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Is amazon good for customers?

SFG75

SFG75

Well-Known Member
The Nation recently came out with this piece regarding what they feel to be, unsavory business practices on the part of amazon.

Another man who recently lost his Amazon buy buttons is John Sargent, head of Macmillan, the US arm of German book giant Holtzbrinck, home to many authors familiar to Nation readers, including Naomi Klein, Noam Chomsky and Barbara Ehrenreich. In January Sargent confronted Amazon over its insistence on setting the prices of e-books it sold on its site, generally at under $10. This was a concern throughout an industry worried that low prices of electronic versions would undermine profits from printed books and generally lower the perceived value of the product. Sargent informed Amazon that he wanted to move Macmillan to an "agency agreement," meaning that he, as the publisher, could price books at whatever level he chose, paying Amazon a fixed discount.

Amazon reacted with characteristic distemper: bye-bye Macmillan's buy buttons. A face-off ensued. Amazon was vehement that its stand was on behalf of customers looking for bargains. A gallery of cynics openly suspected it had more to do with securing the future of its proprietary e-book reader, the Kindle, in the face of Apple's imminent launch of the competing iPad.
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O.K., The Nation is a fine publication, but I disagree with their assessment and here is why. Bargaining and driving a hard bargain is not illegal in this country. Amazon is not entitled to do business with anyone, neither are publishers entitled to do business with Amazon. is the service good for customers?, yes! Is it good for publishers?, yes! It is good for the latter in that books are moved consistently off the shelves and into homes. It is good for customers because they don't have to pay extortion money, such as $50.000 for a $28.00 book. The price of books today in brick and mortar establishments is enough to make you shake your head. How many people here rush to Borders to plunk down $40.00 in cash for one book?:whistling:

The first example cited in the article made me chuckle. The use of the comments about amazon promising to be a "nice" company was something else. I suppose it had its intended effect with garden burger eating hip-liberals, but for everyone else, it falls flat. I think most leaders make schmaltzy-lame comments like that. I don't care if a company is run by Gandhi, but when it comes to low prices and the best bargain, Gordon Gekko had better be in charge.::cool:

So, what do you guys think? I believe the title is wrong, it should be "publishers" instead of customers.
 
In my opinion Amazon is good for the customers and it seems in most cases it is good for the publishers as well.
Amazon has a monopoly and they know it. There are millions of book customers that would rather buy books from Amazon at a discouted price versus going to the big bookstore chains and pay a 30-50% markup. It is a no brainer. When a company has a monopoly they tend to get away with dictating policy, sometimes in an unfair or unethical way.

This article reminds me of the dispute that the rock band Pearl Jam had with Ticketmaster in the early nineties. They (Pearl Jam) refused to use Ticketmaster to sell tickets to there concerts. The band thought the service charges that Ticketmaster charged made the price per ticket to much. They soon found out that Ticketmaster had exclusive rights with most major concert venues in the U.S.
Needless to say Pearl Jam now uses Ticketmaster.
 
Amazon is high handed as the day is long, but I'd have to say that most people will continue to deal with them for the low prices.
Whatever the market will bear IOW, on all sides. Publishers and consumers. It's unfortunate, but true.
 
Amazon is a business like any other, and nobody is forced to buy from them or through them. They offer a great service to customers, and publishers that refuse to do business with them will lose sales. It's ultimately their choice. If I can't find a book I want on Amazon, I check B&N or any number of other online booksellers.
 
I like amazon and have ordered from them may times. My only concern is if they have so much power they could dictate what is sold and published and the diversity of the publishing market may suffer.

think of what's happened to CD sales and many of the big box retailers.

One thing I'll never do is fault people for buying the cheapest they can, the economy isn't what it used to be, wages haven't kept up with inflation. I fully understand people buying a $20 book for $13 on Amazon instead of paying full price at a brick and mortar store.
 
Cheap prices? Check.

Large selection? Check.

They have what I want? Check.

Can I buy books and CDs and electronics at the same time? Check.

Free two day shipping? Check.

Amazon is good for this consumer.
 
Amazon Marketplace is even better for the customer. Yay for Amazon for providing it!
 
Most people prefer to buy books from Amazon.Because it is well know.If you want to buy books online.What you will think in your mind?Just Amazon.eaby.The price of these are really cheap.I don't think so.I have bought some books from several unknow online bookstore.The quality of the book is good.and the price is cheap.and also it is free shipping.So what I want to say is we can also buy books from unknow bookstore.It is just my opinion.
 
That was a jaw dropper, especially the statistic that 70% of all published books do not earn back their advances. Whoa.

Amazon will prevail in the end. The 21st century has become a culture of homogenization. Paradoxically, Amazon may remain one place where diversity of reading thrives. Let's hope the e-book "revolution" incites interest in reading rather than turn more people into video heads. Unfortunately, when the e-book and the iPOD merge, many will likely seek more than mere words to entertain and inform them. Text, video and sound will likely merge. And who knows what that implies for education and cultural awareness?
 
I enjoy some of the reviews on Amazon except the people who write the bad reviews about having to pay a certain price for a certain download on Kindle or Nook.
 
Not interested in e-books but have bought books from amazon simply because I could not find them elsewhere. Bookstores simply do not carry older titles.
However, for older out of print books I have found Biblio.com to be even better than amazon. Have found titles there amazon did not have.
And for CDs when you live in a place where there is very limited choice in what you can find in the stores, amazon is a godsend.
 
yes you can trust amazon, it's safe, i've used it for years and never had a problem. Though I think the shipping cost sometimes can rape you, bought something before for about 20USD and paid around another 20USD for the shipping :(
 
Decidebay said:
yes you can trust amazon, it's safe, i've used it for years and never had a problem. Though I think the shipping cost sometimes can rape you, bought something before for about 20USD and paid around another 20USD for the shipping :(
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What do you expect? You live in India.
 
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