This weekend my daughter and I were strolling through a spice shop in Raleigh and she picked up a couple of books Mighty Spice Cookbook by John Gregory-Smith and Healing Spices by Gharat B. Aggarwal with Debora Yost.

Eager to see what the books were all about we starting browsing through them only to discover they both had big stickers advertising the spice shop slapped on inside pages of both books.

Talk about annoying. Look, when you purchase a new book, you want just that, a new book. I don’t want your store sticker on it advertising your shop, your special event or anything else; and I definitely don’t want a sticker that cannot be removed without damaging the book.

I know there are bookstores who have those annoying stickers but they are usually the kind you can easily peel off with no residue; unfortunately removing these stickers would have clearly damaged the book page.

I understand more than anyone a small business owners need to spread the word about products and services, I grew up in a family business; just remember you never know where that book is going and everyone may not appreciate having your sticker placed permanently inside the page of the book.

If you want to share information about your business , slip a bookmark with your logo and shop information in the book; or use a business card, but placing a permanent sticker on the inside of the book is just tacky! Every customer does not want to advertise for you, give us the choice. If I really like what you have to offer, I’ll gladly pass on information about your business…I promise!