Earlier quoted context omitted.
And it's usually the end result of competition with behemoths like Amazon, believe it or not.
They could have sold books online earlier, they chose not to.
It's not about timing. It's not just about selling either.
France moves to shield its book industry from Amazon
141–150 of 301 posts
Re: France moves to shield its book industry from Amazon
#142Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't know if there's a word for that, but it certainly seems like it would be exceedingly rare. Don't people in rural areas have vastly disproportionately large representation in government, public spending per capita, etc.? Of course, I'm just basing this on my intuition in the United States. My intuition could be way off, or France could be quite different.
People in rural areas have disproportionately large representation in government, but this doesn't mean their representation actually represents them. By and large rural politicians go against the will of their voter bases and over the past fifty years have contributed to the decline of important things like rural schooling, sort of cementing the "bad representation" problem. Rural voters are actually far more progre…
I agree that representatives don't actually represent the wishes of pretty much anyone who isn't extremely wealthy, but I haven't seen anything to suggest that this problem is worse for rural populations than urban populations.
Re: France moves to shield its book industry from Amazon
#143Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think technology is going to sunset paper books, so this is just delaying the inevitable.
They’ll probably go the way of vinyl records, something more special than the regular stuff and for showing off or just for the extra pleasure of it. Ironically, closer to the way books and records were held before mass production.
Physical books, like vinyl, is a decorative piece of art as well as entertainment. I think that will keep physical books popular indefinitely
Re: France moves to shield its book industry from Amazon
#144A lot of comments don’t seem to get the context of this.
Book prices are regulated in France [0] and you can’t just discount willy-nilly, in particular new book publications have selling prices set by the publisher.
This proposition is coming on top of that: it will block sellers from artificially discounting books by subsidizing shipping cost. It is basically closing a loophole that still allowed Amazon to have lower prices than others.
It doesn’t matter if you’re independent, purely online or not. The effect will be to force the same sticker price everywhere, as intended for years now.
It may push people to buy local, but it’s only a side effect, and not the directly intended goal (there are other french online retailers that will benefit a lot more from this law).
[0] https://www.sne.fr/app/uploads/2017/11/Intervention-Catherin...
Re: France moves to shield its book industry from Amazon
#145So, basically Amazon is in a win-win situation. If the status quo prevails, they're happy. If they have to start charging for shipping, maybe some customers go to a local bookstore but Amazon also has a legal mandate to make more profit in their book sales by not subsidizing shipping out of the wholesale margin. And while some people will buy local a bit more, Amazon sells so many things and the local store may still…
There are laws preventing price dropping on new books. If Amazon has to start charging for shipping, they will be charging the same as every other bookstore in total, making them just another option among the others. Some will still prefer Amazon, but there is no downside anymore to chose another online shop (and there’s plenty big and reputable ones).
After complete price equality, I don't think it will be possible to have mandatory equal delivery times, so surely Amazon will still win out based on faster delivery.
Re: France moves to shield its book industry from Amazon
#146Earlier quoted context omitted.
With this mentality, we'd have as many cultures as we have social networks... Pretty much one global dominant network. If that's the world you want, that's fine.
> If that's the world you want, that's fine. Well what do people want?! Is anyone asking? If people aren't buying French literature from French bookshops without Government subsidy... then maybe people don't want that.
The French vote those people who enact these laws into office because they approve them.
Re: France moves to shield its book industry from Amazon
#147France has a long history of attempting to protect its cultural industries, including film and publishing. It's not wrong. There are other things that are important aside from customer purchasing power. Amazon is using its economies of scale to drive out smaller businesses. It is not unique in that. But the industries that Amazon affects may be unique to the nations that wish to preserve them. Most centralization inc…
> It's not wrong. Who's judging the quality, if not the consumers? If people loved French content they'd buy it in droves from Amazon anyway. If they don't... why not?
Government can be said to there to protect people from themselves in some cases. If Amazon ran the world, 90% of us would be wage-slaves with no benefits.
You wouldn’t want to live in a world like that, but you also aren’t likely to fight it yourself and even if you tried you probably wouldn’t succeed.
It’s basically why we have any sort of regulation.
Re: France moves to shield its book industry from Amazon
#148Please correct me if I'm wrong, but this is actually protecting the small book stores, right? Big stores like the Fnac could offer the same shipping prices as Amazon (and maybe they're already doing it). Publishers don't care much who is selling the book as long as it's selling. Obviously this only applies to physical books. Ebooks only account for about 15% of books sold in France unlike the US where it's close to 5…
I’m suspicious that Amazon sells fewer books than a good physical bookstore. In a bookstore, people find books they didn’t know they want, and I’ve never found anything interesting on Amazon. Similarly, Amazon does not produce the “whole I’m already here, I might as well buy something else” effect. I’ve long thought that the publishers have has their whole business model wrong in quite a few ways.
> I’ve never found anything interesting on Amazon
Probably a lack of your own imagination. There’s a lifetime of interesting books on Amazon.
Re: France moves to shield its book industry from Amazon
#149I don't even think Amazon wins on cost. It also wins on convenience and completeness. If I need to find a book or research on a subject, I'm not going to peruse a local book store, I'm going to use a Library Catalog, Amazon Search, or Google Search, from the convenience of my phone or desktop.
Local book stores being the same price, or even cheaper, isn't likely to influence my initial tendency to preview on the Web first, and if I search for my book and preview on the Web, I'm much more likely to buy it there too.
IMHO, France is only forestalling the inevitable, and eventually local book shops value won't be in selling books, but in providing a hangout place to discuss things, to have book tour speakers in person, to serve hipster coffee and snacks, etc. But as a pure book retail warehouse? I think think this is dead in the long term.
Re: France moves to shield its book industry from Amazon
#150Earlier quoted context omitted.
> If that's the world you want, that's fine. Well what do people want?! Is anyone asking? If people aren't buying French literature from French bookshops without Government subsidy... then maybe people don't want that.
The French vote those people who enact these laws into office because they approve them.
If people wanted it anyway why would they need a law to enforce it?
I want to shop locally. I don’t vote for a law to require myself to shop locally. I just go ahead and shop locally.
The only need for a law is to force someone who doesn’t want to shop locally to do so against their will!