Quote:
Originally Posted by Wasgo
When their whole argument can be summed up as raising prices to increase competition, you have to know something's wrong.
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I'm not sure that I agree with you. That's exactly the reason that many European countries have fixed prices for books: the benefit for society of keeping small independent bookshops in business is reckoned to outweigh the benefit for the individual consumer of (say) supermarkets selling only the best-seller list at low prices.
And, indeed, since fixed pricing for books in the UK was abolished in 1996, the overwhelming majority of independent bookshops have gone out of business; they just can't compete with the big chains in an open marketplace.