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Originally Posted by J. Strnad
It's almost as if people have lost their sense of cause and effect. You cannot simultaneously bemoan the loss of your neighborhood B&N and go there to browse and then buy your books online.
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Well, you can, and most people do. It's just bad for the bookstores.
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Originally Posted by J. Strnad
Are we becoming a nation of moochers?
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Yes
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Originally Posted by J. Strnad
Do we not realize that someone has to pay for the stuff we mooch, and that there is a tipping point beyond which there are too many moochers and not enough payers to keep the content alive?
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No
But, freeloaders did not sink this B&N, it's mostly closing due to a rent increase. Instead of investigating the actual sales figures, the journalist walked around and chatted up a few people who were hanging around. Anecdotes are a poor yet common substitute for facts.
Again, people have window-shopped and lounged in bookstores and cafes since their inception. That isn't what's killing bookstores or B&N. One factor is, as you noted, that Americans are increasingly price-sensitive, which can lead to contradictory actions like simultaneously praising bookstores while purchasing books online; or decrying foreign manufacturing while buying the cheapest foreign-made goods they can find....