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Originally Posted by Gaurnim
If you allow small stores to persist (fixed price doesn't ensure they're thriving, mind you), you tend to increase the diversisty of books available to consumers.
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This may be true in France. It was demonstrably *not* the case in the US, where big chain bookstores (Borders, B&N) vastly increased the number and diversity of books available.
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Big chains usually don't take risks with the books they stock, they take the mainstream stuff and maybe a small number of fringe stuff if the relevant personnel is knowledgeable and interested enough.
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Again, certainly not true in most of the US, where the small bookstores mostly had a small selection and focused primarily on bestsellers.
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Small stores tend to be a bit specialized and so usually propose a wider variety of books in their chosen field of predilection.
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There are a *handful* of bookstores like this here - but the vast majority of small bookstores carried a very general and generic selection of books.
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The big chains still dominate the market because they can have a larger stock of the bestsellers and a wider general selection.
They also tend (in France, at least) to stock other items such as CDs, games, DVDs, ... making them a one stop location for "cultural" products and thus drawing more customers.
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That's basically the way they are here - but the "wider general selection" was much wider, as the big chains carried almost 10x as many books as the small stores; consequently, the selection and variety was much greater.
And of course the chains also have discounts, mostly on bestsellers, which are substantial - 30-40% off means a savings of roughly $8-$12 per book.