Quote:
Originally Posted by BlackVoid
Thats quite impossible, given that on paper books the retail chains also make money.
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The paper costs may only be 5%, and that seems about right, but the cost of p books is mostly distribution and shelf space. Retailers work out the cost per square meter they need to make to stay alive. Any product must pay its way. Where I live furniture retailers need around 80% markup to stay alive. The consequences of this are that niche products are limited and most of the cost of an item occurs at the retail level. Retail is very tricky and risky as we can see with the number of retailers failing at the moment.
Capitalism is not about working out a cost and then placing a reasonable (read small) profit on that. Capitalism is about getting as much money from the market as it will stand. Anyone saying anything else is just quoting capitalist propaganda in my opinion. To try to work out what something
should cost based on its production costs is an attempt to apply the principles of a centrally controlled economy to capitalism and is destined to failure and disappointment.