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Originally Posted by fjtorres
Sounds stupid, right?
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Not really. In fact, it's routine in retail and other businesses.
It costs less to manage one big retailer than to manage 100,000 indie retailers. That is why many industries have distributors; e.g. Baker & Taylor purchases a large volume of a title at a discount and resells it at a higher cost to numerous bookstores.
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Originally Posted by fjtorres
That is how the chain and mall bookstores killed the independents.
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That's a somewhat incomplete view.
Larger stores can exploit better economies of scale. A larger store will have slightly lower costs, more industry clout, more capital, better and cheaper credit, a regional or national presence, standardized graphics.... It all adds up.
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Originally Posted by fjtorres
The publishers have been (knowingly or not) pursuing a policy of channel consolidation for 30-plus years and it is only now, at the end game, that they are even *starting* to smell the coffee.
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Some but not all publishers are ramping up, and generally speaking I believe the industry knows what's going on. That's what Publisher's Weekly is for.
However, not all publishers are doing it, and it's not necessarily a death knell for the entire industry. Borders is on the ropes for reasons unrelated to volume discounts. I can't say for certain, but I'd guess that they are in trouble due to the usual issues -- they expanded too rapidly, incurred too much debt, ownership changed too many times and so forth.