Basically, The Prints and the Paper is an alternative to impersonal online shopping.  In this computer age, the consumer can choose to never leave their apartment and buy all they need online.  They can find the lowest price at the maximum convenience....but, ultimately, it is a lonely and cold experience.  Increasingly, many people now desire a completely different shopping experience - one that is unique, warm, friendly, and rewarding.  Curated shops like mine are now growing in favour.   Instead of anonymous commerce, people like discovering brick and mortar shops that provide them with the personal touch - where they can forge a lasting relationship with the owner.  It gives them a sense of community and belonging which you do not get online or in the multi-national box stores.  Whereas these large chains once swept the little stores aside, the mercantile shopkeeper is now a formidable foe.  People have begun to realize that their cities and neighbourhoods are impersonal, alike, and boring and they are welcoming the return of the little unique storefronts.  "These inventive and risk-taking shopkeepers mould their passions and daily lives into a single endeavor.  Rejecting our all too often fragmented lifestyles where our work has little to do with our dreams, these business owners use their passions to sculpt the market for their ideas.  The care given to each detail in both the content and the setting of the shops makes even the most idiosyncratic storefront hard to resist.  The ephemeral value of these deeply personal touches are what gets lost when making a purchase online.  Customers end up frequenting the store as much to satisfy a craving as to satisfy their curiosity.  Such subtle entrepreneurial details fuse the best of capitalism with the best of craftsmanship.  Rather than just selling any old thing to turn a profit, these shopkeepers craft, sell, and curate what they truly value." (from "The Shopkeepers" which, of course, I sell at The Prints and the paper).