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If independent bookstores aren't providing the public with a shopping experience they care about, and aren't offering prices that they want, then what is their benefit? There's no inherent good served by independent bookstores if they're not providing people with a service they want at a price they want to pay. What you describe as a problem is just changing markets due to changing tech; it's a story as old as the Industrial Revolution.
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But the " showroom effect"shows that they are providing book buyers with an attractive shopping experience. Its just that Amazon is appropriating the benefits of it. Here is a deeper analysis, along with a suggestion for a better model:
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Why can't independent bookstores partner with Amazon to, essentially, serve as showrooms in exchange for a cut of the profits?
This would let Amazon keep enjoying the benefits it reaps from the existence of physical bookstores, but it would also protect that advantage for the long term — because the stores wouldn't be driven out of business. Indies, on the other hand, should welcome such a proposal, on the right terms, as a sound evolution of their business model and because increasing the number of readers increases demand for the product they, too, sell.
What exactly do independent bookstores offer Amazon? First and foremost, they help create demand, through both intelligent handselling (finding the right individual book for the right individual customer) and well-curated displays that draw customers in and stimulate their appetites. While Slate's Farhad Majoo dismisses bookstore clerks "a dubious recommendations engine," most customers still prefer a human with some expertise — whether it's a friend, a book reviewer, or a local shop clerk — saying, "Buy this, not that," to algorithmic recommendations and even online reviews, often the subject of controversy. Researchers have shown that online reviewers exaggerate and that later reviewers are often just reacting to early reviewers — not to the product itself. That's why aggregations ("three-and-a-half stars") are so often not helpful. And as for the algorithm, a recent visit to my Amazon.com homepage revealed more than 50 different products to buy, but only one was something I actually wanted.
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