From: lars@beagle-ears.com   
      
   On 2025-12-28, Carlos E.R.  wrote:   
   > When I visit Ottawa, I like to go to Chapters, now Indigo. I like to go   
   > there and peruse English language books. Last time I went there and made   
   > a list, then went to the counter and said I wanted to buy all those in   
   > ebook form.   
   >   
   > Wow.   
   > Not possible, you have to do it on the web.   
   > This is utterly stupid!   
   >   
   > It is the bookstore who does the work of showcasing the books and   
   > convincing me to buy them, and then the money goes to another company   
   > online?   
      
   The same thing applies to a lot of indpendent storefronts, even for   
   physical goods. People go to the store to look and feel, then order it   
   on Amazon for 10-20 % less. But with intangibles like ebooks, it is   
   harder, because in order to feed the writers and publishers, you need to   
   manage copy protection. And Amazon has a very large marketshare locked   
   in to their ecosystem and has enormous power set set terms that give   
   them an unfair advantage. To make it work, the store probably would need   
   to be allocated a 15-20% gross margin for the referral. They need to   
   keep a local storefront with inventory and staff. Amazon just does not   
   have those expenses. Yes, they have a website, with pictures and text   
   snippets, but at their scale the costs for that are much less, and they   
   have externalized the inventory.   
      
   To get the local businesses healthy again, we need to have laws that   
   help small business. Decades ago, many states implemented laws that   
   required auto manufacturers to NOT own retail sales operations, and to   
   set up franchises. In New Jersey, I think you are still not allowed to   
   fill the gas tank on your car in a gas station, but MUST let an   
   attendant do it. Yes, today it seems silly, and I am not sure these   
   particlular laws make sense.Tesla broke the auto franchise model,   
   and gas pump attendants make no sense in an EV world. But anti-trust   
   enforcement against Google, Amazon etc makes as much sense as the   
   breakup of Rockefeller's Standard Oil did.   
      
   --   
   Lars Poulsen - an old geek in Santa Barbara, California   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)