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Helping or Hurting the Little Guy: Big Booksellers Sell Cheap Books

By Brian | December 28, 2009 | Share on Facebook

Building on the book theme from yesterday, we turn to this post

Topics: Money Talk, Random Acts of Blogging | 3 Comments »

3 Responses to “Helping or Hurting the Little Guy: Big Booksellers Sell Cheap Books”

  1. Janet says at December 28th, 2009 at 4:32 pm :
    Well, that argument might work if the only things you wanted anyone to read were going to be carried by the big chains. Ever checked out the book department at Wal-Mart or Target? Not the range I’m looking for, certainly. If you want there to continue to be customer service from knowledgeable employees, with a range of options for different consumers, then we need smaller book stores. This is a step beyond Tom Hanks and Melanie Griffith – that was about big chain book stores (i.e., Borders and Barnes & Noble) squeezing out independent shops; this is about Walmart, Target, and Amazon squeezing out book stores, period. Tom Hanks is Pop, now.

  2. Brian says at December 29th, 2009 at 2:32 pm :
    That’s my point, Janet – it’s not the store, it’s the website. I don’t know for sure, but I’m guessing that the big box stores offer more of a selection on their website than they do in the physical store. Also, the question of knowledgeable employees disappears, because the web is self-serve (Google is your “knowledgeable employee”).

  3. Janet says at January 4th, 2010 at 2:44 pm :
    Wal-Mart and Target offer more books on line than they do in store, but still fewer (and for a much shorter time after publication) than companies whose primary product is books. And google isn’t knowledgeable at all, though sometimes it does a good job of connecting me with people who are (and sometimes it doesn’t, and sometimes it does but it takes a lot longer than if I knew where to look). And I, for one, would miss being able to go to a bookstore – browsing physically is a very different activity from browsing electronically, though only if there’s some reasonable variety (and probably some reasonable help and guidance). I’m willing to pay extra in order to preserve that. Not every time; I buy most of my books on line (and I buy a lot of books). But often enough. It makes me sad that so many excellent independent bookstores – not just little places but big ones, like Kepler’s – are gone. But books are a bigger part of my life (in a number of different ways) than they are for most people.