It would be nice if local, independent bookstores continued to exist but if the economics dictate they dont then I dont see any reason to hate the company that can still viably sells books.
That first sentence is a not a throw-away. I hope local, independent bookstores can continue to exist. And also that brick and mortar book stores continue to exist. But it's not like Amazon is illegally colluding to keep them down. independent bookstores just arent a very profitable businesses.
Sorry, this is an extraordinarily blinkered view. Why must they be evaluated purely on money terms? Having local independent bookstores enhances the quality of living for an entire community, and places like Amazon and Walmart make them desert zones. Does that not bother you?
> Why must they be evaluated purely on money terms?
Because it's a business providing a consumer good - not a public institution.
> Having local independent bookstores enhances the quality of living for an entire community
How do they do that? They don't help me because they don't carry books I'm interested in at prices I'm willing to pay. It's serving so few people in the community it can't pay for rent.
Public access to books is subsidized already through libraries.
As a counterpoint, I've visited a few smaller towns that used the local government to keep big box retailers out. It's generally an hour or longer drive to the nearest one and as a result main street remains alive and well.
Which is to say that the marketplace as a whole exists for the benefit of the public. The entire point of regulation is to remediate issues that competition alone fails to address.
But why is that better? If you talk to people in towns like this it turns out the locals buy everything they can online and then are generally mad about overpaying to buy from the local small shops. So they travel an hour every couple of months or so to restock everything non-perishable and freezer friendly so they don’t have to get ripped off.
This isn’t “smaller towns beating big corporations with the local government”. It’s “business owners in a small town stop competition using local government lobbying”.
It isn't necessarily! But the alternative is hardly pretty either. Surely you've seen the aftermath of a marginal town where the local economy was replaced by one or two large retailers?
In both cases you'll be able to find people who complain bitterly about the status quo. The fairness of the local politics will vary but at the end of the day if the majority of the population were truly unhappy with the situation presumably the officials would be voted out.
Are there things I miss about book stores? Yes - the atmosphere and serendipity. Also notice that many know that - and have shifted their business to coffee house, etc providing the atmosphere.
And I can still get those experiences when I go to a towns that have a unique book store.
I don’t why this was such a key institution that needs to be subsidized. We may have fond memories. If you’re just generally lamenting that good times have changed - I’m with you. But we can’t just mandate that the world stops changing.
The aftermath is that it kills businesses that were just shops adding cost to basic stuff to retail it. Those businesses suck and aren’t the kind you want anyway.
The main streets that people like have coffee shops, boutiques, specialists, restaurants, etc.
I wasn't arguing against online retail. I was responding to your first point about businesses versus public institutions.
> if I’m forced to use worse goods at higher prices thats not a benefit to me.
Not all benefits are first order effects. Presumably you appreciate your local environment not being full of heavy metals despite the fact that remediating toxic waste increases production costs.
Because thoughts and prayers don't pay the rent? If they did enhance the quality of the community, they would be patroned at a level that sustains them. If you simply enjoy knowing a local bookstore exists as a storefront in your downtown district, maybe you could rally the community to subsidize their economics like a park or swimming pool, and perhaps you could even rent books for nearly free - just stamp the back.
Ill agree, for me the value add of a local bookstore is they curate the books to some extent. I’ve gotten a fair number of “recommended books” and they’ve generally been good (I tend not to trust Amazon reviews, and they own goodreads now too). This one does author talks which I tend not to go to but is a community building kind of thing.
I wonder about that. I ponder what Amazon's book selling sector (and really the whole part where it sells things) would look like without the money printing machine of AWS. If Amazon didn't have that would they really be able to do what they do and burn the industry down.
I don't disagree that bookstores are probably not that profitable, but I do think that Amazon is taking all the oxygen out of the room and not necessarily by being better, but have having a dragon hoard of cash that probably wasn't generated by selling books.
Can we be a little annoyed if a big company that can leverage publisher deals, massive amounts of analytics and loss leader tactics actively try to cut off business from smaller companies?
When a sizable chunk of the people on this site are trying to grow their idea into a big company that can leverage deals, massive amount of analytics and various tactics to cut-off business from the competitors?
That first sentence is a not a throw-away. I hope local, independent bookstores can continue to exist. And also that brick and mortar book stores continue to exist. But it's not like Amazon is illegally colluding to keep them down. independent bookstores just arent a very profitable businesses.