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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

#141

Post by pdxandi »

pschastain wrote: post #130

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 s…

I lived within walking distance of Powell's for over a decade and it was my favorite place to spend free time (shot out to Annie Bloom's Books in Multnomah Village, as well). I make a concerted effort to live near bookstores because I think they are some of the most wholesome and comforting places on the planet. That and libraries.

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

#142

Post by vharuck »

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 wouldn't call it laziness but money-driven apathy. They probably tell the warehouse packers to use envelopes for all non-fragile items. As long as the cost of returns is less than the cost of hiring more packers to keep up, Amazon will do things this way.

And, from my experience as a warehouse order packer, the quotas are insane. I'm cautious with other people's stuff, so it wasn't long before they reassigned me. Commercial bulk buyers got better treatment.

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

#143

Post by lowbloodsugar »

Local farm says will not sell grain in cities any more; Says agricultural "revolution" has resulted in decline of people working on farms from 83% to 8%; Working themselves, day in, day out, tilling the land by hand, and all the good honest work that pre-agricultural revolution farming required.

Some people cite that the agricultural revolution paved the way for cities, the industrial revolution, science and technology, but what is really important is jobs that involve turning the land by hand.

The facts that food is now far more available, far cheaper, and far easier to obtain (it can be delivered to your door) and at far greater variety, don't offset the fact that if we returned to pre-agricultural revolution pratices we could have 250 million americans all employed working dawn till dusk on the fields, with only the occasional famine.

(In other news, Farm admits that its only doing this because "The pandemic changed the landscape, Powell said, with Amazon prioritizing cleaning supplies and other essential goods -- slowing the shipment of books.")

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

#145

Post by maxioatic »

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.

Same. I loved going in there.

The technical sections on the top floor by the rare books area is still pretty good, but it has none of the "science gizmos" and the feeling is just that of a regular section.

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

#146

Post by rrrrrrrrrrrryan »

x87678r wrote: post #121
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.

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.

A site like Amazon is always going to be better than a local shop if you already know exactly what you want.

Local shops offer human curation instead of algorithmic recommendation, and create situations where you can stumble into something that you would have never even thought to search for.

If this isn't a way you like to shop that's fine of course, but it's something that a lot of other people enjoy. Personally, I loathe algorithms that recommend things to me based on what I've already consumed, and certainly hope we don't ever lose our local bookstores.

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

#147

Post by erickhill »

samcheng wrote: post #135
pschastain wrote: post #130

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 s…

I've never lived in Portland, but try to visit annually; Powell's has earned its place as a 'must go' destination every year. I mean, it's a bookstore, with active curation, that spans a city block. Amazing! I end up with the book I had in mind, plus half a dozen books discovered along the way...

Totally agree. I live in Seattle and my family and I pre-COVID would visit Portland at least once a year, sometimes twice.

Powell's was always a destination every single time, even if only for an hour with many books in hand I'd simply never have found or thought to look for online.

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

#148

Post by easytiger »

Eezee wrote: post #55
easytiger wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let me guess. All cars are evil and the nation has adopted them simply to anger cyclist folk? Embarrassingly reductive giberish. Not everyone has a living situation to live as you'd wish them

You guessed what the content is from the title alone and then judged the book by your made-up content instead of actually finding out what the book might be about. Now that is embarrassingly reductive gibberish.

I was inferring the opinion of the previous commenter. No consideration given to his comment on some book.

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

#149

Post by Nicholas_C »

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.

To me this is preferable to putting it in a large cardboard box with bubble wrap like they seem to do for even tiny but durable products like finger nail clippers. It’s much less of a waste and I don’t mind if a book is slightly creased.

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

#150

Post by runevault »

samcheng wrote: post #135
pschastain wrote: post #130

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 s…

I've never lived in Portland, but try to visit annually; Powell's has earned its place as a 'must go' destination every year. I mean, it's a bookstore, with active curation, that spans a city block. Amazing! I end up with the book I had in mind, plus half a dozen books discovered along the way...

I've yet to go to Portland, but if I ever do I intend to make a stop at Powell's assuming the world is in a place where that can happen. Thankfully we have our own good indie bookstore where I live that's a stand in until I can make it there.
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