07/22/2026
EDIT: THIS WILL BE MY LAST POST ABOUT THIS SPECIFIC TOPIC UNTIL I HAVE ACTUAL NEWS.
I thought we were done.
I am exhausted.
Day #5 of of letting the world know we are NOT "parmantently clothed" (spelled incorrectly here on purpose) even though Google's AI summary is stating we are.
Day #6 of fighting AI anyway I know how.
I keep receiving screenshots from customers that show the inaccuracy. On Sunday it disappeared for me, but it's back stating we are "parmantently clothed".
This has been ongoing for almost 4 weeks now, but we didn't hear about it until a week ago. Because of the false statement, we have not gotten the new summer traffic we so rely on in the summer.
We are hurting.
We had a wonderful Saturday- you really showed up and showed out for us! We desperately needed that so so much. I do not want to diminish your incredible show of support, but I also try to be as honest as possible and unfortunately one amazing day cannot fix a month of low sales. If you've been in, I'm sure you can imagine what our overhead is like with rent alone!
I have to make sure my people get paid, our booksellers, our authors, our artists, our bakers, and our event leaders. Then all of the bills that are associated with running this massive store.
We are trying desperately to fight Google AI so new traffic comes in again. We have also heard from other businesses that they have been negatively impacted by Google AI as well! We are hoping the news will run a story on this. If you have news contacts or could tag the news in the comments below, please do.
Many voices are the only way we can try to fight this, fight AI.
A few things I've done or am aware of. This is not a full list because I don't have the brain capacity to try to list everything.
-I've claimed our Google Business Profile. I update it regularly.
-I've claimed Yelp Business Profile.
-I've claimed Apple Maps Business Profile.
-I am aware that our hours show up correctly.
-I've 👎 the inaccuracy and reported it stating THE VIRIDIAN BOOKSHOP IS OPEN.
-I've debated Google AI in "Dig Deeper". It made an internal flag, it worked for a day, but now it is back to stating the inaccuracy.
-Our online presence (socials, website, linktree) are accurate and up to date.
-I've urged as many people as possible to share on their own socials that we ARE OPEN so AI can pull from multiple sources.
-I've encouraged people to leave reviews on Google so it knows it's currently active.
-I've encouraged people to "check-in" so Google can see we are actively doing business.
-I've encouraged people to leave their locations on when visiting the store so Google can see that traffic is coming into our store so it can update the Live view of how busy the store is.
-I've asked Google AI where it was pulling the inaccuracy from. It's given me a different place each time. It said it hallucinated and gave me Australia, Maryland, and Michigan and the reason it gave was because they have a town with a historic downtown. It just added our business name randomly. Google AI is a "language generator, not a search engine"- those were it's own words. We are the ONLY "The Viridian Bookshop". That's why we chose this name. It is uniquely ours. It pulls random info from random places with random addresses and information and smashes them together. It does not care about accuracy. It just cares that it says something, anything. AI information can never be trusted.
I would like to dispel a few rumors I have been asked to comment on.
-No, we never closed.
-No, we did not sell.
-No, we are not under new management.
-No, we are not thinking of closing or selling. We are fighting to be here for decades.
