Quote:
Originally Posted by JMikeD
This fellow stated it as a fact; he tried to get indies to carry his books and they refused because people could go to Amazon and get them for less money. So it's not a conclusion for him, it's a statement of fact.
As long as manufacturers will give quantity discounts to stores, this would seem to be inevitable.
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This is the way a capitalist society works. The manufacturer sells to a wholesaler/distributar at a certain price. The distributor sells it to retailer at a mark up of that price, and the retailer sells it to the end user at any price they want. If all products were sold at the MSRP then we would be paying much more for many products and competition would go away.
Granted, there are some products that are the same price no matter where you go, Apple, Nintendo, XBox... prices are controlled... you can't sell these devices at any amount other than the set MSRP.
Does this capitalist market force out smaller sellers... in many cases yes. But, these smaller sellers have ways to off set that... customer service is one way. Although there is not alot of service after the sale on a p-book so it is hard for these stores to compete there. B&N try to do it with a large selection, cafe's, internet access, etc.
While capitalism isn't perfect, it does work.
BOb