Powell's is still around, and it's online! powells.com.

The f-d up thing about Amazon is that they are *not* doing this stuff in pursuit of profits - Amazon barely squeaks by. Google "amazon profit" sometime.

Amazon represents a failure of the market - a company with its poor performance should be punished with falling stock values but that never seems to happen. Maybe because shareholders are waiting until it has completely destroyed the entire retail sector at which point we can have Amazon's boot on our faces forever.

Oh ... fucking ... please... No we're supposed to hate Amazon because they revolutionized book publishing and are super mean to players in the old industry.

"It’s hard to sympathize with a $58 billion dollar corporation that gives little to charity and rarely speaks."

Remember Bezos gave $2.5 million to gay marriage? But wait! We fucking hate successful companies in Seattle. I forgot.

While I agree with some of the sentiments, it is unfortunately true that those of us who wish to be published (independently as it is impossible otherwise) have no other venue than with "CreateSpace" via Amazon. I also agree that most of it is junk. But I am not willing to wait until after I have died to find out if anything I ever wrote were publishable. It is disturbing to find that books are unavailable. That should never be the case, regardless of their content. One should know their friends AND their enemies. That is how we obtain knowledge.

From the beginning of your piece, I was thinking of the Walmart example. Glad you wrapped that other corporate megalith into the discussion. It's an apt comparison.

Bezos gave to marriage equality under pressure. Aside from that gift, Bezos and Amazon are notorious for their lack of philanthropy. Compare that to Boeing, Microsoft, Starbucks, etc, who all have robust corprate philanthropy, employee giving programs, volunteer compensation, and matching gifts programs.AND their leadership are all major philanthropists for the most part. Amazon is a black hole when it comes to supporting their community.

Here we go again.

If Hachette USA was still Time Warner Books, Constant wouldn't have a snake in this fight. Kudos to your marketing people for taking the French company name, behemoth publishing giant who gatekeeps for millionaire authors and keeps the riff-raff out of the literary pool. Yay?

I thought I read that Amazon pays above minimum wage at its central warehouse, around $12/hour?

what the hell is "books"

Amazon is fighting to keep books affordable. They can negotiate for their customers because they are bigger. I don't see why I'm supposed to be sympathetic to a company that's trying to make books cost more money.

I don't recognize the company I know as Amazon in this post. What I know is a retailer that provides stuff I want, especially books, at great prices with incredible customer service. As in people who solve my problems when I have them in ways that surprise and delight me. In the Kindle, this company revolutionized an activity I have loved all my life, reading books, making it more affordable, convenient, and satisfying. They have improved the platform constantly in ways big and small, and made the free reader apps available on everything but the kitchen toaster. Kindle Direct Publishing has made it possible for thousands of authors to make a decent living selling their writing. This is a company, it turns out, that I am inclined to speak out publicly for when it comes under what I consider to be unreasonable attacks like this one.

I distrust any argument James Patterson is involved with.

@18
The way that they treat the majority of their employees is absolutely unconscionable, and there's plenty of first-hand accounts online.

#6: WRONG! "Gay marriage" had no idea this was coming. There was no pressure. He just called up one day with $2.5m; they were hoping for $250k...

Fucking Amazon and their money grubbing bastard board.

We should string them up for not being a top ranked philanthropic company.

Look at all that fucking money... it's so much that they don't even turn a profit!!

@14,

Amazon is fighting to sell books below cost. I understand that you and millions of other Americans think books are worth less than nothing, but some of us disagree.

@2,

That's exactly what they're waiting for. Although with all the bad press Amazon has been getting and the Alibaba IPO coming down the pike, I suspect investors are going to become more dissatisfied with Amazon's lack of profitability. Bezos better start planning on shelling out some dividends.

um y'all you CAN buy Where’d You Go, Bernadette? at amazon

@2: Amazon's profits are slim because they dump every cent they make back into the business in order to grow it. That is why things like Kindle and AWS exist. It has been said that Bezos wants Amazon to be the best retailer in the world, and that any fool could run it profitably today if they just stopped building new things.

And of course Amazon thinks as books as "units to be moved". They are a retailer! I don't understand why you think they should behave any other way.

Their goal is to put their competition—authors, publishers, retailers—out of business...

This is just ridiculous. Amazon may want to put its competitors out of business (or, more likely, simply best them in most cases), but publishers? Authors? Next you're going to tell me that they want to put toy manufacturers and movie studios and detergent makers out of business too. The colossal variety of product they sell is the reason they are so successful, and that variety comes from all the extant producers of that content. Are you trying to tell me that Amazon is pining for the day when they are the sole publisher of all books and the sole employer of all authors? Get a grip.

Charlie Stross's take on this issue was shorter, and more on point. Excerpt -

"Amazon's strategy (as I noted in 2012) is to squat on the distribution channel, artificially subsidize the price of ebooks ("dumping" or predatory pricing) to get consumers hooked, rely on DRM on the walled garden of the Kindle store to lock consumers onto their platform, and then to use their monopsony buying power to grab the publishers' share of the profits. If you're a consumer, in the short term this is good news: it means you get cheap books. But if you're a reader, you probably like to read new books. By driving down the unit revenue, Amazon makes it really hard for publishers—who are a proxy for authors—to turn a profit. Eventually they go out of business, leaving just Amazon as a monopoly distribution channel retailing the output of an atomized cloud of highly vulnerable self-employed piece-workers like myself. At which point the screws can be tightened indefinitely. And after a while, there will be no more Charlie Stross novels because I will be unable to earn a living and will have to go find a paying job."

Whole article here -

http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-sta…

Amazon is doing a dance to convince people of its relevance when it is completely irrelevant.

Bezos and Company will keep you mesmerized long enough for them to sell their options for as long as fools let them steal their 401k money.

@25: Well, the book publishing industry made the same mistake the music industry did in waiting for a third-party to build a digital distribution system.

Forbes — As Hachette Battles Amazon, A Small Publisher Defends Bezos
http://www.forbes.com/sites/ryanmac/2014…

Forbes — As Hachette Battles Amazon, A Small Publisher Defends Bezos
http://www.forbes.com/sites/ryanmac/2014…

I LOVE Amazon. They have stellar customer service. Returns are simple and I don't have to get interrogated after waiting 15 minutes in line to return something. I don't have to drive anywhere using $5 a gallon gas. Don't have to pay or wait for parking. Don't have to endure the stink eye when the shoplifting buzzer goes off every three seconds at the exit doors. Their prices are great. I can have most things shipped to me in TWO DAYS FOR FREE! In many cases I can avoid paying the 10% retail purchase fee to fund Bertha. Oh, and I don't have to wait in line AFTER paying for my purchases to prove to the guy at the exit door that I just waited in line for 10 minutes and really did pay for my stuff. LOVE LOVE LOVE this company. The only way they could improve is to have drones start delivering things my house in a half hour! GOD BLESS AMAZON!!

=MICHAEL PATRICK MCGINN=
I LOVE THAT MAN. I love you man. You're my hero\read on:
Corporate giant Costco fails as a marketing model in terms of transportation. A single Costco induces 10x the fuel combustion compared to neighborhood stores or district shopping centers, while putting these out of business. Amazon and Boeing similarly fall short in these terms of transportation costs and impacts. A progressive carbon tax would bankrupt these (low-cost?) corporate giants, Amazon too, suffers from the transport distance disadvantage.
Meanwhile, Wsdot consistently constructs absurdly substandard highways. Seattle transit agencies fall short of national standards, nevermind world standards. BNSF plans to dedicate its rails to fossil fuel transport through the Pacific Northwest.

Seattle's economy is more dependent upon diesel-spewing global trade
than any US port. Yeah, we could address global warming, but the subject of transport is too far down the list of concerns Seattlers hold dearly, never f'kn mind competent discussion among peers. So says this Oregonian.
Our ODOT was finished with your Wsdot boys in 2008. Your guys also misled our Port authorities about the oval track and Spagetti ramp hazards on Hayden Island. Washingtonian advice in transportation matters is no longer accepted
south of thee Columbia River. Bertha must not proceed, period, end of story.
Drill-Fill Sea Fence? Not a good idea, period.
MercerWest QueenAnne Truck Route? How f'n dare you?
CHECK OUT SDOT's angle for retaining Battery Street Tunnel.
YOU WILL LIKE IT, honest, trust me.
BOX CUT-COVER/SEAWALL too. Do not reject/neglect its study.
Study it or shut up.
Amazon is a fairly big-time energy waster.
Build yerself a stewpid glass garden, whoopdeedoo.
Seattle parks department is clueless.
And don't get me started on Wsdot.
Oregonians apologize for bad advise
from David Evans Associates latest crew.
Bad work on the CRC.
Bertha is such unbelievable crap.
How f'n dare you!?


(TOTAL FIX PLUS ADORBS W/FACE)
Are you listening to me!? Seatuhlers ?? Well!?

Did anybody else have a tough time wading through the vitriol and nonsense to try to get any information from this article? How many times do you have to mention a lack of charitable giving, especially without any real numbers to reference? And comparing Amazon to Microsoft, Boieng and Starbucks, who are known to be especially philanthropic? No company or person is obgligated to give to charities, and they have given some, even when they are dumping all their profits back into the company. But that's not relevant (to this article either). The problem is poor writing.

"Amazon is gleefully shitting in Hachette’s pool." Seriously? Are you writing an article or posting a comment in a forum? @25 TCLballardwallymont's copy and paste of one paragraph was more informative and convincing than the full article of drivel you put to page.

You sound like a person yelling on a street corner. Not a journalist.

What is missing in this article is how Apple was gleefully shitting on ebook customers when they were colluding with these same large publishers to inflate the prices of ebooks, and telling Amazon that they wouldn't let them sell their products if they wouldn't charge their prices.

http://www.hachettebookgroup.com/about/

Sorry, Mr. Constant, but your article would hold no water, in fact, no one's going poo poo over this would hold any pee pee if you would refer to this company by it's true name: Time Warner.

I rarely buy books on Amazon. Anyways, how you just described Amazon is similar to the realities of Walmart. I sure hope everyone who feels this way decides to stop shopping at Walmart before they decide to stop shopping at Amazon. Amazon does support the American economy much more then Walmart.

The notion that people should boycott Amazon over the Amazon / Hachette negotiations is some of the most ridiculous first-world whining I've seen. Maybe ever.

Are the large publishers the underdog good guys now?! Remember when we fucking hated big publishers? I really don't see how Amazon's business practices are different from what 99.9% of all other businesses in the USA operate. Using their strong position in online retail to negotiate for lower costs, that should be expected right? If by not selling Hachette books it means I might have to go to any of Seattle's great bookshops to buy the book, then that doesn't seem like such a horrible thing.

Isn't the problem really that Amazon *isn't* making a profit and the people investing in it don't ever seem to mind?

Progressive journalists writing about the corporatocracy frequently resemble well-intentioned doctors writing about syphilis before the advent of germ theory. The disease's several stages and bewildering whack-a-mole variety of symptoms were mistaken for any number of different maladies, and their individual awfulness was addressed individually with no understanding of what was actually causing them. Such mistreatment was not only useless but often destructive, with terrible consequences for the patient and no effect at all on public health.

The disease here isn't Amazon, which is merely a symptom, and unlike physicians before the 19th century, there's no excuse for anyone's ignorance of this. If it weren't Amazon screwing publishers (themselves corporations and far from blameless), it'd be some other identical interaction. What happens on the Monopoly board is determined by Parker Brothers, which controls the rules of the game, not the players or the hypothetical inhabitants of their tiny plastic houses and hotels.

The American core sickness is first the concept of "corporation" as an individual with inalienable rights, and more specifically, permitting such abstractions to secretly buy as many candidates for "elected" office as they care to afford. Amazon is no more the problem than a chancre is a spirochete, and even if its destructive monopoly were eliminated in some way, it would only return in some other, likely even more pernicious, form as the social disease of oligarchy progresses.

Switching metaphors, to attempt to solve the problem of the corporation by moderating Amazon's destructive monopoly is to attempt to debug an operating system by unplugging one of the computer's it runs on. The corporation is a construct, a software entity written in legalese and running on a society rather than a programming language interpreted by a computer. The only way to fix it is to debug the program - to change the rules of which it's comprised.

Tragically, having permitted our government to become a de facto administrative subsidiary of any body - real or legal - with sufficient budget to buy candidates for office, there's quite likely nothing the overwhelming majority of citizens who suffer from the result can do about it – certainly not within established, legal channels. Permitting corporations to own the legislative process by which they're controlled makes changing that ownership an obvious Catch-22, an infinitely executing do loop unable to alter the conditions which drive and sustain it.

Scapegoating Amazon and its ilk in public forums actually makes the problem worse, just as smearing toxic creams on the sores of syphilis victims once did. Boycotting Amazon will do nothing other than provide the boycotters a false satisfaction in exchange for inconveniencing themselves. Until the environment which made Grendel's evolution inevitable is corrected, Beowulf can never be more than a temporary stopgap, ultimately becoming just one more aspect of the problem.

What's needed isn't heroes with swords, but ecologists with pruning sheers.

Excellent article. I am not willing to contribute to Amazon's abusive, monopolistic business practices, much happier patronizing our local independent businesses.

@30,

I've considered deleting my account just because of the way it treats its employees alone. Think about it-- a company cannot provide fast, seamless, 24 hour service if it's not working its employees to the bone. Engineers regularly work 10-12 hours a day when they aren't on call, and when they are on call, they have pagers going off at 2 in the morning so that they can get up and fix something. Now, I know this first hand because I have worked there, and many of my friends and worked there as well -- when you ask any of us about Amazon, the response is uniformly to sigh and then change the subject. "Amazon burnout" is far too common in the software engineering community in Seattle because Amazon treats its employees like sweatshop workers. Please consider whether or not you think it's worth it to put software engineers through this special kind of hell so that customers can their books, 12-packs of toothbrushes, and whatever other crap shipped to them as fast as humanly possible without the *drastic inconvenience* of having to leave their house.

And here I thought it was my brilliant idea to boycott Amazon after doing business with them for close to 20 yrs. I am way past being sick and tired of all the careless "urban density" real estate development here in Ballard. Gone are the commercial fisherman and the old-timers who made life interesting and who were good neighbors. Now, as Sig Hansen so eloquently put it, we have these skinny-asked bike riders, bars and streets full of loud, drunk punks who don't contribute a damn thing to society, and plenty of housing for the homeless, registered sex offenders,and dogs, but nothing for seniors trying to live on their social security checks in an over-inflated market.I say let's pull the plug on Amazon and make this bubble burst.

"Amazon burnout" is far too common in the software engineering community in Seattle because Amazon treats its employees like sweatshop workers.
**************
I hear this about Microsoft as well, especially in their legal department. In fact, any large, well known employer probably gets tons of applicants for open positions - allowing them to treat current employees like crap as they are easily replaceable.

So, Hachette (conspiring with Apple) engaged in unethical and illegal business practices (price-fixing), and now, finding the shoe on the other foot, wants us to shed a tear for them? Thanks, but I'll pass. Both the publisher and Amazon will do just about anything to wring an extra penny out of their partners and customers, so let's not act like one is cleaner or deserves our support more than the other.

I found it easy (and rewarding) to turn my back on Amazon. I just became less lazy. For example, I wanted a book a friend recommended and had the trigger reaction to quickly purchase it on Amazon.

But then I remembered that Amazon are a bunch of avaricious cunts so I went out into the world with a my friend and searched for the book. It took us several bookstores and half a day to find the book but I had a great time!

that's what shit like Amazon takes away: the experience. We get so locked into buying things on the internet cause it's easy and we totally miss out on experiencing life outside our comfort bubble.

ps- fuck amazon!

Just FYI: Amazon also owns Goodreads, Abebooks (a used bookseller) and Comixology (digital comics portal). So if you're not into supporting Amazon.com, but still supporting these, you might want to consider other avenues.

#14 if all you think about is keeping books cheap than people are going to stop writing and publishing them.

@54,
That has not been the case (to this point, anyway) with music despite dramatic reductions in the retail cost of the product as well as significant declines in the revenues of the music labels. The average person reading fewer and fewer books with each passing day is the problem facing writers and publishers, not the price of the book itself.

Amazon's push to move to e-books over hard-copy books has done more to lower the barriers to publish than the invention of the printing press. It is companies like Hachet (AKA Time Warner Books) that wish to preserve the old universe where new authors wallow in anonymity in favor of the same trite crap that they have always published (that James Patterson is weighing in is really all you need to know).

I would rather live in a world where a million authors make a reasonable living than one in which a thousand authors become millionaires. Amazon is pushing towards this better future and Hachet is just a roadblock that needs to be overcome.

No one has done more to keep new authors out of print than the established publishing houses.

Also worthy of note (and I may have missed it in the article above) is that Hachette was among the defendants who were found to have conspired with Apply to price-fix electronic books. They eventually settled with the DOJ and agreed to pay back their customers for ripping them off.

These are not the good guys.

I definitely have to disagree with the woman quoted saying getting in your car and shopping at a brick-and-mortar store is not an imposition. It certainly is when the store in question does not sell the product you're looking for, you're not sure what sort of store you need that would even sell what you're looking for, or you go to a store only to see empty shelves where your product should be. I wouldn't be able to use henna to color my hair without buying it online because NO STORE where I live sells it. And I keep finding more and more products that I want are simply not available in any store I can get in my car and drive to. Some things you can ONLY buy online and the list of those items keeps getting larger. The last thing I want to do is waste my time and gas money driving all over the place to find products that aren't on the shelves.

This is all just another reason why I've never been and refuse to ever become an Amazon customer for ANYTHING! I just use the Amazon.com site as a sort of giant database for product info then I make my purchases elsewhere.

I'm old enough to remember back in the early days when Bezos still granted one-on-one interviews, and what a total butthole he always appeared to be (no wonder he doesn't do that anymore).

Anyway, I'm sticking to my vow made a long time ago that Bezos and Amazon will never make a dime from me.

I don't have much to say about the rest of the article (bad big business vs. bad big business, ok) but regarding the donation part - the Bezos family foundation did just give $20 million dollars to Fred Hutch for cancer research. So..there's that.

"JUST SQUEAKING BY"??? Are you serious? Amazon is raking in millions, so don't give me THAT phony sob story. Amazon is ALL about increasing profits. Their customer service sucks @ss, as does their choice of shippers, and they are notorious for refusing to do anything about the sexual harassment that goes on, unless you count 'laying off' anyone who tries to file a complaint. I despise Amazon and have for quite some time.

Paul Constant nailed it and a boycott is the best response to Amazon's unbelievable arrogance and extremely unfair control of publishing everything except their own books! Great job!

It's Goliath vs Goliath and I'm supposed to care?

This article makes me want to do some online shopping!

Why all the screeching? Order your books online direct from Hachette, assuming they have an online store. If they don't have one they ought to set one up, thereby taking control of their own business.

I am confused.

Amazon wants to sell me e-books for $4.99 or less. Hachette wants me to buy e-books for $12.99 or more. I am supposed to be angry with Amazon? Where is the logic in that?

The 800 pound gorilla in the room that no one is talking about is the artificially high prices that the traditional publishing houses want to charge. They economic model is so skewed that mom-and-pop e-book publishing houses are springing up all over. And guess what? Authors supported on the new model are making more money! Why? Because the retail price is lower and their books sell more copies! The royalty payments per copy are comparable with the old model, but the volume sold makes it very worth while.

So, why does Hachette want to sell e-books for so much when there is no typesetting, binding, stitching, etc.? To increase HACHETTE'S PROFIT. Any author who supports the Hachette model is ignorant and should take a few courses in economics.

Amazon is more powerful than the Vatican. Bow or be crushed.The Roman Empire lasted one-thousand years. Amazon will last until there is no more earth. That is the beginning, middle and end of the Amazon story.
Signed,
Chris Roberts
Amazon's Favorite Son

Why would anyone who cares even a smidgen for books, literature, or reading EVER buy anything from Amazon? Their nature has been obvious for a decade. Buying books from people who crush bookstores and writers is self-defeating behavior. Up with independent bookstores and libraries!

"Hachette refuses to buckle under Amazon’s demand to sell their e-books for less than Hachette believes those books are worth."

Here's the deal with what ebooks are worth:

Let's say that you, as a customer, found out that, for years now, publishers have been able to do HUGE print runs, like super huge, maybe infinite, of a title, but that they only pay maybe 3% extra on top of what they used to pay in order to get these extra copies. Not only have they not lowered the price, they have tried to raise prices AND complain when people ask them to lower the price, even though they're clearly paying less per unit sold.

This is what has been happening since ebooks came on the scene.

It costs very little to add an ebook onto a print run. If you have a Word file, you can outsource that to companies who will turn out every format you can think of for like $200 per title. By comparison, it costs about $30,000 to print 10,000 titles. That's for a paperback, not a hardback, according to the CEO of IPG.

The physical production, shipping, and storage costs alone for the paperback (not including editing) run $3 per unit sold. If you sell the same number of ebooks, the production costs are maaaybe 10 cents per unit sold, if I generously give them $1000 to convert the edited MS into digital files. If you only sell 5000 copies, 20 cents per unit sold.

Now you have the editorial costs. For that print run, the editorial cost is about $2.30 per book (according to IPG, depends on the publisher, of course). That's because you take the editorial costs and divide by the print run, of course. But then, if you add an ebook, you are able to sell *more* units for the same initial investment. Each ebook unit might cost $2 or $1.75 for editing, plus a quarter for physical production cost.

Do you see the difference here? Physical printing can more than double the cost of a book, while electronic distribution costs a fraction of the editing costs.

Yet big publishing insists--INSISTS--that ebooks need to be sold for more than mass market paperbacks, often more than trade paperbacks. When Amazon fights for lower ebook prices, it's because they know it's stupid to charge as much as you would for a trade paperback that costs 12x more money to physically produce. They made ebooks a thing and they can't even do well on them because publishers refuse to charge a reasonable price.

Hachette is far from the good guy in this scenario for "standing up" for their prices. Ebook prices are ridiculous.

What it comes down to is why I hate journoterrorists.

You can't treat each of these "wars" between the big guys as single isolated fights.

That is why it really is a shame that the Gawker journalist is attempting to start a large scale boycott. As that author, like you Paul, is either flying a false flag or else he is one of the guys that would be advocating for the exact same tactics Amazon is using if he had something to gain.

You need to make a decision about what type of market you believe in, set rules to be followed based on a framework that you know is fair, like the Constitution.

And then you stick to it, because you believe it is just and right.

You can't believe that stealing is wrong yet resort to stealing because under your personal circumstances you think you are justified.

Having double-standards is always the sure sign of an asshole who is not on the side of equality, justice, freedom and liberty.

You should've investigated a little bit more before spewing your emotional political diatribe that is about as hypocritical as you can get. It's like when journalists write about privacy and consent being sacred but don't give a fuck about another person's privacy nor getting consent before they violate

Hopefully your readers will investigate to find out a little bit more before jumping on gawker's band wagon, hopefully people will have the courage to think for themselves, even though that might mean you won't be cool and part of the trendy Seattle club for cattle

@2 I hate Amazon as much -- nay more -- than anyone, but to criticize their lack of profit is a fool's errand. I took that bent once, and was quickly schooled that Amazon could easily become profitable if they wanted to be. They simply reinvest all their would-be profits into new ventures that make them "bigger and badder" (drones, smartphones, business supplies, same day delivery).

Amazon's goal pure and simple is literally to take over the world. If you ever have a chance to talk in an intimate setting with one of their creepy as fuck employees, they'll tell you all about how what they're doing is going to change the world.

I'm thankful that people are starting to wake up to just how fucked up this company is. I realize the economy of Seattle is pretty much married to this parasite now, but I'd love nothing more than to see Rome burn.

@70

If that is the case, and Amazon's goal is to take over the world, I can respect a person attempting to gather widespread support for a boycott.

However blowhard Constant, doesn't give any of the details, just claims they are trying to fuckover publishers. On the front page of the stranger, the article is titled something along the lines of "How Jeff Bezo's Relentless Pursuit of Profits Will Steamroll Everyone -- Yes Even You -- Eventually"

The whole dispute is over the pricing of e-books, and Amazon wanting the price to the consumer to be cut as low as it can possibly be,

If that is a "relentless pursuit of profits", ol Saul Hubbard really does have rocks rolling around where his brain is supposed to be

I sure as hell wouldn't boycott any company just because some idiot decides to follow suit with some other idiot journalist for who knows why, all I know is dipshit isn't stating the real reason, and there is probably a good reason that the truth remains hidden

because nobody would support the boycott if they knew the truth

fuck the Constant bullshit, I'd rather know about the real news

if bezos was seriously all about getting the data, and was that upfront about it, what the fuck was he doing at a book fair?

Why wasn't he in a booth at the national advertising fair pitching his idea to marketers about how much he could target people with customized adds and that type of shit?

as per usual, nothing Constant writes about adds up

Is Dan Savage pulling his books from Amazon?

Is The Stranger pulling "How to Be a Person: The Stranger's Guide to College, Sex, Intoxicants, Tacos, and Life Itself" from Amazon?

Is Charles Mudede pulling "Zoo" from Amazon?

Is Tacocat pulling their albums from Amazon?

Or is this more do what I say not what I do activism from The Stranger to drive page hits, is this just #TheStrangerPrivilege?

yeah, I know few people will be able to finish reading it without having to puke up their breakfast, but it is sorta amusing that punk ass Saul didn't seem to think it was a big deal when he helped Borders shut down all but the hardiest independent book stores, in fact he reveled in it, and although he attempts to be the lone voice of reason, writing about it in hindsight as if it was all Amazon's fault and those greedy corporate fucks who only cared about money, when the ivy league shit was playing hero and still does to this day instead of doing the responsible thing.

It's hard to listen to screeching noise that the frozen heart of snake-oil salesmen makes while pretending to bleed compassion for the important things in life, I wonder why he didn't title this one Books with Borders as opposed to the infallible author's title the last time he wrote

http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/books…

@73
"Back in 2000 at a company I then worked at, I patiently attempted to explain to a typical Californian solipsist (and halfwitted airhead) that making all her purchases through Amazon was detrimental to the existence of local book sellers, eventually allowing for Amazon's creation of a monopoly, after which they would then squeeze their customers. (This person would later return to Cali to work for the Bush family-owned Northrup Grumman.)"

Did you eat crow when, 15 years later, books are cheaper and more plentiful than they have ever been before?

Amazon can only do this because Americans - including those on SLOG - don't want to pay what things actually cost.

I'm betting nearly everybody bitching about this also constantly complains how much things - like books - cost.

You can't have both ways. If you want people well paid. If you want to stop things like pollution, global warming, and labor exploitation - then shit is going to have to cost you more. That's all there is to it.

Amazon can only do what? Sell more ebooks than anyone else?

All of these slanderous articles are written about Amazon because Saul thinks it was Amazon that put an end to his putting an end to independent book stores all while living off the teat of Borders, the real walmart of bookstores.

Amazon provides a place for transactions to occur, many of the orders placed are not fulfilled by Amazon.

When I order books, or anything from Amazon which I did today and will continue to do so, I always click the button which states the number or retail suppliers that have the product new and the number of suppliers offering the product used.

I look at each of them and usually I can find one in Calif. or Oregon, or if it's a choice between Warshington and Kentucky then I go with Warshington as the product gets to me in two or three days.

It's worth it to me to pick the seller closest to where I live. It gets to me quicker and the four or five dollars more I pay than what Amazon is offering it at is usually made up for by not having to pay expedited shipping

these articles don't give a rats ass about the truth, if people were seriously dumb enough to listen to the idiots tabloid journalists here and elsewhere from team tabloid media, there would be many pissed off small shops who make their sale because of Amazon.

People in the Pacific Northwest with half a brain understand that the cheapest product is not always best, esp if it has to be shipped from Kentucky or even further from China, and they pay five bucks more and choose the CA or OR supplier and get it in two to three days without expedited shipping.

It also saves the cost of sending the product all that way

fuck paul and whatever publisher's teat he has gotten used to sucking on

praise Amazon (but not just because dipshit says boycott them, although it's the icing on the cake) I buy from Amazon because of the superior service offered for items I don't buy locally

Stop misusing the term "libertarian"

Seems like the simple solution is for Hachette Book Group, the third largest publisher in the world, to start their own ebook sales site.

@72 is the only comment that matters.

While I've been following this story for a bit, my hating of Amazon is distilled down to one simple thing: I cannot stand their employees.

I work for one of the many businesses that inhabit SLU (and yes, we existed AND were successful long before Amazon moved in) and deal with the employees on a daily basis. I find them rude, socially inept and really poor tippers. They don't move out of the way when walking in groups on the sidewalk and they interact with my staff and I with an arrogant, demanding sense of entitlement. I cringe every time I see a blue badge.

Regardless of how you might say they are hurting brick and mortar stores; regardless of how they might be monopolizing book distribution; regardless of whether or not they are driving up housing costs in the area, I cannot stand their fucking employees!

W-he-el-ll, Let's say it! PAUL CONSTANT for President! Yes. Say it like it is.
Amacon can't afford to be supportive to local charity, community, good health, and just plain RESPECT for anyone other than his Jeff-God self.(those are humans working for you)

Suspicion of questions sure can indicate a guilty conscience. You'd think a worldwide forthright Amazilla megazon would have nothing to hide.

I continue to boycott the Wal. And the A. There is SOMEONE in Seattle with clarity. THOSE BASTARDS, ya gotta watch out for 'em.

Stephanie

"For the first time since Amazon began, ordinary people are talking about the company not like it’s a magical blowjob-dispensing internet genie, but like it’s a common playground bully."

Hardly. Animal rights activists—some of us—have been boycotting Amazon for many years for their part in promoting dog and rooster fighting (and for selling pâté de foie gras). Funny, in light of their Hachette job, that the excuse they gave for offering such vile material was that the public must be allowed full access to the market of ideas. My exchange with one of their reps—amusing, if it weren't so sad—is on my long-neglected webpage vset.net, under the heading "Standing Up to Walmart." It's been there for about a decade.

"For the first time since Amazon began, ordinary people are talking about the company not like it’s a magical blowjob-dispensing internet genie, but like it’s a common playground bully."

Hardly. Animal rights activists—some of us—have been boycotting Amazon for many years for their part in promoting dog and rooster fighting (and for selling pâté de foie gras). Funny, in light of their Hachette job, that the excuse they gave for offering such vile material was that the public must be allowed full access to the market of ideas. My exchange with one of their reps—amusing, if it weren't so sad—is on my long-neglected webpage vset.net, under the heading "Standing Up to Walmart." It's been there for about a decade.