Saw this tweet the other day. “Dear Toronto bookstores: Please stop closing.”  My reply, “Dear readers in Toronto, and everywhere, buy more books from bookstores BEFORE they go out of business.”

It’s that simple. If you want to preserve your favorite indie bookstore, garden shop, or coffee shop, you've got to quit speaking up after the fact. There we’re numerous tweets following the original plea, most all wishing these bookstores would stop closing. One person even said, “In Germany, it is illegal to sell books at a discount. Our govt has chosen not to intervene”. There you have it, it’s the governments fault.

Quit blaming the government, Wal-mart, or Amazon. The solution is simple. Go to your local bookstore, and buy some books. Repeat. Tweet, Facebook, and Google + about that awesome store BEFORE it closes. Then buy some more books. Stop on the way to the bookstore and buy an espresso at the coffee shop. Pick up some flower or vegetable seeds at the garden shop afterwards. Make it a habit.

Repeat often.