In my opinion it is everyone's choice to shop where they wish to shop.
If you can find books cheaper on line, then by all means buy them !
Unfortunately bookstores cannot compete with prices of independent on line book sellers....especially when some choose to sell for one penny !

How Amazon chooses to promote their site is, after all, their option.
Our option is to freely choose where we will spend our money.

Did I miss your point?

I shop and will continue to shop at Amazon. For me price matters, but it is not all about price. They have brought me access to a selection of books that no bricks-and-mortar store can match, except perhaps for a few giants such as Powells in Portland and the Tattered Cover in Denver. (Both are excellent stores, BTW.) I'm finding books I've looked for without success for decades. But I also shop frequently in independent stores, both used and new, for the pleasure of the browsing experience. No online store can give you that, or the experience of chatting about a beloved book with someone on staff there.

I also by policy never go into automated checkout lines at the grocery store or Home Depot. Those cost people jobs, too. I can spend an extra few minutes waiting so that someone goes home with a paycheck.

Rosefolly

As an enthusiastic user of Amazon, I have to say it is bit scary. At this point Amazon is making available all sorts of wonderful things that I couldn't find before, but I worry about the future and what the selection will be like when we just have a couple of behemoths deciding what we will be offered. I still buy lots of books at the independent stores, which we luckily have in spades here in Maine, U.S.A. aka Middle of Nowhere.

It is not about price and the way amazon choose to market. (I can't believe they need us to know at how much other shops, on line or not, are selling books)
It's just something.. I don't know how to put my finger on it, and I don't mean "books" only.
We are all running after the cheapest item of all kind; and most of the time we succeed to get it That's really good, but then, why "western civilization" is in so bad shape? (Italy , Spain , German , French . Usa and so on )?
grelobe
p.s. I was really under deadline, I had no time to deepen (and translate) my thoughts, and now family, kitchen and kids are waiting for me
Maybe in the new year I'll add something else.
but probably this is not the right place to discuss this kind of topic

The biggest paycheck loser is surely the person who writes the book.

Like Inkcognito, I have been wondering lately how much money authors lose (if any) by having their books -- especially used ones -- sold on-line.

But on the other hand, as of the early 1990s, I became aggravated by the increasing number of paperbacks that were being published in "trade paperback" form -- thus, costing an arm-and-a-leg more than the regular-sized paperback. Before that mania began, only high-quality literary books were put out in trade paperback. ... Eventually, publishers were putting out trivial novels in trade size. I think they were doing that to boost their money intake.

Because Amazon has so very many "mom-and-pop" stores listed on its Website for both used and new books, I'm happy to buy from it ... always choosing one of the small, independent stores. Lately, some of these shops have said that Amazon helps them stay in business -- "keeping the wolf from the door" (e.g., Barnes & Noble -- hee-hee!).

I think this might be an example of the 'winner-takes-all' business model that has become so prevalent and costs so many good middle class jobs. I am very happy that Amazon provides a way for the smaller guys to compete and stay in business, but when the vast bulk of the market share is in Amazon's hands, or under Amazon's control, the result is the same whether Amazon is good or bad - a huge choice of the cheapest junk around with little attention paid to quality. Why would anyone pay $9 for a really fine film when they can waste their time with a really bad one for $1? In the past, those choices weren't so cut and dried, but now they are on the computer screen, all lined up nice and neat.

Obviously I have no answers, only concerns. I am an enthusiastic user of Amazon's products, having a Kindle and Kindle Fire that I use daily. I'm also a regular at the library (they call me for last-minute sick call-out they are having trouble covering) and I purchase as much as I can at the local indie, a very good store. But I think I am probably an anomaly. I have a sister who won't read anything unless it is available on Kindle. I pointed out to her that is limiting, and she just shrugged as if to say, "Who Cares?" Scary.

Yet, Amazon carries tons and tons of quality books -- used, new, out-of-publication -- that would be impossible for even a good-sized independent store to carry. Here in New York City, the Strand -- "8 Miles of Books" -- doesn't always have the books I want; so it's off to visit Amazon on-line for that book. Isn't it really the book buyer who should make the choice? Also, I think Amazon realizes that one of its draws is that it carries not just "junky stuff" at cut-rate prices, but that it also carries quality books. ... And that there are soooo many of us who do buy quality books, means that Amazon cannot afford to ignore that fact. At least I hope that's the case!

I might be a little OT but one think that has annoyed me is the sale of the third book in The Millennium Trilogy: The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest. I have waited for ages and ages for it to come out in paperback and now that it has, it is the large size paperback for $18.00 CDN ($9.00 online), whereas the other two came out in the regular paperback size and I purchased them online for $6.00 and change.

I feel it is such a blatant money grab, I refuse to buy it...sorry, it's a small thing but I just had to get it off my chest. ;)

Stoneangel -
I agree w/ you. Why publish in trade paperback size (much more expensive than regular paperback size)? -- see my post for Jan. 15. The only sense I can make of that is -- more money in the publishers' pockets. ... And I'll betcha it isn't going into the employees' paychecks, either. It's going into the CEOs' mega-paychecks, golden parachutes, green mail, etc., etc. ... Those mansions in Connecticut, duplex condos in Manhattan, don't come cheaply!

I wait for these rip-offs to come out used or at Amazon.