said John T. Kunz, owner and president of the independent Waterloo Records in Austin.

Waterloo Records opened in 1982 and is closely connected to Austin's music scene. Along with nationally popular CDs, the shop features music by scores of local and Texas artists.
It regularly hosts in-store music performances. Lyle Lovett and the Dixie Chicks are among those who have played at Waterloo.

BookPeople, touting itself as Texas' largest independent book store, stocks popular mainstream books but also offers lesser-known titles.

"We have hundreds of local authors on consignment here," Bercu said. "That's one of the differences in an independent book store."

The Austin Independent Business Alliance co-sponsored an economic analysis that found local businesses have about three times more economic impact on a city's economy than a national chain store. The alliance contends product prices and selection are usually comparable.

Although Wal-Mart is often mentioned by independent merchants looking to stop chain encroachment, a fight erupted in Austin over purported plans by Borders Books & Music to move into a prime spot downtown near Waterloo and BookPeople.

The BookPeople and Waterloo Records owners went to work battling the project and criticizing the city for offering financial incentives for the development. They sought public support through e-mail lists.

They printed thousands of bumper stickers displaying the slogan "Keep Austin Weird," which already had been coined by a local group. The bumper stickers were snatched up fast and since then 85,000 have been given away, Bercu said, adding that one was even spotted on a photograph of a Humvee outside Baghdad.

The saying describes "an Austin that always has been the melting pot, or the oasis, of Texas," Kunz said.

In the end, Borders decided not to build the store. The independents declared victory, although a spokeswoman for Borders said local opposition had nothing to do with the decision.

"That site just didn't make sense for us as a company," said spokeswoman Emily Swan, noting there were problems with the real estate and uncertainty about the other tenants.

"We hadn't even announced that we were going there," Swan said. "I know there was a grass-roots movement to prevent us from going there, but that didn't affect the outcome."
Borders, part of a Fortune 500 company based in Ann Arbor, Mich., has two other stores in Austin and has peacefully co-existed with independent book stores for years, Swan said.
"I don't think that there's any antagonism there, and we all have the goal to sell books," she said.

At Waterloo Records, where the music inventory includes local artists like the Derailers, the Gourds and Del Castillo, Kunz said he believes there's room for big and small stores alike. But, he said, independent shops offer more diversity and cutting-edge merchandise.

"Chains, for the most part, are going to stick with the tried and true," he said. "The true spice and the true innovation happens much lower in the food chain."

©2004 Associated Press

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