Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
It means that it puts even the smallest bookshop on an even keel with the big players on price terms. The same argument is used for fixed pricing for books in many European countries, and there is some truth in it. Fixed pricing for books was abolished in the UK in 1997. Since then, and as a direct result, the overwhelming majority of small independent booksellers have gone out of business.
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This was Stephen King's argument for windowing Under the Dome. Target, Walmart and Amazon got into a price war for the hardcover, and it was ultimately $7. The independent bookstores were locked out anyway.
A lot of high end clothing and jewelry manufacturers have been able to avoid any discounting of their product. But books are more like Coco-Cola. Just about everyone buys it, and it is sold everywhere, at very different prices. I pay 25 cents a can at Costco, and $1 a can at the local convenience store.