One of my favorite customers came in last week with a huge smile on her face. Susan is usually a cheery person, but the grin was something special and I could tell something fabulous was about to be shared when she came over to the register. Susan has been shopping at our store since the very beginning. She is a huge proponent of getting rid of educational testing in schools to focus on actual, real-life learning. Susan also fully understands the struggle with Amazon that all indies face. In short, she is a perfect example of an indie customer who just gets it. 
Now, some customers get it more than others, and Susan is in the camp. She is an active member of the Charlotte Senior Center. Every year the Center has had a program where they donate a new book to any family that has a baby in Charlotte. Last year they gave away 32 books. These books were not purchased through us. This was a wrong that Susan wanted to right. She lobbied the Board to get the books from us this year. They begrudgingly agreed, even though they thought they might be losing money by not ordering directly from Amazon.
This is where Amazon’s perception of savings has people thinking everything  at Amazon is cheaper. Yes, there are massive savings to be had on the top 200 or so best selling books, but when you get deep into backlist, often books are full price. Susan ordered 30 copies of Woody Jackson’s Counting Cows to give to the newborns. I love the Vermont focus of this. Woody is a revered Vermont author/artist and the books are coming from us. I looked up the price of Counting Cows on Amazon, and it is actually cheaper to get it from us because we’re offering our standard 20% off multiple copy order.
I love stories like this. Susan is acting as an ambassador of the Flying Pig and doing everything she can to be support us in a meaningful way. And I love that all the newborns in town will get a book from the Senior Center that was provided by us.