Thread: Amazon Signs Up Authors, Writing Publishers Out of Deal
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Old 10-17-2011, 05:15 PM   #37
murraypaul
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Quote:
Originally Posted by fjtorres View Post
Shall we conveniently forget that B&N and Borders were bookselling powerhouses long before there was an Amazon, that the market share Amazon now commands was there for the taking by anybody, big or small? Amazon is a tough big competitor but the way they got that way was by competing; nobody passed a government act giving them anything. What they have they worked for and they'll keep it until they screw up or until somebody smarter comes along or, more likely, the whiners find a government they can buy into outlawing Amazon.
I think there is one legitimate beef that bricks and mortar stores (in general, not just books) have with online stores (again, in general), and that is that the B&M stores end up being the storefronts for the online stores. They are the places people walk into to try products out, compare them, get some info, and then go back home and order from the online stores. So the B&M stores are carrying all the overhead that goes with physical stores, but the online stores are getting the benefit.
There really is no way the the B&M stores can prevent or benefit from that. They cannot sell as low as the online stores do, because of all the B&M overhead. But if all the B&M stores went away, the online stores suddenly wouldn't have those free storefronts, and might have to pay to provide their own. So the online stores need to keep the B&M stores just profitable enough so they can continue to benefit from their services. Is it a parasitic relationship, or is it parasitoidal?
Last edited by murraypaul; 10-17-2011 at 05:18 PM.
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