02-17-2013, 11:26 AM | #196 | |
Cheese Whiz
Posts: 1,986
Karma: 11677147
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: Springfield, Illinois
Device: Kindle PW, Samsung Tab A 10.1(2019), Pixel 6a.
|
Quote:
There are logistical issues to work out, such as how you register and pay for purchases and prevent orders being abandoned, but think about getting an order scanner pen upon entering the bookstore, then as you browse and see a book you want, you just swipe the pen across the bar code. When you are ready to leave, go to the checkout counter and pick up your purchases. I think impulse purchases would go up in such an environment. It would bring the "click to purchase" spontaneity of the web page as close as possible to a brick and mortar store. |
|
02-17-2013, 12:31 PM | #197 | |
Grand Sorcerer
Posts: 11,732
Karma: 128354696
Join Date: May 2009
Location: 26 kly from Sgr A*
Device: T100TA,PW2,PRS-T1,KT,FireHD 8.9,K2, PB360,BeBook One,Axim51v,TC1000
|
Quote:
It's usually a matter of whose ox is getting gored. |
|
02-17-2013, 01:56 PM | #198 |
Evangelist
Posts: 408
Karma: 1786912
Join Date: Nov 2010
Device: Kindle Voyage
|
Someone may have mentioned this in a previous comment, but I think Best Buy has a better approach.
http://www.theverge.com/2013/2/15/39...nt-showrooming Why couldn't B&N offer a price-match for books from Amazon? I'll bet they could, easily enough. But they probably won't. |
02-17-2013, 04:32 PM | #199 | |
Grand Sorcerer
Posts: 7,034
Karma: 39379388
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: near Philadelphia USA
Device: Kindle Kids Edition, Fire HD 10 (11th generation)
|
Quote:
It's easy for me to answer just as asked: I am a partial owner of Amazon through my pension plan (S&P 500 component). And I am an Amazon customer. So no ethical problem. But what if we changed the hypothetical so that I stopped being a customer, and, on top of that, Jeff Bozos took Amazon private? And on top of that, let's say that they stopped the worthless-to-me practice of hosting anonymous reviews and instead linked to professional signed book reviews at sites like nybooks.com?* Then it would be tempting to me to take Bezos's machine cycles with no possibility of him profiting from it. I think it would be a worse to put wear and tear on the carpets of a Mom and Pa store than to take the machine cycles of a billionaire. But I'm a little uncomfortable saying that, because billionaires are human too. _____________________________ * I'd love to have a good comprehensive search engine for professionally done signed book reviews. Do anyone know of one? |
|
02-17-2013, 05:15 PM | #200 | |
Addict
Posts: 386
Karma: 1814548
Join Date: Feb 2009
Device: Kindle 3, Kindle PW2
|
Quote:
|
|
02-17-2013, 05:32 PM | #201 | |
TuxSlash
Posts: 392
Karma: 2436547
Join Date: Oct 2009
Device: GlowNook
|
Quote:
|
|
02-17-2013, 06:38 PM | #202 | |
Grand Sorcerer
Posts: 11,732
Karma: 128354696
Join Date: May 2009
Location: 26 kly from Sgr A*
Device: T100TA,PW2,PRS-T1,KT,FireHD 8.9,K2, PB360,BeBook One,Axim51v,TC1000
|
Quote:
Amazon's machine cycles are paid for by the subscribers to AWS. And even if they weren't he'd still be happy to have you using his system instead of generating eyeball traffic for google. See, there is this old-school mindset that every last service or benefit must be directly paid for in hard currency, on the spot, that totally ignores the indirect value of consumer activity. (Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Kim DotCom and the hosts of most every "free" pirate content site out there in the nether regions, they all know there is money to be made off "free". We aren't just the consumer; most of the time *we* are the product.) Let's say you do use Amazon to research everything you buy but choose to buy elsewhere. Well, every item you research is logged by Amazon and it helps them build a database of user interest. So they can tell what people are thinking of buying as well as what they are buying from them. And that information, in the aggregate, has economic value. Probably enough to defray the cost of browser queries. (Their system is *very* cheap to run.) Just the fact that we are even mentioning Amazon right now is generating a few fractions of a cent of income for them at some point in the near future. Last edited by fjtorres; 02-17-2013 at 06:42 PM. |
|
02-17-2013, 08:07 PM | #203 | |
Man Who Stares at Books
Posts: 1,816
Karma: 10606722
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: 50th State, USA. Also, PA, NY, CA, and elsewhere.
Device: All of the Above
|
Quote:
Amazon presumably owns imdb.com, which links to professional reviews of films. This has not stopped bad movies from being made, viewed or bought. We cannot account for tastes, and educating people is hopeless, and in some cases, elitist. |
|
02-17-2013, 11:36 PM | #204 | |
Bibliophile
Posts: 75
Karma: 695816
Join Date: Jan 2011
Device: Nook Simple Touch, Pandigital Novel, PC
|
Quote:
I pay attention to 'amateur reviews' - with that requisite grain of salt. I have found the reviews of other regular consumers to be very helpful. Now and then I double-check to see if the reviewer seems to be a real person, with reviews for other sorts of products. You do have to watch out for the shills. Maybe that's what is bringing the 'amateur review' system into disrepute. |
|
02-17-2013, 11:46 PM | #205 |
Grand Sorcerer
Posts: 5,659
Karma: 66420972
Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: Australia
Device: Kobo Libra 2, iPadMini4, iPad4, MBP; support other Kobo/Kindles
|
Hear hear - I base almost all of my book buying decisions these days on "amateur reviews": those of people I know, offline or on.
|
02-18-2013, 01:07 AM | #206 | |
Groupie
Posts: 154
Karma: 2030000
Join Date: Dec 2011
Device: Kobo Glo (pink back)
|
Quote:
|
|
02-18-2013, 03:55 AM | #207 |
Wizard
Posts: 1,759
Karma: 30063305
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Singapore
Device: Boyue
|
The book shops could introduce price matching like some of the electronic shops have introduced that the comparison shopper could get the discount and the normal shopper wont. This should actually increase the revenue of book shops as well as get more customers into the stores.
|
02-18-2013, 07:16 AM | #208 | |
Nameless Being
|
Quote:
Is this 'just plain dishonesty'? I must wholeheartedly disagree. It is called comparison shopping. It has been practiced for generations, and it has been practiced for generations for a good reason: a fool and their money are soon parted. People who buy without doing their research is a fool (at least when it comes to money). I find this whole showrooming conspiracy a bit overblown. Showrooming makes sense for expensive products like televisions and computers, but not for low cost items like books. If you are that cheap, why would you waste money on gas and loose sight of the monetary value of your time? |
|
02-18-2013, 08:24 AM | #209 |
I ♥ Calibre
Posts: 2,073
Karma: 5678911
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: UK
Device: Kindle Oasis, Voyage, Sony PRS-350, Hudl2
|
Despite thinking it's wrong to use the knowledge of a shop with no intention of buying from them (and I don't think you can compare that to browsing online and reading user reviews to that), I don't see a lot wrong with that scenario BWinmill..... it's a fine line!
|
02-18-2013, 08:37 AM | #210 | |
Wizard
Posts: 3,032
Karma: 52740263
Join Date: Feb 2012
Location: New England
Device: PW 1, 2, 3, Voyage, Oasis 2 & 3, Fires, Aura HD, iPad
|
Quote:
Shari |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
Trickle charge of fast charge overnight? | 6charlong | Kindle Fire | 6 | 04-04-2013 09:46 AM |
Selling ebooks in bookshops | Pulpmeister | General Discussions | 14 | 04-27-2012 04:30 PM |
What is browsing like on 3G? | alocsin | Kindle Fire | 9 | 12-22-2011 12:14 PM |
3G web browsing possible in UK? | emvh | Amazon Kindle | 5 | 08-05-2011 08:10 AM |
E-bookshops | Cathy W | HanLin eBook | 14 | 12-31-2008 01:51 PM |