It is weird how once you start to think about a topic you notice it everywhere. My dad got me a free subscription to wired magazine and there happened to be an article directly relating to the brown bag my group is holding tomorrow. Yay more free pizza!
Anyway, the article was called “The Plot Thickens”… “In a world where authors can make millions selling directly to fans, the publishing industry is desperately trying to write its next chapter”. It was almost ironic to me that I stumbled upon this in print format because most of my reading or “news reading” happens online. One of the most interesting lines in the article was that “the disappearance of the physical bookstore would endanger the entire book business- even Amazon.” This is true because customers don’t usually use online sources to discover books. The article also mentions “if you want to see a bookstore owner angry, mention Amazon’s Price check app, which allows customers to scan an item in a physical store and buy it for less on Amazon then and there”.
That’s a good point to bring up. It is very true that most people go to books stores just to browse, rarely actually buying books from the stores. The society we live in today is all about how to get the most for your money. Nothing else seems to matter as much as long as its cheaper somewhere else, it will most likely be bought from there.
That’s an interesting point. I know I definitely don’t use Amazon to browse for books. I either buy textbooks off of Amazon or books I already know I want to purchase. I wonder if it’s true, though, that the decline of bookstores would weaken Amazon. I think in that case Amazon would still survive; they would simply have to develop a system that allows customers to browse books. If what your article says is true, then Amazon should start supporting more bookstores!
Today we are all about the cheapest and easiest ways to get products so I too think this is a really good point.