Quote:
Originally Posted by K. Molen
Apologies if this has been covered already, but for those who feel it unethical to browse in a B&M store and then buy online:
Do you feel the reverse is also unethical? If I use Amazon to check product specs and read reviews of various models of a product that I'm interested in, and then go to a local store to buy that product, am I also unethical?
I for one don't think so. I will do various amounts of research for most items where there's a lot of choice. Invariably that research will involve both online and offline resources. My final buying decision will depend on a variety of factors, price is one but convenience and customer service are two others.
Amazon often wins out, but not always. And when I walk out the door of a local B&M store with my new purchase, I don't feel like I've done something wrong just because I used Amazon resources to make my buying decision.
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Nope. So a fair question is; Why? In this discussion I think we see a certain divide between the west and east side of the Atlantic. And I think the reason is: People. For those of us who view it as "unethical", and I'm not entirely happy with HarryT's choice of word here, but since that is what we have been focusing on, let's stick with it, the B&M store is an amalgamation of people that you interact with. When I walk into my regular bookstore they will meet me with a smile, they know my taste and someone will inevitably make a suggestion about something new that has hit the shelves. In my case this really doesn't compete that much with eBooks since the market for that in Sweden is really underdeveloped. I like and enjoy that interaction, I'll shoot the breeze with the staff for fifteen to thirty minutes, they might tip me off to something being released in a week or two. That kind of ambiance isn't available at Amazon.com. On the west side of the Atlantic, people have grown accustomed to large scale unpersonal stores, where selection and price, rather than considerate and concerned staff, are the main selling points. The difference between a B&M store and Amazon isn't as wide.
Now a web page, although in reality it too is an amalgamation of people, it doesn't appear as such. There is no face, no voice, just text and pictures, maybe a video. So using that for gathering information and then shopping at a B&M store doesn't concern me - probably us - from an "ethical" viewpoint. In reality I don't believe it happening that often, at least not as much as the opposite. Even so, there are different forces at play in those similar but disparate situations.