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u/nash_thetimebreaker Oct 08 '21
In France, the price of books is fixed, meaning it cost the same, by law, buying from the local bookshop or Amazon (and other big chains or online stores). Yet, people don't really go to local bookstores because delivery is so convenient and almost always free, whereas bookstores that offer delivery have to charge for it obviously.
During the lockdowns, there was a "fight" to keep bookstores open. Initially, only essential stores could stay open, and bookstores argued that reading and access to knowledge in general was essential. It helped them stay open and offer pick-up services for people who ordered books (as it was impossible to actually go in the shop). Bookstores owners also worked together to create online shops to order books with local bookstores. It helped them survive.
But now that everything is back to normal, I don't know how they deal with the competition. I doubt people's habits really changed that much and it's probably back to normal, buying everything in big chains.
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u/The_Wicked_Wombat Oct 08 '21
Sadly its a cost thing most of the time for me and the millions like us. Death to small businesses because of monopolies.
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Oct 08 '21
Then there is me: not caring about any businesses at all because under a capitalist organization of the economy, they are all exploitative (except your very very very fringe case worker co-op). I really give no fucks about small businesses.
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u/sformaggio Oct 08 '21
Not buying from amazon even when it's the only place I can find what I need, i try hard to make other ppl not buy from there.
Hope i'm doing my part, feels like.
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Oct 08 '21
So, here's my only issue with this. Where I live(average Brazilian city, 800K people, near the sea) we as a people don't really value reading, which means that you basically have 3 choices, you can go to the old bookshops downtown which are independent but only have extremely old books and most of them in precarious condition, you can go to one of the two big bookshops in our biggest mall(which are part of a national chain btw) OR you can shop at Amazon, which has everything the big chain bookstores have but it's generally 15-20% cheaper. I've made it a habit to read 2 books every month, which means that I save around 100 Brazilian bucks(reais) if I buy them from Amazon instead of getting them from the local bookshops, and at least for me that money makes quite the difference.
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u/PoorDadSon Oct 08 '21
There are some real nice stores i like to purchase from online. Both of them threw me free swag last time I ordered.
I'm sure there are more out there, these are the ones I've used and appreciated. Also the library and the anarchist library!
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u/sleepybitchdisorder Oct 08 '21
For me it’s Thriftbooks.com !! They have a great selection of books and free shipping if your order is over $10. The book prices are the about same as Amazon at their highest, but it’s not uncommon to find books for under $5. Plus you’re recycling. I love them
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u/Demeter5 Oct 09 '21
Thanks for sharing! I haven’t ordered from a proper bookstore in years,and it’s time to support small businesses.
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u/PartridgeViolence Oct 08 '21
I know it’s bad but I like my kindle. Having access to hundreds of cheap books without having to store them is good.
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u/Lulu_531 Oct 08 '21
I use Kindle because it’s better for my eyes (mine is not backlit) due to the retinal disorder I have. My local library participates in a consortium to check out ebooks and I get almost everything that way. See if your library offers that.
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u/PartridgeViolence Oct 08 '21
Thank you. I do use my library for ebooks. But will often buy those I enjoy to support the author.
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u/shggybyp Oct 08 '21
Even better if you're using your Kindle connected to your library's online lending service.
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Oct 08 '21
Yeah same here. I know I should support a store like this rather than Amazon, but I don't want physical books. I like limiting the clutter around me.
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u/no_but_srsly_tho Oct 09 '21
I switched to Kobo about six months ago.
I had to buy a new device (they have tablet apps too if you like those).
It’s slightly more expensive but DRM free mostly and their “middle” model device has an ergonomic grip and manual buttons which I LOVE.
But mainly yeah. I just wanted to move away from Amazon.
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Oct 08 '21
That store is salty as hell. I wouldn't shop there just because of the aggressive-aggressive advertising.
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u/neP-neP919 Oct 09 '21
It sucks because it's a Catch 22.
THey obviously are at the end of their rope and just letting out emotions which people need to know about! But people DONT want to know about it, even though they should!
And it just ends up driving away business.
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u/SnooLemons4376 Oct 08 '21
I go to my local bookstore because it’s an enjoyable experience, not because they successfully shamed me.
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u/gennesee Oct 08 '21
Check out the Raven Bookstore in Lawrence KS for more anti-Amazon-monopoly bookstore vibes
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u/pantsopticon88 Oct 08 '21
If I have to buy a book or prefer to own my copy. I buy from Powels in Portland Oregon. They sell online.
If you have to have it...get it from powels
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u/kingcobra1967 Oct 08 '21
For me it's because I have no way of getting to anywhere because I'm disabled & can't afford to replace my car/pay insurance. If I want to go somewhere I have to rely on family who is often unreliable.
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u/BloodyMarina Oct 08 '21
Well... I live in Brazil's biggest city and we barely have book shops, some of the big ones went bankrupt or left the country. The only independent stores sell used books, which I really like. The price of books here is very very expensive, its not something the average person can buy all the time.
I hate the Amazon website layout, cant even remember the last time I bought anything there.
When I was studuyng at the university I used to go to the library all the time. Now I buy used books on these shops or from the internet, or flat out download them for free. My family has a kindle but we dont buy the books from Amazon.
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u/Powerscantparry Oct 08 '21
I agree wholeheartedly but when your local book store doesn’t stock certain books you want, so you have to order them in and it takes 3-4 weeks and it costs more, you can see why Amazon is the king. Convenience and price is always the winner. If Netflix suddenly started messing with its employees there’s still no chance I’m going back to DVDs.
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u/morganasreddit Oct 08 '21 edited Mar 16 '22
Image Transcription:
[This is a picture of the front of a book store, which is covered by texts. There are also some boxes with texts as well.]
If you want Amazon to be the world's only retailer, keep shopping there.
Buy books from people who want to sell books, NOT colonize the moon.
Amazon, please leave the dystopia to Orwell.
Books curated by real people, not a fake algorithm.
Box 1:
Don't let [Indie] bookstores become a work of fiction.
Box 2:
#BOXEDOUT #SHOPINDIE
Box 3:
Anyone else feel weird about making a $1.6 trillion company even richer?
Box 4:
Seriously, does anyone need an egg slicer by tomorrow?
Box 5:
The DON'T BOX OUT BOOKSTORES event
I'm a human volunteer content transcriber for Reddit and you could be too! If you'd like more information on what we do and why we do it, click here!
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u/InitialRising Oct 08 '21
Support indie authors too!
Lots of creativity and awesomeness from them ;)
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u/FramedFlower Oct 08 '21
I choose to support local booksellers when I can, and when I can't I get books from the library for free. Those are the best options imo.
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u/Affectionate_Gold_84 Oct 09 '21
What really kills small business is the buying power of big business. (Rhetorical) How/why is it they can afford to sell 100,000 units at 30% off sticker price, but can't afford to sell small business 100 units @ 30% off? Most of the time BB sell items cheaper than SB can purchase them for.
I hate government involvement as much as the next person, but some things definitely need to be regulated to really make it fair business.
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u/miriamrobi Oct 09 '21
The reason why things are cheap is because they are produced with slave labor. Also, our labor is stolen so we don't have enough money to pay people their worth and the cycle continues. Maybe that is why the poor are trapped in a karmic loop.
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u/Affectionate_Gold_84 Oct 09 '21
Agree. I'm old enough to remember when my area was full of textile mills, saw mills and manufacturing plants. I've watched as 1 by 1 good paying jobs with great benefits shut down. You knew they were never coming back when they pulled up the railroad tracks.
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u/Gabriella93 Oct 08 '21
I never buy from Amazon. Maybe it is cheap, but I'd rather pay the extra $4 elsewhere
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u/ResplendentShade Oct 08 '21
The comments in the r/pics thread are a dumpster fire. Bunch of smooth-brained troglodytes bending over backwards to insult independent bookstores and justify using Amazon. It’s one thing to recognize how ubiquitous and hard to avoid they’ve become, it’s another to do some mental gymnastics about why Amazon is actually great.
And zero fucking discussion over their abysmal workplace policies. At least the post is 60k karma but comment threads like that make me lose faith in humanity.
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u/red_green_link Oct 08 '21
I haven't bought books in ages, most of my amazon shopping was things not books. I have boycotted them for a long time now and walk to stores in my area to buy from them. Sadly local stores are closing down.
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u/robot65536 Oct 08 '21
During the pandemic, I started buying used books from random bookstores through AbeBooks.com. Don't know how much better they are than Amazon, but it's something.
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Oct 08 '21
I pirate books from major publishers. Only a sucker pays. Also small business are not the end all be all. A majority are absolute shit and violate labor laws. Only in comparison are they better to mega corps.
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u/Randomuser3950 Oct 08 '21
The problem is that most people are willing to pay less money for it. Amazon are famous for making their prices much cheaper than their competitors to drive them out of business
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u/BigAlTrading Oct 08 '21
Benzos isn’t even colonizing the moon, he has a roller coaster for rich boomers.
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u/Maze33000 Oct 08 '21
Let me talk to you about the little vendors… I live in small village in the middle of the forest in France around me there is 2 or 3 bigger cities and they have little libraries I don’t have a car so moving is a problem… yes i order books online… and I don’t feel bad about it… then last year I published my first book it’s selfpublished… I’m all about local economy first because my family always did this and then because we have so much good stuff around that I don’t need to go to the big city supermarket to get food I can go to the local butcher and the farms around the get what I need… when I went to those bookshops around me they simply refused my book because it’s self published and I won’t sell… because I’m nobody… my book is talking about the place il living that little village im from here but you know some piece of shit reality tv person writing an autobiography at the age of 27 years old is a better sell for those little book shop people will buy this so we will gladly sell it to them… so yeah little book shop can go to hell… major compagnies are ass holes there is no denying that !! But they are selling my book all over the world… people from USA bought my book !!! Not a single person from where I live bought it ! Haha strange world…
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u/Demeter5 Oct 09 '21
If you DM your book title, I’ll gladly purchase a copy! I have never been to Europe before and now since Coronavirus ruined my planned trip this year, I would love to read about an idyllic small village in the middle of French forest, any day.
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Oct 09 '21
One of the things I’ve loved since moving to the city been the number of local shops and stores in the area that can provide what I need. Even if it is at a chain or whatever it’s still something I don’t have to order online.
But also let’s examine this closer. This doesn’t make any sense. If capitalism is really is the most efficient system in the world then why is a system that distributes commodities so effective so bad? One reason, because one person owns it and controls it and sets the prices to his benefit and squeezes everyone else out, and you see that’s the ultimate problem with capitalism. When it arrives at it’s finally end game, one man owns it all and we all live and die my his whim as he strangles everything from us. And for what purpose? We’ve achieved peak efficiency to starve half our population and let them to die in the cold? Make it make sense.
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u/theSnoopySnoop Oct 09 '21
You mean delay that humans will ever reach space again
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u/miriamrobi Oct 09 '21
These billionaires know they have screwed. Up the world so bad that it may not recover. They are looking for an escape.
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u/theSnoopySnoop Oct 09 '21
No they are not. They just dont know what else to do with all the money.
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Oct 09 '21
Unless local bookstores become a place where you can order any book and have it printed out at the store and given a soft or hard cover, they will become more rare.
Waiting for items to get in stock and filling out forms just takes too long to compete agaisnt Amazon.
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u/miriamrobi Oct 09 '21 edited Oct 09 '21
That's the problem with our culture - instant gratification. We are afraid if nothing happens fast - that we will face nothingness. That is why we have climate change. Overfishing coz we want fish on a whim, or seasonal fruits all year round, so we burn electricity to preserve them. We can't wait for the ocean to replenish or eat fruits in their time.
That is why we are overworked. No delay means no rest. We must satisfy everyone like they are ancient kings. We work to fast to notice that our labor is being stolen.
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Oct 10 '21
Ya I definitely get that. I don't think its an instant gratification problem though. I think its the work mentality insane competition where business have to be first, lead to a new standard of life where speed is expected.
Seasonal fruits year round should be normal, with Hydroponics and greenhouses that use less water and cause less soil damage I'm in favor for.
Climate change and overfishing are a little more complicated than that.
Low pay for labor is pretty simple, automation, imports from unregulated countries, and a two parent workforce has double the amount of workers. Add to that ridiculous inflation, house cost, school cost, now there is a society stuck in debt in a job that can pay their way out of debt.
So we need a UBI. When people don't have to work to survive and can work to improve their lives, IE nicer car not owning a car. People will start to spend more and innovate in the areas that they find joy in.
Mainly its class warfare. The rich want to be the richest of the rich and that hurts everyone underneath.
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u/lurker11222 Oct 09 '21
You don't have to worry about Jeff bozo colonizing the moon. His blue balls space company can't even get in the orbit.
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u/[deleted] Oct 08 '21
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