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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

#121

Post by x87678r »

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.

I tried but local store really is much more expensive, like double or at least 50% - that is if they can even get it. I dont ever want to go there and browse, just buy some books. For me Amazon is sooo much easier and much cheaper as well, I wonder what the point of supporting local is for.

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

#122

Post by cricalix »

mfer wrote: post #87

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

America only, so not really an option for the majority of the world. Mind you, given most Irish bookstores (in Dublin area at least) don't even bother offering online ordering, I'm not sure a clearing house helps anyway.

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

#123

Post by larrik »

_Nat_ wrote: post #108
larrik wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree. For fiction, at least, used bookstores let you find some obscure stuff for cheap, and a book can pass through many hands and develop its own story along the way. Some of this stuff isn't available digitally. I don't think ebooks are a definitive gain over physical. For fiction, I like being able to read them on my phone, and I like Kindle's X-Ray and other features on highlight (who is this character agai…

> Finally, kids books should be physical, forever. I don't let my kids read on a tablet or other device, ever. That's an interesting position; would you mind commenting on why? That said, if we're talking about things in the long-term, then neither old-fashion books nor tablets would seem relevant. Something like a good neural-lace would quickly obsolete both.

1) It's (likely) better for their eyes and motor development (turning pages is quite the skill to learn to do properly).

2) They outgrow them quickly, and you can move them down to their little cousin or a friend or whoever.

3) No distractions of being on a tablet or having access to apps or the web.

4) Way way cheaper, especially used.

That said, I pretty strictly restrict screen time, way more than even I was restricted as a kid, for a variety of reasons. Physical books are something they can look to for entertainment outside of that. Remote learning has made this worse, now that their schooling is online.

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

#124

Post by kube-system »

michaelt wrote: post #64
nly wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's hard to know if you're buying something legit or from a shaddy business. Is this a US problem? In the UK I've never heard anyone ever receive a fake or dodgy product, but I see these complaints on HN in almost every thread about Amazons retail business.

A good fake is borderline undetectable. So your friends could have received fakes and not known. It's not like many people would buy several copies of a book or DVD to do a side-by-side comparison of textures and precise colour matching. Or have the equipment to tell apart a CRI 95 LED bulb from a CRI 80 bulb in the same housing. Or tell name-brand nail polish from generic in an identical bottle, or a genuine Apple c…

AliExpress is where people go when they want a fake.

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

#125

Post by jjulius »

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.

They do the same thing with vinyl records. I opted to roll with Amazon because I was impatient and wanted it soon, even though I'd rather have given my money to an actual record shop. Sure enough, they packed the record like they pack everything else - in a box that's too big and not specifically made for the product, with a couple of InstaPak air sleeves; it was almost comical. Lots of cosmetic damage on the record sleeve, unfortunately. My immediate thought upon opening it was, "Of course."

Record shops or folk on Discogs will always ship them in boxes specifically made for records, and (knock on wood) I'd never received a damage record in the post until that point and haven't since.

Never again will I buy vinyl through them.

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

#126

Post by NewOrderNow »

mfer wrote: post #119
greenie_beans wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

There needs to be some sort of shopify solution for Libary stacks and small bookstores

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

#127

Post by kube-system »

sgt wrote: post #17
easytiger wrote: post #2

> by siphoning business from the real world and replacing it with internet commerce. I've got news for you, people want to order on a whim and have it arrive at their home the next day. If you don't offer that then people won't buy from you. In many parts of the world overgrown local busybodies have destroyed "high streets" in attempts to monetize drivers and pad their CV; driving people away.

I think next day is overrated. If something is important enough for you, surely most people should be willing to wait a few days e.g a week for it to arrive. It's not like you are going to finish that book the same day (usually).

Many people use books for tasks other than pleasure.

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

#128

Post by techfoolery »

soapdog wrote: post #7
easytiger wrote: post #2

> by siphoning business from the real world and replacing it with internet commerce. I've got news for you, people want to order on a whim and have it arrive at their home the next day. If you don't offer that then people won't buy from you. In many parts of the world overgrown local busybodies have destroyed "high streets" in attempts to monetize drivers and pad their CV; driving people away.

That may be true but when dealing with book discovery nothing beats going to an actual book store and browsing. Human curated isles and shelves, people to talk to, an environment that fosters curiosity. That can't be replaced with clever algorithms designed to push whatever amazon want to push. I agree with you that buying on Amazon is easy and frictionless but convenience comes with at a cost and sometimes price is…

I don't want to be that guy and say to effect, "well, welcome to the real world". There are trade-offs involved for every side, good and bad.

Your book discovery process may be optimal for you, but I couldn't be further away from that. I don't really care to know Bob or Sally's taste at the local bookstore, don't know them, have 0 trust in them. (There's probably exceptions, insignificant ones though, in big cities like Austin with really cool book stores & a niche collector-kinda collection, but that's a different market to me)

Why would I care about human curated isles and shelves when I could go look up what Tyler Cowen's reading and recommending, or Marc Andreessen or Patrick Collison? Not to mention, Twitter's fantastic for this. There's very interesting people that post snippets as well of what they're reading, and build up a credibility that gives you insight into the book as well as knowing this person has a reading taste that aligns with your own.

And then once I evaluate the options, I can easily go on Amazon and get whatever I want to read in a timely manner (Not to mention using Amazon's reviews as an additional filter, the 2/3 star reviews for more critical analysis)

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

#129

Post by Red_Leaves_Flyy »

FoomFries wrote: post #106
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 recently ordered an illustrated novel with a rather heavy paperweight - Amazon shipped it in weakly padded envelopes and the corners were banged up. I even bothered to contact their customer service to ship it with better packaging, to no avail on the replacement item. I then ordered 10 of the damn things, to see what the packaging would do. 4 came in one box, 3 came in another, and 3 came in individual poorly padd…

Props for going through the hassle. How bad does Amazonneed to get before the costs of negligence outweigh doing it right the first time? I would think there are dozens of actuaries doing the math, maybe I'm giving bezo too much credit though.

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

#130

Post by pschastain »

Kudos to Powell's, I've spent literally thousands of dollars over the years at that magnificent store and will continue to do so; spent hour upon hour there in my childhood getting lost in wonders it holds.

They don't try to undercut smaller bookstores by offering discounts on new books like B&N, Amazon, etc., their employees seem to actually enjoy working there, it's a family-friendly environment and the selection simply can't be beat. If you enjoy reading, please support this business.

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