Hello Arelor!

 >> Meanhile, I've noticed that A-n has had fewer and fewer books
 >> qualifying for their usual "discounts".  And, many times I've
 >> seen totally incorrect HIGHER prices. Their retail prices can
 >> be artifically inflated too: eg. a book that is normally $20
 >> retail, they would "list" as $25, and then they would fudge the
 >> "discount" to make it appear that there is a greater discount
 >> than elsewhere - such as at an independent!

 A> Amazon long term goal is to get rid of sellers altogether.
 A> They don't want you to sell a book through them and get a
 A> cut anymore. They want to sell the book themselves.

I've noticed at least two publishers that have already relented  
to A-n for printing AND publishing. When the books arrive, they  
have a "Printed by A-n" stamp on the back page.

My guess is that those publishing houses are feeling some  
financial difficulties and are on their way out. Meanwhile,  
they probably feel fine just getting a small stipend from  
printing and reselling by A-n.

It's a sad commentary.

 A> Or the home appliance, or the power drill, or the...

Yep, that too.  If you read the Wired article about the  
Bookshop.org creator, his vision was to have a similar solution  
for mom-pop hardware shops or any other type of independent  
shop.

Meanwhile, A-n is playing dirty pricing tricks online as I  
described above.   I doubt that A-n "members" even notice,  
falsely thinking that A-n *must* be the lowest pricing  
anywhere.

Does the Spanish storefront of bookshop.org operate well? Is  
the selection pretty good?
-- 
  ../|ug

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