Amazon.com or local bookstore?

[Deja Q]

Sadly, the only bookstores in my area are corporate chains.

I'd rather go amazon.

Besides, I don't want some dilettante floorwalker treating me like some fuckin' criminal. I've shopped there frequently and refuse to be ill treated.

[Rabrrrrrr]

1. I hate to say it, but I rarely buy a book that isn't from Amazon.

We only have a small Borders, and I fucking hate Borders. I have no idea why, but I've never liked them. I love Barnes and Nobles. Go figure - they look the same, so I don't know why I don't like Borders, but there ya go.

I like Amazon because books are cheaper, and for $75 or $79 a year, I can get everything shipped for free (apart from, obviously, the annual fee).

I use amazon for books, DVDs, CDs, kitchen stuff, household appliances, just about everything.

And if we had an old style local bookseller, I doubt I would use them anyway - small selection, and I like to browse and read reviews and also have eclectic taste. Most of the books I purchase wouldn't even be carried at the NYC Barnes and Nobles.

[Lex]

3. I use amazon.com to read reviews and make choices, then call my local

independent (liberal-owned) bookstore and they order whatever I want and I get it in a couple of days--if they don't have it in stock already.

[Critters2]

22. I do this too. I also encourage friends to shop

at local, independent bookstores by giving them "book sense" (I think that's the name) gift cards, which are available at independent booksellers.

[RetroLounge]

32. "book sense" is a great program

Thank you for using it...

:hi:

RL

[Deja Q]

4. Borders is said to be blue, but I don't buy that claim...

I have no qualms about amazon.com. Unless borders has a big sale/deal, I don't bother except to browse titles for something I can order through amazon.

I miss the few local sellers we had, but big box stores (borders, barnes & noble) are the walmarts of the book industry and they killed everyone off.

[kath]

48. Barnes & Noble is blue, not Borders or Amazon.

Check out buyblue.org
There are also some great independent bookstores that do online ordering, such as Powell's (Seattle) and The Tattered Cover (Denver). Joyce Meskis, the woman who owns The Tattered Cover, is an awesome defender of the First Amendment. Give her (or Powell's) your business rather than Amazon.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tattered_Cover

[Connonym]

2. I'm an Amazon junkie

for a couple of reasons A) The local independent store doesn't carry a huge variety and they have to order almost any book I'm looking for. B) It's significantly cheaper to order from Amazon at a discounted price, wait three days and have them deliver it to my doorstep than it is for me to order from the indy store at full price,wait three days and then have to go pick it up. I don't have unlimited income to spend on books and I can afford a lot more books if I buy used or buy from Amazon.

The shopping is two different processes, both with their own charms: In the bookstore you get to feel,smell and look at the books, wander around and explore. On Amazon they offer suggestions to explore other things and that brings a whole new dimension into looking around, finding things that you very possibly wouldn't have found in a physical bookstore.

[rug]

5. Try here.

http://www.strandbooks.com/

[Connonym]

6. Going into the Strand is like entering heaven

I swear I heard a chorus of angels when I walked in the door. Funny enough, when I left NY my suitcase got marked by the baggage handlers as "extra heavy"

[rug]

7. It smells like a bookstore should.

[Montauk6]

38. Ah... the Strand... the only true BARGAIN BASEMENT!

[Awsi Dooger]

8. Amazon

The prices are excellent. I typically pick a few books and put them in my basket and wait for the free shipping situation. I made an order on Wednesday.

Also, I find this very convenient. The CoinStar machines at grocery stores, etc., rip you off if you select cash back. But you can pick an Amazon gift certificate at actual value of your coins, no loss of 9% or whatever. A few months ago I started putting my change in a jar for the first time for that purpose. I was up to $88 and redeemed it via CoinStar as an Amazon gift certificate, so that order I made a few days ago came out of that amount. Almost felt like it was free. :)

[Connonym]

16. oh sweet! I knew you could do that with Starbucks but not Amazon

I like books better than mochas!

[Awsi Dooger]

21. I stumbled upon it by accident

I was waiting in line to pay a utility bill, leaning on a CoinStar machine. A woman wanted to use the CoinStar so I watched her dump more than $100 into it, losing something like 8.9%. I almost said something about lousy value, then I started looking at the machine and noticed the Amazon at face value availability.

LOL. I botched it the first time. That day I had about $3 in change so I dumped it in CoinStar and tried to select an Amazon gift certificate. They didn't warn you that the minimum was 5 bucks. I tried to add a couple of dollar bills but I was stuck. Once I had selected redeem I couldn't add any more. I felt like an idiot cashing out a receipt for less than 3 bucks and losing 9 cents on the dollar.

[peacefreak]

9. You guys are breaking my heart.

I've just put in a long 8 hour day at an independent bookstore. I've worked with dads & kids looking for just the right Mother's Day gift. I KNOW a lot of the mothers & what they like. No, we don't have the capital to stock every title you see on Amazon, but we have the knowledge & ability to get it for you.
Remember Joni Mitchell's "Big Yellow Taxi"? Don't it always see to go, you don't know what you have til it's gone....
And isn't there something to be said for keeping the business & money in your local community?
Oh hell, I'm just really tired.

[Deja Q]

12. There are no local communities anymore. (At least in my neighborhood.)

People summarily treat each other as thieves
People hire each other after passing a long battery of mostly fairly irrelevant tests
Little's made in the USA it seems
We're treated as disposable (did slavery really ever end?)

When people suggest we be communities again, there's no response, the idea is laughed at, or the idea is balked.

[asthmaticeog]

17. So you just give up?

There ARE communities, still, even if we've been trained out of seeing it that way. When you spend in the local bookstore, even if it's a corporate chain store, SOME of your money goes to someone who lives (and spends money) in your area. Unless Amazon has HQ or a distro center in your town, you're sending ALL the money you spend out of your local economy when you buy online. Those locals in the BN or Borders or whatever, whether they're obliged by their employers to treat everyone like thieves or not, might be the very people who're keeping, for example, your favorite coffee place open by spending their some of their paychecks there.

[Deja Q]

20. Well, the big boys took out the little ones... when the big boys leave,

what will be left?

Besides, aren't we a global economy and all this jive talk about local communities went the way of the dodo? (okay, that's sarcasm, but still...)

I just hope to get an online customer for my online business. Local business here has been rather little.

I honestly know what you mean, but those in power have changed the playing field of the economy. When other companies shut down, just like how CompUSA had, I have to wonder. We've already seen the likes of Walmart shut down stores then they in turn shut down too. Some jackasses think that's all good. But my overriding paranoid fear is that THAT is America's future.

Business always changed; and the core of business is maximizing profits. One day EVERYBODY is going to have to figure it out and have the spine to say "This ain't happening and bad things will happen" or they will accept it AND allow their lives to be torn asunder when the inevitable happens. Right now, people love it when those big box stores close down. But how long before our communities are destroyed simply because it's cheaper in India; and half the people working in those stores happen to have come from India too? They've got jobs for them when they move back home. We don't.

In short, most people are living for today. Nothing we can do about anything anyway if even the most crackpot hyperbole turns out to be reality; and right now the possibilities are endless. And I don't want to end up in a death camp.

[Critters2]

15. Right on all counts!!! "Buy locally" is my mantra!! nt

[Connonym]

18. I wish I could afford to do so

but in the past couple years the W economy has been so stagnant that I haven't been able to raise my freelance fees in 4+ years and I have fewer clients than ever. I can't afford to spend 25 bucks for a book if I don't have to. Actually, lately it's been 99% library and 1% buying because my disposable income is pathetic.

[alarimer]

41. Where I live there are NO independent bookstores

Of course I live in a town where no one apparently reads (much). In a town of 300K, we have ONE Barnes and Noble, on Half-Price Books and one of those you see at the mall (B. Dalton or the other one, I can't remember). So Amazon it is for stuff I can't find at Half-Price.

I actually went to Brownsville one time for a job interview and I was looking for a bookstore to kill some time. I was told there wasn't one. At all. I am really glad I didn't get that job. Not just because of the lack of culture but for various other reasons having to do with petty crime, lousy schools and corrupt local governments.

[Scooter24]

54. I wish I had a local independent bookstore

nearby, but I live in a community that loves it's Borders and Barnes & Noble and smaller bookstores are practically non-existant. Usually I buy from Amazon from my office or home because it's convienient, however, sometimes a small bookstore will catch my eye when I'm driving and I'll stop to check it out.

I try to buy locally though. :hi:

[uppityperson]

10. I have a small local bookstore AND used book store.

Both will order books for me, get them in fairly fast. I use Big Bookstores for ideas, get really tired of them not having what I want also.

[uppityperson]

11. DU buggy dupe

[Critters2]

13. I feel compelled to buy locally

One of my parishioners owns an independent bookstore. It's a great little shop, and she's great about special orders when I need 'em.

Another parishioner manages a Waldenbooks in a town about 20 miles away. I try to throw some business his way, too.

After all, if church members don't eat, I don't eat. And I like to eat.

[Deja Q]

14. True, local IS truly preferable and I do prefer small name to big chain.

But mine is one of those neo boom town area that's all big box stores.

The lesser evil here is clearly amazon.com

[peacefreak]

19. Thank you.

Believe me, I don't know any bookseller who does it for the money. It's a job you do for love. You sure can't get rich doing it.

[Critters2]

24. I'm downright obsessive about buying locally. nt

[philosophie_en_rose]

23. Local Store, mostly.

There is one local store that makes its money selling used books. (People can trade in and get a certain amount of credit). They'll also order anything I want and charge only a little more than wholesale. Wonderful people own it and I've been going there since I moved to this country as a little kid.

I do buy a hell of a lot of things on Amazon.com, though. I sell books there, buy textbooks, buy electronics, buy movies and music, and also books that are easier to get online. I have "Amazon Prime" with free priority shipping, so I also send gifts through Amazon, especially overseas.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

25. Funny story

In College, there were a few of us who hung out, including a theater major. We wrote this whole play about us hanging out in Borders, and how bookstores are laxatives. We had a whole adventure in the bookstore, and the laxative thing was a subplot. Every few minutes one of us in the play would go into the bathroom, and in the script, you'd see one of us supposedly in a stall, with a newspaper in front of us. I'm partial to book stores, usually Barnes and Noble, but we used Borders because of their 4.5 foot shelving.
Although I love ordering stuff from Amazon. I love love love getting stuff in the mail.
Duckie

[dropkickpa]

53. Libraries and bookstores do that to me

I have no idea what causes it!

[lost-in-nj]

26. All we have

are Borders and whatever the other chain one is.
So I go to Amazon.....BUT maybe we should try Retrolounges
website????
We do have an independent music store that has been around foe a long time
If they don't have it they will find it....
CDs and vinyl



lost

[Deja Q]

28. Oooh, good point!

Do you know what it is (or RL, if you're reading, would you advertise? :hi: )

[lost-in-nj]

29. I dont know it

I know he has posted it
I'm sure he would be happy to again!!!!!


lost

[cmf]

27. Library

I'm a library person. However, if I had a penchant to read a book that would definitely put me on some Bushco Patriot Act Watchlist, I'd buy local, with cash. :) We are lucky to have a nice independent bookstore just down the street.

[u4ic]

30. Me, too

Unless it's a book that I can use to reference over and over again, I just get what I want to read or watch (they have a great DVD collection) out of the library.

[RetroLounge]

31. Local is better. Mine is even better!

http://www.xenithbooksellers.com/

I have them listed on Amazon, B&N and Alibris, among other places...

or you can come to Milwaukee after I open the store in June and shop in person.

:hi:

RL

[Critters2]

33. Let us know when you get the store open

I'll encourage my dad to go there from time to time. He spends so much time at Fireside Books in West Bend (yes, local, independent) that they know him by name, and sometimes call to let him know of books they think he'd be interested in.

[RetroLounge]

36. Will do! thanks!

:hi:

RL

[lost-in-nj]

35. ....

:bounce: :hi:

when you open we need an address...
so we can all send a rubber tree plant!!!!!!!!!



:LOL LOL LOL:



lost

[Deja Q]

37. Cool!

I could use a vacation... I saw your stuff. You've got quite a selection... :)

[RetroLounge]

39. You are a Dr. Who fan, right?

I found a box filled with Dr. Who paperbacks, thought of you...

:hi:

RL

[Connonym]

49. do you offer a DU discount? :-P

I really AM a cheap bitch (in more than one way!).

[RetroLounge]

50. You stop in once I open and I'll take care of you...

"Xenith Booksellers, how may I service you?"

:D

RL

[Benfea]

34. Both, of course.

Amazon is amazingly convenient and all, but the experience of browsing just isn't the same unless you have books and magazines in your grubby little hands.

[Nicole]

40. I buy local most of the time.

If they don't have what I want, they are always happy to order it for me.

I order from Amazon or Powells if I'm sending it for a gift so they can ship for me.

[The Inquisitive]

42. Amazon

Cheaper, and delivered right to my door. Hell amazon has my consumer profile down so perfectly that half the time the item it is recommending to me is what I'm there to purchase.

[Nicole]

43. Hi!

Welcome to DU. :hi:

[Deja Q]

52. Don't you love advertising?

:D

Welcome to DU!

Yeah, I do peek at what amazon claims I'll like. They're right about 40% of the time and even when they are, I don't buy outside what I'm looking for.

[ironflange]

44. I don't recall ever buying anything from Amazon

If I need something arcane and want to look for it online, I go to the greatest bookstore on Earth: Powell's.

http://powells.com/

Anyone who lives in Portland, OR, or has ever visited there, will know what I mean.

[Flaxbee]

45. I go to amazon, and then try to buy from the used directory...

... I've had really good luck doing so. We also have a "Friends of Library" bookstore here, but it's completely hit-and-miss, you don't really go there looking for something specific that you want, you just go to browse and see if anything strikes your fancy.

[Flaxbee]

47. wait! I forgot to mention booksfree.com, which is like

a Netflix for books. I haven't used it myself, but just recently discovered it. If you want to read a book before deciding to buy it, this might be great.

There is also booksense.com, which is a clearinghouse of independent bookstores that you can search via zipcode.

[Dastard Stepchild]

46. Online independent sellers are great...

When you do not have a local store in your area. I try the locals first, but when they don't have what I am looking for, I take the search online. Alibris is a great way to locate these sellers.

[Evoman]

51. My city has some great bookstores.

I usually go to the book store that has new books (the used book stores are great, but they are less up to date) just because I buy new books for some series that I read. The used bookstores are downtown so they are harder to get to for me (the other bookstore is literally 2 blocks away) but I like to visit them every now and then. GREAT deals.