Free shipping
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@Mik said in Free shipping:
I have gotten so used to getting things the next day or two. Spoiled!
Yeah, your “local bookstore” most of the time just cannot compete with that sort of shipping speed.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2020/08/23/people-want-support-their-local-bookstores-they-might-be-hurting-them-instead/ -
@Mik said in Free shipping:
If I'm buying a physical book I do it locally. My daughter is working in a bookstore now.
eBooks. Instant delivery, and then you can get the physical copy at your leisure.
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@Mik said in Free shipping:
If I'm buying a physical book I do it locally. My daughter is working in a bookstore now.
eBooks. Instant delivery, and then you can get the physical copy at your leisure.
@Aqua-Letifer said in Free shipping:
@Mik said in Free shipping:
If I'm buying a physical book I do it locally. My daughter is working in a bookstore now.
eBooks. Instant delivery, and then you can get the physical copy at your leisure.
A long time ago, my idea for a bookstore business was for a bookstore to only carry 1-2 physical copies of a book, though have many many different books in stock. If you browsed and wanted a copy of a book you saw, there would be a high speed printer and binder that would make you that book in short time.
A bookstore could carry more variety of books because there would not be any space limitation, they would not have to pay in advance for lots of books titles that take time to sell, inventory costs would be less, less waste, etc.
Did not think it too far through, but I thought that would be a good idea to try.
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I would so do that
provided publishers wouldn't send out a hit on me, which absolutely they would. -
@Aqua-Letifer said in Free shipping:
@Mik said in Free shipping:
If I'm buying a physical book I do it locally. My daughter is working in a bookstore now.
eBooks. Instant delivery, and then you can get the physical copy at your leisure.
A long time ago, my idea for a bookstore business was for a bookstore to only carry 1-2 physical copies of a book, though have many many different books in stock. If you browsed and wanted a copy of a book you saw, there would be a high speed printer and binder that would make you that book in short time.
A bookstore could carry more variety of books because there would not be any space limitation, they would not have to pay in advance for lots of books titles that take time to sell, inventory costs would be less, less waste, etc.
Did not think it too far through, but I thought that would be a good idea to try.
@taiwan_girl said in Free shipping:
A long time ago, my idea for a bookstore business was for a bookstore to only carry 1-2 physical copies of a book, though have many many different books in stock. If you browsed and wanted a copy of a book you saw, there would be a high speed printer and binder that would make you that book in short time.
There used to be an iconic bookstore in Chicago, Stuart Brent Books.
From a story in the Chicago Tribune:
''Think about it,'' he says. ''Dalton and Waldenbooks aren't concerned with service. They aren't concerned with ideals. They're only concerned with economics. Let's cut the price. Look what they've done to the greatest thing in the world, books-denigrated them to the point where they're nothing but cans of beans.''
Even though Brent does occasionally discount books himself, customers could never confuse his operation with a bargain bookstore. The atmosphere is warm and congenial, resembling a large private library, with a tile floor, oriental rugs, oak paneling, classical music and framed photographs of Brent with such favored authors and customers as Saul Bellow. But no matter how elegant the furnishings, how soothing the environment, the bookstore`s chief attraction, the owner insists, is really Stuart Brent.
Though not stated in the article, Brent was a real codger. He was irascible, occasionally nasty, and had, supposedly, thrown people out of his store for being ignorant/obnoxious or simply unlikable.
In the mid 1980s, he came to the university for surgery (I believe it was colon surgery), and one of my colleagues, Carolyn gave him anesthesia. She went to visit him post-op and they hit it off (Stuart was now twice-widowed). To make a long story short, Carolyn and Stuart married about a year later, and the standing joke was hopefully, Carolyn would be the wife that outlives Stuart Brent.
She didn't. Carolyn died in 1995, at the age of 60.
Stuart died in 2010, at the age of 98.
