Quote:
Originally Posted by Kali Yuga
Keeping a physical store around so people can merely browse, and then buy online, is not going to work. It's expensive, inconvenient, and can't possibly offer enough titles to make the project worthwhile. There's also no viable way to ensure that people will even buy the ebooks you're hawking through them; what would stop a Sony user from browsing at the B&N store, and then buying the ebook from Sony?
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Stores have never been able to guarantee customers wouldn't browse here and buy elsewhere. The way you lock-in customers is by offering them something useful to them, whether it's good information, good coffee, in-store discount incentives or sales staff in sexy outfits. That positive customer service compels them to buy through the store, and not elsewhere. And we're talking about digital product... they can conceivably offer
every digital title.
That is not an impossible setup for a bookstore to evolve into; it's only a matter of their willingness to accept their status in the new order and do so.