Cindy Dach doesn't flinch when the question is asked.

The general manager and a co-owner of the Changing Hands independent bookstore in Tempe, Ariz., is asked how would she convince a potential customer to do business with her rather than one of the huge cost-cutters. It takes, oh, maybe 10 seconds to figure out that Dach doesn't think much of such places.

Her answer is firm, without reservation.

"When you choose to spend your dollars in a local business versus a national chain store, 43 percent of those dollars re-circulate in the community," Dach said. "So when you're spending your dollars in a local business, the money goes directly back into the schools, the police, to the fire [department]. If there's a pothole on your street, and if you spend your dollars locally, it fixes that pothole.

"So, one, it's about community. It's about saying, 'I'm going to support my next-door neighbor's business because they live and work here. Our kids go to the same school. I want my tax dollars to stay in my state."

The first Changing Hands location opened on April 1, 1974. According to the business' Web site, "Over the first few years we listened to suggestions made by customers, many of whom became friends. Some of those friends became employees at the store which was originally set up as a worker-owned business where decisions were made by consensus."

Today, that business model has been pared back to three owners -- Dach, Gayle Shanks and Bob Summer. Changing Hands is housed in a 15,667-square foot facility that it shares with the Wildflower Bread Co. It is the oldest and largest independently owned bookstore in the state, and the store features new books, used books, sale books and gift items such as ceramics, candles, wind chimes and kid's toys.

There's just something about a bookstore like Changing Hands ... you want to go there, sit down, relax and get lost in a book ... new or new to you.

"A bookstore, at the end of the day, it's still a retail place ... but it's a place where people come to expand their thinking, to be a respite away from the world," Dach said. "It's not a place where necessarily somebody's going to try on a pair of jeans and go, 'Oh ... I'm fat.'

"The minute you enter [a bookstore], you're essentially in this other place, a place where you could become smarter when you leave, a place where you could become calmer when you leave, a place where your kid is going to feel safe running around. I often bump into high-school kids, and they always say, 'I love Changing Hands ... I love the way I feel when I'm there.'"

Nevertheless, what Dach calls "predatory pricing" by giant retailers is the biggest threat to her business.

"They're essentially selling books for below cost, with the goal that once you're buying from them, you will buy other things at full price," Dach said, again not mincing her words. "Being that books is a majority of our business, that really hurts us. ... It's really hard to compete, especially in a bad economy."

To draw business, Changing Hands has put together a number of book signings with prominent authors. That's where the company is fully competitive, by providing services that chains cannot ... or will not.

"It's difficult for us to compete on price ... we can compete on service," Dach said. "We don't have pushy salespeople. The books often sell themselves. We pride ourselves with a staff that's very knowledgeable about books. They can give you great references and great suggestions."