Why buy from us?

There are lots of companies out there that sell books. Why should you buy from us instead of one of them?

Selection:

First of all, we hope you will buy from us because you like the products we carry. We want our catalog to appeal to parents who understand that the traditional school model of learning is very limiting. Too many other catalogs are centered on pre-packaged curriculum materials. Strictly following a pre-packaged curriculum is like driving your car and never taking it out of first gear or never going faster than 25 miles per hour anywhere you go because that's the speed limit in a school zone. Sure, you could brag about how much faster you are traveling than if you were walking, or how much further you can go in a day compared to previous generations who relied on horses, but you still aren't taking full advantage of the possibilities open to you. If you're homeschooling, you don't have to stay in the school zone anymore. You can decide to drive on a country road, go off the roads, or go over 65 mph on the highway. Don't be afraid to get out there and explore the possibilities!

Support:

We are not some big company that has just decided there is money to be made by marketing to homeschoolers. We are first and foremost homeschoolers ourselves - not just another book store. Our kids have never been to school and we started out offering only products we had used ourselves and liked. We got feedback from people who said they really liked our selections, but felt we didn't have enough stuff that would appeal to older kids. We started adding items recommended to us by customers and also added to our selections as our own children got older. With our more recent catalogs, we can no longer say that we have personally used every item we carry, but we still approve them before we add them to our catalog. 

 

We want to support homeschoolers, not just sell to them. If our only interest was in making lots of money, we would be a very different company. There's more money to be made selling pre-packaged curriculum materials since there is a larger market for those items, more profit can be made per sale, and it is easier to convince people that they need those products. From a marketing perspective, it may not be smart for us to avoid those types of items, but we want to carry products that we can believe in. We also want to make sure homeschoolers know that learning is fun and that it is okay for kids (and parents) to enjoy homeschooling.

Prices

As homeschoolers ourselves, we know that homeschooling often means relying on a single income. Even if you are not on a tight budget, it is always nice to save money that can be used to buy even more materials! We offer discounts on our items because we want to help make it more affordable to get great resources.

 

We don't play games by offering low prices and then making a profit from inflated shipping and handling costs. If you compare our total order price with shipping and handling included, we are confident that you will realize what a great value we offer, especially when you consider our service and willingness to answer questions about our products.  

 

We need your support to keep offering great prices and a wide selection. When you buy from us, you are not just purchasing items that you need, you are also supporting us and helping us to support other homeschoolers!

Independent Bookseller:

As an independent bookseller, we are free to choose what we want to carry. We are not affiliates or representatives of some other company that gets to dictate what we carry. We are not restricted to offering  the products of any specific publishers and we can deal with small publishers or authors that the big chains may overlook. Unfortunately, independent booksellers are becoming a dying breed. As the big chains move into town, the independent stores are being put out of business.

 

Some big corporations are running up huge losses as they try to dominate the market. The number of independent booksellers has been decreasing dramatically since the large corporations have entered the arena. Doesn't competition promote better prices and better selections? The big chain stores can actually decrease competition as publishers are reduced to selling to a few large chain store accounts instead of many individual stores.

The big on-line companies and chain stores may have a very negative affect on the publishing industry. They seem to offer more variety and lower prices than the small bookstores, but they may actually reduce variety in the types of books that get published and can actually cause prices to increase. How? Here's an article that explains how this happens: 

 

Big Chains, Big Savings?