Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
I don't know if it's better or worse, but the whole face of bookselling in the UK has radically changed since the demise of the NBA. It might be argued that cheaper books benefit the consumer, but a strong counter-argument is that the disappearance of thousands of independent bookshops, and their replacement by one or two dominant chains, is certainly not to the benefit of the book-buying public.
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That may be true, of course - although if you asked the book-buying public, do you think that they would really choose to go back to the NBA days? The idea behind the NBA (and shop closing laws) is that they benefit society as a whole...although as a practical matter the benefits do tend to fall more on the side of the business than on the side of the consumer. Which still may be worthwhile, even if the benefits are longer term. But when given an actual choice, consumers tend to always choose convenience and price over intangibles.