Help DIESEL, A Bookstore Keep Going ~ Johnny 99 Fund
Dear Reader,
We have always seen our bookselling as an ecology of people, ideas, experiences, places, and conversation. We are subject to vicissitudes, ups and downs, as part of the wider society and culture, as all of us are. But Covid-19 has had consequences like no other.
We have tried to weather this storm, with creative reinvention, hard work, and perseverance, as we always have. We've managed to keep our booksellers afloat financially and with the necessary health care. But at this point, our stores are foundering.
We've had wonderful support from our customers: ordering books, buying gift certificates, switching to us for their ebooks and streaming audio. But it is not enough, given our rent, operating expenses and our publisher debt, to sustain us.
So we are asking for your support to restore us to a sustainable level, to make it through this taxing time. We know we are not alone in struggling to survive. Many independent businesses lack the resources and financial support to make it through this extended challenge. Many aren't making it, and we hope not to be one of them.
We have resisted this appeal to our wider community but now we are running out of time. It is either this, or ending our run as a quality independent bookstore. If there is anything you can do to help to keep us going, it would be greatly appreciated. Please contribute if you can.
If you would please share this Go Fund Me with those you know, far and wide, we may be able to get the support we need. This is how ecologies work, under strain. As biologist Robin Wall Kimmerer says "When times are easy and there's plenty to go around, individual species can go it alone. But when conditions are harsh and life is tenuous, it takes a team sworn to reciprocity to keep life going forward."
As Bruce Springsteen says in Johnny 99: "Now judge I got debts no honest man could pay".
We hope to be able to pay our debts, and to keep providing great books and great conversations to our communities for many years to come. We cherish, and desperately need, your support at this time.
Thanks for all of your support these many years. May there be many more!
With Gratitude & Respect,
Alison Reid, John Evans & all DIESELfolk
