Who cares about $60 games, wtf is up with book prices these days at B&M

[Bebpo]

Went and got some BOOKS after getting really in the mood from plane reading.  Picked up Stephen King's The Dark Tower vol.1 The Gunslinger since everyone says the series is amaaaazing until it falls apart halfway.  It's like TWENTY DOLLARS FOR TWO HUNDRED PAGES.  I know there's some illustrations in it, though when I flipped through I kept seeing white pages with words and holy shit $20 is A LOT for such a short book.  I also picked up Bret Easton Ellis' Lunar Park because it's almost halloween and gaf kept saying it's a great horror book and BEE does write pretty well and it's a few hundred pages and like SIXTEEN DOLLARS.

Now I know you can get them for way less and realistic prices on Amazon, like how you can get games with $20 credits making them essentially $40 there, but man, who can afford to buy books AT A BOOKSTORE anymore.  I've always liked going to a real bookstore to get books because of the atmosphere and browsing around and sipping in-store coffee while reading the first dozen pages of a book to check it out.  But TWENTY DOLLAR PAPERBACKS.  Arghhhh.

Now I have good reason to start spending time at our newly remodeled library within walkable distance!  Rest of Dark Tower shall be rented!

[cool breeze]

go to borders and knock down a magazine rack

oh wait

[Bebpo]

go to borders and knock down a magazine rack

oh wait

 


 


Think that in a decade or two, young people will go "what's a bookstore?"


 :'(

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

My assumption is that most B&M's are in a death spiral: they're losing customers left and right to Amazon or ebook readers so they have to raise their prices to stay afloat which causes more customers to go to Amazon or ebook readers etc.  They probably have to depend on impulse purchases of crap from Danielle Steel, Mark Levin, or Stephenie Meyer.

I think the majority of the remaining bookstore chains except for locally owned stores (that depend on word of mouth and customer loyalty) are going to go tits up this decade and there is nothing we can do about it.  Not that I haven't been the problem as I have been purchasing almost all of my books through Amazon for at least half a decade.

[Mandark]

Nevermind.

[Vizzys]

nobody reads books anymore sorry

[Great Rumbler]

I buy all my books for $1 at Half Price Bookstore.

[Mr. Gundam]

The reason they're expensive is that they don't sell other items at large volumes. They can't afford to sell books as low as Amazon or Costco or Walmart.

My local neighborhood bookstore is doing a midnight release for 1Q84. I'm going and buying a copy, even though I can get it for $13 on Amazon.

[Mupepe]

I just bought the dark tower vol II for 7 bucks at b&n.  This was last weekend. Half priced books is awesome too. I buy local when I can and the difference is only a few bucks which would probably go to shipping.

[Rman]

Well, it takes sweatshop conditions to get those super low prices.  Plus rental space, employee salaries, utility bills, etc.

I still love browsing bookstores and sometimes pick a book here in there, even though I can get it cheaper on Amazon.  I dread the day bookstores die.

[Robo]

B&N has always sold nearly everything at list price.  Borders was the same way.  Have you seen the prices of their DVDs?  They make it really tough to support the brick and mortar bookstore model.

[MrAngryFace]

The savings from pre ordering on Amazon make it kinda insane to buy DVDs new anywhere else

[Mupepe]

The savings from pre ordering on Amazon make it kinda insane to buy DVDs new anywhere else

Very rarely Target or Toys R Us and a few other places will have awesome deals on release day but I will never buy a DVD from Barnes N Noble (Okay I did once because it was Christmas Eve and my wife really wanted it and it was sold out everywhere).  Fucking 30 dollars for a barebones blu ray that is 14 on Amazon is fucking insane.  Sometimes their online prices are decent but that's rarely and by the time shipping is involved it's not worth it.

[Himu]

B&N has always been expensive.