2 ms·
For someone like me who buys a lot of books is it worth paying an extra 30% every time to keep a large chain alive? What's the difference between taking a pictu
by msie 15y ago
For someone like me who buys a lot of books is it worth paying an extra 30% every time to keep a large chain alive? What's the difference between taking a picture of a book and writing down the title? I still buy a lot of books from brick and mortar stores anyways. Also, I think buying the used books at my local bookstore is more profitable for them than buying the new books they sell.
Edit: I'm a Canadian so the special "Canada" pricing makes the price difference 40% sometimes despite our dollar being close to parity. I don't like the disappearance of small bookstores either so I do the best I can to support them. What can brick-and-mortar stores do against Amazon? What Chapters does is sell a lot of other stuff besides books. Stuff they can mark up with higher margins.
- amartya916 15y agoAbsolutely correct about the Canadian prices. I have spent the last 2.5 years here, and I get your point about selling other stuff (like Chapters/Indigo already does). The thing is, that other stuff can also be bought online. People browsing for books in store (before buying it from Amazon), don't really buy those other items either (why should they). So, these stores aren't really gaining anything from people browsing their selection, other than perhaps taking a cut from coffee shops. On the other hand, if I want to gift a book, I almost always pick it up from a store. I generally don't plan ahead enough to order from Amazon (no Prime in Canada either :)) and dropping into a store works well. I am caught in two minds about these stores, I love going there, but I can't figure out a way for those guys to turn a profit without charging us the premium that they do.