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Powell’s says it won’t sell books on Amazon anymore

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Re: Powell’s says it won’t sell books on Amazon anymore

#111

Post by viburnum »

AlexandrB wrote: post #92

I'm going to take this opportunity to grind my personal axe: Amazon is extremely lazy about shipping books, throwing them into lightly-padded envelopes. Books shipped from Amazon usually arrive with at least minor cosmetic damage and sometimes much worse. For me this is reason enough to avoid buying books on Amazon.

I ordered an $80 art book from Amazon. Had to return the first two they sent me, they were so damaged. No protection at all, just loose in a box. Amazon used to mount books to a piece of cardboard and shrinkwrap it together. They must have calculated that most people don’t care and it’s cheaper to damage books with a certain probability. As a book-lover I’m offended by all the waste.

Re: Powell’s says it won’t sell books on Amazon anymore

#112

Post by viburnum »

Mediterraneo10 wrote: post #62
atoav wrote: post #58

Of the last 10 books I bought on Amazon 4 were faulty prints with miscut pages, misaligned pages, misprint pages. Two of them had misprint covers. All of them were sold as new by Amazon itself. I am done with buying books from them

To be fair, this might not be Amazon's fault, it could have happened with any online booksellers, because ultimately the publisher is at fault. For example, Oxford University Press used to be renowned for the quality of its printing and binding, but it has quietly moved many titles to very shoddy digital printing with misaligned pages and a glued binding that fails instantly, and online you just can't be sure whether…

Some OUP books look like they were printed on a laser printer from 1988 now. I think they’re doing print-on-demand for some titles. You expect better for a $40 paperback.

Re: Powell’s says it won’t sell books on Amazon anymore

#113

Post by _Nat_ »

LanceH wrote: post #102
_Nat_ wrote: post #91

It's always weird to read a story where someone's rooting for something like old bookstores to remain in-business. The thing's that I don't mind the economic shift nor the format shift. I don't particularly care for bookstores or even old-fashion books; I think electronic media with active content is vastly superior. I look forward to further advances in technology, where the line between static media and computation…

Bookstores offer something electronic media doesn't -- discovery. 1. You know what you want, you search for it and order it. 2. You know vaguely what you want, you search, read reviews and order it. 3. You walk into a bookstore and wander around and eventually pick something out. I just haven't seen #3 replicated in online fashion. Sure there are a million sites that will guide you to what you want, but you never qui…

It can be nice to open up a book and flip through the pages to get a quick look at it. By contrast, book-previews on sites like Amazon.com can be obnoxious with blocked content and inconsistent behavior.

I think I'd have a dimmer view of the transition to digital media if it were to remain exactly as it is today. But I tend to think of it as an evolving thing; I'd expect features like book-previews to significantly improve over time.

Re: Powell’s says it won’t sell books on Amazon anymore

#114

Post by bredren »

Jimmc414 wrote: post #95

I support Powell's courage and I am rooting for them, but I'm afraid they have waited too long to make a stand and the only limit to Amazon's power to squash them in the marketplace is Amazon's concern about being perceived as too powerful.

Me too, been going there a long time. Though it has had its own share of public labor disputes with employees over the years.

That said, the local support really is quite good and as far as I know the company hasn’t been in real dire straights.

>The pandemic changed the landscape, Powell said...its Amazon sales slowed so she decided to focus on the bookstore’s own website.

I like Powell’s but the site wasn’t really very good. It was like so many other companies that have somehow been caught flat footed when they should have been hiring and building excellent online experiences _around_ their core value offering years ago.

This is with acknowledgment that the company built out an entire area to do online sales years back.

Powell’s could have or still can build its own GoodReads or similar engagement tool but they haven’t and probably won’t.

So long as the company is competing like an online bookstore I don’t think it will ever compete with Amazon in potential sales.

Re: Powell’s says it won’t sell books on Amazon anymore

#115

Post by viburnum »

wrp wrote: post #31

Powell's Technical Books used to be my favorite place to hang out. I would ride downtown in the morning and spend an entire day there, scanning every shelf in my fields of interest, reveling in periodic hits of serendipity. Since PTB closed, I've been back once. It wasn't worth it any more. I'll admit that I did like it better back before the store was spruced up to be like a Borders.

I loved the technical book store too but it was always too good to be true. It was fun while it lasted.

Re: Powell’s says it won’t sell books on Amazon anymore

#116

Post by isaiahg »

greenie_beans wrote: post #101
mfer wrote: post #87

https://bookshop.org/ is now an option to use instead of Amazon. It also raises money for local bookstores.

I'm conflicted over this business. It's ran by good people but I don't think it's the right solution for independents to compete with Amazon. Just go straight to the local bookstore's website. A lot of the stores on bookshop also have an online store. Bookshop is a supplement and basically just plugged straight into Ingram (the distributor), so they're able to sell whatever your local indie's web store lacks.

You have way more trust in people than I do. I don't think people would do anything if it meant just 0.1 more seconds of inconvenience.

Re: Powell’s says it won’t sell books on Amazon anymore

#117

Post by nabilhat »

wrp wrote: post #31

Powell's Technical Books used to be my favorite place to hang out. I would ride downtown in the morning and spend an entire day there, scanning every shelf in my fields of interest, reveling in periodic hits of serendipity. Since PTB closed, I've been back once. It wasn't worth it any more. I'll admit that I did like it better back before the store was spruced up to be like a Borders.

I'm still mourning the loss of PTB. Not just a bookstore, more a collection of hundreds of subjects in excruciating detail, rabbit holes that would take years to follow of programming, electronics, physics, machinining, steam power. I hate to think what happened to it all. It really did feel like a reservoir of discarded knowledge, like a massive grimoire of nerding.

Re: Powell’s says it won’t sell books on Amazon anymore

#118

Post by isaiahg »

mfer wrote: post #87

https://bookshop.org/ is now an option to use instead of Amazon. It also raises money for local bookstores.

This is surprisingly cool. I bet a significant market would be into this. And with the current situation in the world supporting local businesses is all the rage. I just wish they had a phone app with ebooks.

Re: Powell’s says it won’t sell books on Amazon anymore

#119

Post by mfer »

greenie_beans wrote: post #101
mfer wrote: post #87

https://bookshop.org/ is now an option to use instead of Amazon. It also raises money for local bookstores.

I'm conflicted over this business. It's ran by good people but I don't think it's the right solution for independents to compete with Amazon. Just go straight to the local bookstore's website. A lot of the stores on bookshop also have an online store. Bookshop is a supplement and basically just plugged straight into Ingram (the distributor), so they're able to sell whatever your local indie's web store lacks.

Where I live there is no bookstore with their web store within a close distance (it's greater than 30 minute drive). So, it's not an option. One bookstores within 30 minutes all have very limited selection essentially tied to those who live at the edge of suburbia and rural.

So, if I'm going to order online I'm happy to do it in a way that supports small bookstores.

I imagine there are others like me.

Re: Powell’s says it won’t sell books on Amazon anymore

#120

Post by robaato »

viburnum wrote: post #111
AlexandrB wrote: post #92

I'm going to take this opportunity to grind my personal axe: Amazon is extremely lazy about shipping books, throwing them into lightly-padded envelopes. Books shipped from Amazon usually arrive with at least minor cosmetic damage and sometimes much worse. For me this is reason enough to avoid buying books on Amazon.

I ordered an $80 art book from Amazon. Had to return the first two they sent me, they were so damaged. No protection at all, just loose in a box. Amazon used to mount books to a piece of cardboard and shrinkwrap it together. They must have calculated that most people don’t care and it’s cheaper to damage books with a certain probability. As a book-lover I’m offended by all the waste.

In the UK they still deliver single books with wrap around cardboard cover - seems to work fine. Never had a problem. Could be a size issue.
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