Thursday, August 18, 2011

Justice now! Exempt Green Apple Books from Sales Tax

Sign HERE today! Spread the word!

photo by Robin Allen

Here's the press release Green Apple Books issued today. Media inquiries welcome.


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Pete Mulvihill – pete@greenapplebooks.com | (415) 387-2272

Green Apple Books to petition state government to become exempt from sales tax


San Francisco, CA (August 16, 2011)—In a move spurred by Amazon.com’s campaign to collect 500,000-plus signatures in an effort to overturn California’s Sales Tax Fairness law via referendum, Green Apple Books owners Pete Mulvihill, Kevin Ryan, and Kevin Hunsanger have decided that they, too, will take a step toward not collecting sales tax. “We, too, are fed up with government providing infrastructure, security, and education” says Pete Mulvihill. “Enough is enough.”

Co-owner Kevin Ryan further argues that while Green Apple Books is a long-established presence in San Francisco that has always collected sales tax, there are more compelling reasons for the store to discontinue the practice. “Sure, the sales tax on books purchased at our store contributes to a better quality of life for all Californians, including social services for the elderly and disabled, but collecting sales tax kind of feels like overkill. We do enough for the community anyway,” says Ryan.

“I like Amazon’s angle here, and I think ALL indie stores should be exempt,” adds co-owner Kevin Hunsanger.

Additionally, Green Apple’s ownership provides this list of talking points:

  • More than two-thirds of Green Apple’s staff do not have children and therefore should not really contribute tax money to public education;
  • Most of the staff members do not own cars, so maintaining good roads isn’t that important. They could just walk;
  • Statistics suggest that booksellers are 36% less likely to use emergency services than antiques dealers;
  • Although many of the staff at Green Apple do in fact enjoy state and local parks, they sort of think someone other than the bookstore’s customers should pay to maintain them;

On Saturday, August 20, 2011, co-owner Kevin Ryan will hit the streets in an effort to collect enough signatures to put this issue into the hands of voters.

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

LOCALS

I rang up Daniel Handler and Mike Giant today, in that order. It's nice to see the local talent out and about and supporting us. I suppose I am trying to pay it forward, or pay it back or something. Blogging about this is the 'retweeting' of early aughts, I guess. Note that Handler has a new book coming out soon. I would promote Giant's too if I was aware of such a thing, so his previous will have to suffice.




Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Back to School (yes, already)

Sunshine on Day One at Sunset Elementary!

Public schools have started up in San Francisco already.

My twins are on Day Two of kindergarten, and all is well so far. They were pretty beat after day one yesterday, and we spent a lot of time reading picture books at day's end. Even though we've largely moved on to longer chapter books (Matilda by Roald Dahl was a big hit this summer), they seemed to want to take it easy with some picture books. I think they somehow yearned to reconnect with their old picture books (and cuddly home rituals).

If you feel like treating your back-to-schooler with a new book, we have a nice display in the kids section right now. Good luck, kids and parents, in the new school year.