> I rarely buy anything [at Borders]. Why would I when I can get the same book half price [...]? Because you've made use of the facilities at Borders that make

> I rarely buy anything [at Borders]. Why would I when I can get the same book half price [...]? Because you've made use of the facilities at Borders that make them need to charge you more -- the physical store with a stock of physical books and actual staff who can help you if you can't find something or want extra information. You've derived a tangible benefit from your use of those facilities: you've found some books that interest you, and established that some others aren't worth what they cost. Sure, no one is then forcing you to buy the books in Borders; neither the police nor Borders staff will give you any trouble for freeloading. And it's not actually against the law. If that's all you care about, fair enough. But it's not like there are no reasons for buying things in a bookshop when you've benefited from the things they offer and Amazon doesn't. Another reason: If you find Borders useful, then you'd probably prefer them to stay in business. You might want to help with that. Again, no one's forcing you to, and you may just not care much about the tragedy-of-the-commons effect that may ensue when you and others don't. But it's a reason. > Borders doesn't offer enough additional value to make me feel bad about this. You can give them some but not all of the additional value by buying some but not all of those books from Borders. For instance, the ones where the price premium compared to Amazon is smaller. (For the avoidance of doubt, I'm not saying "Bricks-and-mortar good, online bad". I buy a lot of books on line, more than I buy in physical bookshops. Amazon offers useful services that Borders doesn't -- customer reviews, the recommendation system, and so on. If you've benefited from those, that's a reason to buy from Amazon.)