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Question: Is Amazon in league with The Dark Side!?
Do you know how hard it is to find a decent privately owned bookstore anymore!? Borders, B&N, Amazon - they are killing the publishing market!. Seriously!. The Kindle!? C'mon!.!.!.!. a novel isn't a novel if it's not on a printed page, that's all there is to it!. So, essentially Amazon and it's cronies are trying to murder literature!

Are they in league with The Dark Side!? Or am I overreacting!? Please provide proof for your answer either way!. Www@QuestionHome@Com


Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:
I'm with reader!. I don't buy from B&N or Wal-Mart, either!. It's the principal of the thing!. Since I seldom buy new anymore, anyway, my principals pretty much amount to mere lip service and have zero effect!.

Are you overreacting!? No!. Even if what you say is inevitable, we might as well go down kicking and screaming about it!.

I do buy from Amazon!. Again, seldom new, but of the 50 or so books I've bought this year, probably close to 20 of them came from Amazon and most of those from the used book sellers!. The rest I've bought from Goodwill or yard sales and many from the local used book store!.

The woman who owns the bookstore also sells Avon!. There's always a stack of Avon catalogs near the register!. I bring that up because I've never seen her with makeup or, for that matter, with her hair combed!. It's just one of those impressions that stay with you!. I like to browse her store but it has no personality left!. Not like books stores in the "old" days -- those days that aren't really that far back!.

In Atlanta, there was a bookstore I loved!. I used to buy new books back then but never left without two or three used treasures in the bag!. The owner was about my age but had more knowledge of books than anyone I've ever known!. In the rear of her store, where she shelved the classics and many out of print books, was a sitting area with overstuffed chairs, floor lamps, a huge Persian rug laid on a hardwood floor, and a sideboard where she always had a pot of coffee and a strange concoction she called Russian tea!. It was my favorite place to go!.

Sometime around the mid 80s she began telling me of the hardship she was experiencing with what she called the best-seller-mega-stores opening up!. Barnes and Noble had arrived!. She couldn't compete with their prices, she said, and was being forced to cut back her stock of new publications and her book signings weren't drawing the same crowds they used to!. She loved her store and had invested everything in it!. Eventually it was gone!. I miss that Russian tea!.

Over the decades, I've seen it happen to so many of my favorite shops, whether it be stereo equipment, or cameras (try buying black and white film nowadays), athletic gear, bikes, coffeehouses or ice cream parlors, cafes, on and on!. Drive down any major street in my town and just about all you see are chain stores -- and all the same ones!. Major corporations have taken over almost every aspect of our lives!.

As for the Kindle, I can see that as only the beginning of a trend that won't stop until it is the norm!. Imagine being able to carry 40+ novels in your pocket!. If I were an astronaut, I'd want one!.

But, for me, I will stay with books, the kind with pages to turn!. I will keep moving my furniture around to make room for more book shelves!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

These places are SELLERS of literature, they do not create it!. I think they actually improve the market by making books more readily available to folks like me who live in the country!. I can order a book online, and have it delivered right to my door! Nothing murders literature except for a public who lacks the intelligence to read and comprehend, and who zone out on television and movies!? How many kids , when assigned to read a classic book instead turned to Cliff's Notes before their big test!? Www@QuestionHome@Com

I call Amazon evil because of its atrocious shipping costs :(
Borders is even worse!.!.!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Amazon is actually fairly egalitarian!. They'll sell all manner of stuff, from all manner of publishers, as well as from individuals like us!. The main way that they are hard on the independents is that they are so vast and so convenient!. The shipping charges are one thing that keeps me from relying on them completely!. That and the fact that I really enjoy wandering in book stores both new and used, fondling various volumes and dreaming of a world where I own every single book that I have ever wanted!.

Barnes and Noble are a different story!. I once worked for a book distributor and had occasion to talk to publisher's reps!. I learned some things that I really didn't want to know, but I guess I'm glad that I do!.

B&N is to publishing what Wal-Mart is to retail!. Both of them are so huge and so universal that they are able to tell their vendors what to do and if the vendor does not comply they are generally forced out of business or have their profits seriously curtailed when the giant withdraws its custom!. B&N is in a position to tell even the largest publishers that they do not believe a book will sell and that they have no intention of stocking it!. That as good as sounds a death knell for that particular title!. If Knopf can't get a title into distribution then it may as well have been self-published!.

B&N is entirely driven by its bottom line and its primary customer is its shareholder!. They really don't care about the advancement of art and they don't much care what you'd actually like to read either!. They want you to read what everyone else is reading!. It streamlines all of their processes, from ordering to warehousing to store merchandising!.

Even their own publishing line is hard on other publishers!. There were a number of old standard classics that were bread and butter titles for the established publishing houses!. The tax system changed and those publishers were forced to pay taxes on their inventory!. That meant that backlists became smaller!. B&N jumped in, and since they can publish in the perfect quantities to keep their stores stocked they were able to make hay while other's parades were being rained on!. All those cheap classics you buy at B&N!? They're helping to prevent another house from being able to take a chance on a new author that might be this generation's classic!.

So honestly and in complete sincerity I don't think you're overreacting, and I do think that B&N is the Evil Empire of books, and I do not shop either there or Wal-Mart!. Sorry for the lack of any sense of humor here but this is something about which I feel strongly and I think it is a huge part of what is wrong with America today!.

***Edit) ck1, with all due respect, Sam's Club IS Wal-Mart and was opened in direct competition with Costco with the goal of driving them out of business, much as Wal-Mart has tried to do with stores such as Target, among other smaller companies whom they have managed to subsume!. It is to Costco's credit that they have managed to thrive by appealing to a somewhat more discerning customer while still treating their employees decently and paying a living wage!.

I think it's wrong to ask that all those who try to compete with Wal-Mart share equal responsibility in the deterioration of the retail market in America!. If you fight to keep your head above water while a shark drags you under is it just as much your fault as his when you drown!? Wal-mart says "Buy American!" Have you ever tried to do that in a Wal-Mart store!? Good luck, that's all I can say!. Everything comes from countries where people get paid a dollar a day so that all of us who can't get a decent job because people are doing it for a dollar a day can't afford to shop for anything but crap at Wal-Mart!.

The Waltons have billions of dollars in personal wealth while their employees are on the state's health care rolls, if they are lucky enough to live in a state with a health plan!. If not, they flood emergency rooms!. Rest assured that we all, as a society, pay a very high price, in a number of ways, for the cheap goods that we bring home from Wal-Mart!.
http://www!.wakeupwalmart!.com/

There are plenty of small presses that publish without regard to mass distribution!. It's hard on them and their authors but they do believe in their mission!. In my city we have an interesting company that exists solely as a distributor for just that sort of press!.
http://www!.cbsd!.com/

***Edit) Hey, Dixie, I forgot about Russian Tea! I loved it when I was a kid but I haven't had it since!. Great stories, I wish I'd seen that store!.
http://allrecipes!.com/Recipe/Russian-Tea!.!.!.

P!.S!. I was just telling a friend that my boycotts were pointless and affected no one but me!. I still feel better for maintaining them though!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Shh! Do you want them to hear you!? (Don't you know how powerful they are!?) Unfortunately my sources must remain confidential due to credible threats, but, if not, I could give you an earful!. If you ever have a chance, read the image of one of the receipts in a mirror!. That thing with the Beatles album (listening to it backwards) was nothing to it; nothing!

Unfortunately, these big stores have such a good selection of books, you can find just about every book you want!. Browsing and buying from them is too much of a temptation to resist!. I suppose that means all the book customers are complicit in the destruction of the "Mom and Pop" type bookstores!?

However, the carnage is in the area of competition, not literature!.

***Edit: In response to reader's: though I was taking the humorous approach, I was speaking more of Amazon, which is the place online through which I search (except for a place like ABE for out-of-print titles and some specialty places)!. B&N may be exactly as you say, I haven't researched into it, myself!. If I'm reading what you have said correctly, it was the overreaching of government that enabled B&N in the first place - in part, at least!. Having worked for a book distributor, you would have more information about it than most!.

I'm not sure I agree about Walmart simply because there are so many megastores like BJ's, Costco, Sam's Club and others!. If there is blame in the retail area, it would have to be shared equally, in my opinion!. Unlike with books and B&N, Walmart declining to carry a particular item is not the death knell of that item!. There are other megastores and, even, TV (as all those infomercials attest)!.

The decline of Mom and Pop stores truly began with the emergence of large department stores!. It was only a matter of time before other retailers came up with their own answer to the department store!.

As far as any type of megastore goes, unfortunately, as long as people want everything at hand and easily accessible, they will thrive and the little guy goes down!. It's a shame since some of the best book and retail stores I've been in are those tiny little shops, quaint and full of charm!.

I'd like to see some publisher put the proverbial foot down and determine to publish a book merely because it is good, even if that means selling it online without going through a place like B&N!. Will it be done!? That's another question entirely!. Making money is the bottom line, I guess!.

***Another note: As far as Amazon's Kindle goes, Sony Reader came first!. Again, it was only a matter of time before Amazon (or some other place like it) came up with their own design!. Personally, I believe the success of readers such as these is directly related to the fast-paced society where people want what they want, NOW - instant gratification, as it were!.

***Yet another note: I keep coming back to this, because I find what reader said about B&N disturbing, to say the least!. What do people do about it!? A mass protest is only good enough if: 1-you have enough people - around the country - willing to join, 2-it actually affects their bottom line!. Hope that some of the smaller but prestigious publishing companies band together and fight!? (That's a rather passive approach!.) It's frustrating to encounter a problem without an obvious or workable solution!. What is the solution!?

***Edit again - reader, I'll give on Walmart, though I find the number of products made by cheap labor overseas depressingly large, and not just sold through Walmart!. I couldn't believe it one time when I purchased something through a shop at an historic place, supposedly "made in America" only to find it was made via cheap labor elsewhere and "put together" here!. It's terribly far-reaching!. I suppose I'm saying that Walmart isn't the only place to which you can point a finger!. I honestly don't believe the destruction of Walmart would be the end of this practice!.

That book site you gave is promising, but there must be more which could be done!. There are places like http://persephonebooks!.co!.uk/ which publish some forgotten books, too!. They are good, but perhaps not enough!. Then again, maybe Amazon turns out to be the best way to counter a B&N, if they sell books published from the smaller publishing houses (which I believe they do)!. Then again, smaller companies lose out because of Amazon sometimes!. There was one called A Common Reader, which had some extraordinary titles, which went out of business!. It couldn't compete, I suppose, with a place like Amazon!.

***Note to Vet's Ghost: I'm with you about reading online!. It is all I can do reading through the Q's & A's on Y!A!. Anything which takes longer gets printed!. I have some family and friends who enjoy sending me LENGTHY e-mails with all sorts of information!. They wonder, I have no doubt, why I don't get back to them more quickly!. I can't: I have to print the darn thing out before I can read it all! (As much as I appreciate the idea of Gutenberg with all those public domain books, I've never even attempted to read one online!.)Www@QuestionHome@Com