" Amazon Ordered to End Free Delivery on Books in France (rest of world soon?)

[Barry Egan]

Long Island Guido's!!!! 

[CajoleJuice]

Long Island Guido's!!!! 

[youtube=425,350]4JMOh-cul6M[/youtube]

[TVC15]

I never met a long island guido, and I knew a fair few long island eyetalians.

[Barry Egan]

Guido's don't actually socialize with people. 

[TVC15]

Well, to be fair, most of the long island italians I met when I was in college and I imagine most guidos avoid the whole learning environment thing.

[CajoleJuice]

Well, to be fair, most of the long island italians I met when I was in college and I imagine most guidos avoid the whole learning environment thing.

Somewhat true. If they do go to college, it's either community college or a SUNY.

[Barry Egan]

MUSCLE MILK!!!! haha so true

[Flannel Boy]

You don't have to be a libertarian to believe that businesses should be free to negotiate with each other and make trade offs when it comes to pricing and volume. If you like bookstores with small selections, high prices, and over-educated staffs--I mean soul--then you pay for it!

Do you care about the small Armenian electronic stores and the mom and pop grocers?

[Vizzys]

I sure dont!

Books way under priced and free shipping plz

[Eel O'Brian]

Most of the Mom and Pop type bookstores I liked here in town got shitheaped when the chains started popping up.  First Waldenbooks and B. Dalton, then B-A-M and B&N.  I fucking hate B&N.  Goddamned chairs and sofas and lattes and snack cakes and shit, and every other book I pick up has some fucking greasy fingerprints or is bent all to fuck from some freeloading sonofabitch who read it in the store.

[TVC15]

Most of the Mom and Pop type bookstores I liked here in town got shitheaped when the chains started popping up.  First Waldenbooks and B. Dalton, then B-A-M and B&N.  I fucking hate B&N.  Goddamned chairs and sofas and lattes and snack cakes and shit, and every other book I pick up has some fucking greasy fingerprints or is bent all to fuck from some freeloading sonofabitch who read it in the store.

The worst part?  All those "chains" are actually the same two chains.  It's the ILLUSION of diversity and choice.  INVISIBLE HAND OF THE MARKET MAKES ALL RIGHT!!!

[Eel O'Brian]

When I was a kid, we had a bookstore here called Little Professor, and the old guy who ran it would hold new comic books in the back for me.  He remembered what I read, and would set them aside.  That's something you'll never, ever get at a chain.  Little Professor was in the same shopping center as a deli called The Pickle Barrel, and I always used to get my comics and then go have a cream soda while I read them.  It was like something out of the 1950s.  Now it's all chains and strip malls here in Wilmington.

[CajoleJuice]

When I was a kid, we had a bookstore here called Little Professor, and the old guy who ran it would hold new comic books in the back for me.  He remembered what I read, and would set them aside.  That's something you'll never, ever get at a chain.  Little Professor was in the same shopping center as a deli called The Pickle Barrel, and I always used to get my comics and then go have a cream soda while I read them.  It was like something out of the 1950s.  Now it's all chains and strip malls here in Wilmington.

That's so awesome...

[Eel O'Brian]

Even downtown by the riverfront (which is still beautiful) is getting eaten up by condominiums and fake-retro loft-style apartments.

The biggest atrocity is this place called Mayfaire.  It's a "Shopping Town," designed to give off the appearance of a downtown block, with - I shit you not - condos over the stores.  So you can pay 200k or more for the privilege of living directly over a Barnes and Noble.

I know I sound like an old man, but the older you get the more you notice ephemeral quantities like a town's beauty and personality disappearing beneath this all-consuming corporate undertow.

[TVC15]

Even downtown by the riverfront (which is still beautiful) is getting eaten up by condominiums and fake-retro loft-style apartments.

The biggest atrocity is this place called Mayfaire.  It's a "Shopping Town," designed to give off the appearance of a downtown block, with - I shit you not - condos over the stores.  So you can pay 200k or more for the privilege of living directly over a Barnes and Noble.

I know I sound like an old man, but the older you get the more you notice ephemeral quantities like a town's beauty and personality disappearing beneath this all-consuming corporate undertow.

I'm with you.  It's sad seeing the homey nature of communities disappear due to greedy commercialism.  I don't think it should be legislated against, but I do find it kind of absolutely disgusting.  America truly has been bought and sold.

[Eel O'Brian]

And for what?  Half these strip malls and "Shopping Communities" will be abandoned corporate ghost towns within ten years. 

Don't get me wrong.  I love a good bargain.  I'm a cheap motherfucker who works hard for his dollars, so I shop around, and I do business with Amazon.  I know everyone kids about "filthy poors" and all, but the surest route to becoming a filthy poor is not watching or caring where your money goes.  But I'd make do with less if I thought it would bring back some of the places I miss the most.  It won't, though.  We're already over the precipice as far as that's concerned.  All those places are gone forever.  So, by doing business on Amazon I'm really just helping stick it to B&N and B-A-M, so I guess there is the slightest bit of justice there.  Given the choice between devils, I'll choose the one that isn't planted in a faux town within my town.