The Decline of the Bookstore Pt. 2
I read this article, that basically talks about my worst fear since 2011...Barnes and Noble is in trouble. Here's the article if you'd like to read it. Basically, I learned what I already know, the brick and mortar bookstore is, once again, in trouble. Sales for B&N went down both digital and physical last year. It's not good, but the game isn't over yet.
Once again, we learn that Amazon is one of the major reasons why this is happening. What sucks? Amazon basically says, they DON'T CARE about their book sales. They sell SO much that book sales aren't even worth their notice--that's my opinion. The article did say they didn't care--in some fashion or other!
But seriously?! Amazon had to go there?!! I primarily buy books on Amazon. I have Amazon Prime, because I like to get my books in a timely manner and getting them on release day, getting the lowest price when I pre-order. I enjoy those perks, but to hear they could care less about their book sales? That just aggravates me!
I feel like I've been noticing Amazon NOT caring anymore! Has anyone else looked up upcoming releases and seen that they are being sold at COVER price? I need to save money when I buy books because, let's face it, I buy too many! It's one of my only vices, so I'm allowed it! Books I keep looking at, The Cheerleaders, These Rebel Waves, Campfire. Almost every book that is not out yet is being sold for FULL price. The only time I pay full price is when I am meeting the author and I want to support the bookstore that's hosting it. I refuse to have to pay full price on Amazon. It's ridiculous!
There's also word that Amazon is, once again, raising the price of Prime membership to $119! WTF?! I could rationalize the $99, it's worth it to me for the amount of books I buy. But with that price hike, the price hike in book prices...I don't know what I'll be doing in the future.
I know that the whole thing with Amazon and the brick and mortar bookstore has been a long battle. Borders, my beloved, beloved Borders, lost that battle. So I turned to B&N, now they are in trouble. This has me worrying. And Amazon continues to be a company that basically doesn't give a sh*t about books. How many times have we received damaged books because their packers don't give a sh*t? It's horrible! This aggravates me so, so much. With Amazon no longer discounting all their upcoming releases, I really don't know what I will be doing for my book shopping habits. I mean...I guess I can work on my TBR pile...but there's still so many new releases I NEED TO READ!! And when you buy your books as much as I do, you need that discount that Amazon once provided!
What's your feelings on all this? I know I gabbed a lot, this was partially a rant and partially a discussion post! I needed to vent because my few tweets the other day wasn't therapeutic enough. How do you feel about the decline in Barnes and Noble? The fact that Amazon doesn't care about books--won't even bother to look at their sales numbers--and have decided to leave the books up at full price.
