Response to Amazon’s customer-as-spy promotion

This article is great. Beautifully put, especially by bookseller Lacy Simons. Also, leave it to writers to put it so perfectly: scorched earth capitalism and droid-packing spies.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/13/opinion/amazons-jungle-logic.html?_r=3&pagewanted=all&src=ISMR_AP_LO_MST_FB

However, the comments are less than reassuring. People seem to think that the indie bookseller is pricing the books arbitrarily, which is not true. Amazon’s ability to price books lower comes from their ability to buy in large quantities and demand a higher discount from the publisher. And publishers set prices based on recouping costs and making a profit—and trust me when I say it’s a very modest profit. Oftentimes a nonexistent profit.

It’s true that on a purely fiscal level bookstores aren’t offering the best deal. What you’re paying for when you go into a bookstore is maybe not something tangible that makes sense on a profit and loss statement, but surely it’s worth something nonetheless.