Amazon has more or less said they were doing this since the beginning. It's a volume issue, the more you sell the cheaper they are, so you need to sell more to

Amazon has more or less said they were doing this since the beginning. It's a volume issue, the more you sell the cheaper they are, so you need to sell more to drive the cost down. Amazon's goal is not to sell books, it's to be the place you buy everything, so it makes total sense for them to do this. Over the long term people will buy nearly everything online in some form or another, simply because it is more efficient in most cases to purchase digitally and have it shipped than it is to have huge stores like Best Buy that are basically giant warehouses that look a lot like stores. Selling products that get people closer to that future makes Amazon more money per customer and that is good business.