Local bookstore: What’s the point?
I was at one of the Christian bookstores here in Toronto the other day and was truly surprised at the markup price of those books! For example, the paperback edition of Dunn's The Theology of Paul the Apostle is marked at $49.99CAD, while if you do a check with Amazon.com, it is $23.10US ($20.99 at Dove) and $29.03CAD if it is bought from Amazon.ca. So even with shipping, to buy online is still A LOT cheaper than at a local bookstore.
Just want to ask all my readers: Do you still go to a local bookstore these days? What keeps you going? From a customer point of view, is there still space for a local bookstore to survive? What do you think?
And for those of you that just stand there at the bookstore reading but not buying, you are only using it as a library. Hence from a customer perspective, there is really no space at all for your local bookstore to survive (but defintely for the Starbucks besides it).
Filed by edmund at 10.34 am under Culture |
7 Comments
Anson
But we humans still have an instinctive impulsive desire ingrained into our brains. Many people, including me, can’t help to grab onto a book from a local bookstore, even if it’s marked higher. It’s that instant gratification that blinds me.
However, if one day there is free wifi everywhere, and everyone has a little gadget to surf the web (like the Nintendo DS), plus UPS and FedEx can manage to ship same day or overnight with minimal cost, then I think local bookstores will not have any more room to survive.
Speaking of which, this is perhaps what Coles/Indigo/Chapters is doing. Their bookstores are just showrooms. When you find your book, you can go over to their kiosk and order it immediately from their online store at discounted price. The only thing is that you have to wait a couple days. Brick or click, it’s still their business.
Aug 26th, 2006
Stephen
I am a loyal USER of local bookstores as LIBRARIES. I see the books in them as samples of what I might purchase online. Local bookstores are still important in carrying current magazines that you cannot browse online.
I will still be a customer when they have items on sale at prices lower than Amazon. But I can’t really remember when was the last time I purchase a book from bookstore without discount.
My conspiracy theory is that other than Starbucks, Amazon is a big shareholder of Chapters/Indigo and other chains in other countries and use them as showcases to promote. In fact, a lot of smaller local bookstores in US are gone because of Amazon. They even beat the used bookstores by selling used books online these days!
Maybe the next feature cell phone manufacturers want to consider in their products is a bar code scanner which you can scan things you consider buying in local store and compare prices online right away.
Aug 27th, 2006
edmund
Sorry guys, the database was corrupted somehow (auto index of some tables did not increment) and as a result, your comments were hiding in the database until I notice this a while ago.
So both of you are basically saying that local stores are more like a “show home” now where you can take a look before you buy anything. That’s the approach I take too! But I also agree with Anson that there is always a “instant gratification” mechanism at work to buy at store!
Aug 29th, 2006
Anson
Bar code price comparison is already here:
http://www.scanbuyshopper.com/ShopperConsole/index.htm
When my cell phone had 2G service way back then, I used to visit amazon.com’s wap site, then key in the ISBN number to find out their prices, so that I can convince myself putting down the book I’m holding on and walk out of Barnes and Nobles.
Aug 29th, 2006
Vincent Chan
DON’T buy from amazon.ca, their services are terrible. Time after time they couldn’t deliver my orders on time. Every incident they had an excuse. Now I already gave them three consecutive chances to show their improvement but they even couldn’t make it one time; I gave up! Next time if I need to buy anything, I would rather pay the shipping cost and order my books through amazon.com.
Sep 2nd, 2006
edmund
Interesting enough, I never bought from Amazon.ca. Probably because most of the time they don’t carry the items I want, and whatever they have, it is almost always more expensive than its US counter-part even when the exchange rate is taken into account.
Speaking of which, I am now waiting for my first order from Dovebook.com. Horace said it is good. It is now 8 days and I am counting……
Sep 3rd, 2006
Stephen
I never tried Amazon.ca either. Amazon.com is just my default site way back before I live in Canada. In fact, each time I go to the States to visit friends and family, I will purchase something from Amazon.com to take advantage of cheaper/free shipping to a US address and tax-free. Then I will pick up the package from my friend/family.
They have good customer service as well. One time I complained on-line about an order undelivered one day after the promised date of delivery. They immediately have someone(probably from India or something)called me by phone to understand the situation. I got a full refund. Funny thing: an hour later, the parcel came. That means my order ended up free of charge.
Sep 4th, 2006
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