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Comment by patio11 | Hacker News Reader

I have a serious book habit, and Borders used to be my go-to bookstore in the US. Or was it the Barnes and Noble. Well, you know, one with a B in it at any rate.

In over a decade of patronage, I cannot recall ever having a single successful conversation with a staff member (other than "These books, please.")

The bookstore receiving 50% of retail price for providing fungible copies of books, bitwise identical to those offered by all other bookstores, without even a scintilla of value-add, has struck me as something in urgent need of radical corrective capitalism.

By comparison, Amazon recommendations are routinely as good as my sister's, their customer service has been top-notch, their prices are cheaper, and the Kindle has transformed my experience with the medium and quintupled my consumption. I am in no danger of confusing Amazon with another shop that starts with A.

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In over a decade of patronage, I cannot recall ever having a single successful conversation with a staff member (other than "These books, please.")

The problem with big box booksellers is that they can't possibly win on customer service, because their customer base is too diverse, and no single employee can begin to satisfy the customer service needs of such a broad range of tastes and needs until they've spent years both learning the store's inventory and building a mental model of customer types and their preferences. But it's a retail job and the rewards are meager, so there's little incentive to become this ideal bookstore employee, though they do exist; the employee you do end up with is either a thwarted English major who despises you (this was once me, I'm sorry to say) or the avid reader of bestsellers -- and if that's not a good fit for you, too bad.

The achievement of Amazon is that they've actually done a decent job of automating what an ideal generalist bookseller does.

(Specialty bookstores are another story. In those cases, you can more readily assume that the preoccupations of the bookseller and the customer will align.)

" ... without even a scintilla of value-add"

I get tremendous value from being able to flip through a book, check out the index, get a feel for the quality of writing. I love being able to wander around and randomly bump into things I might otherwise never know about.

I like browsing the magazines, seeing what's out there.

Whether that justifies the increase in cost is another matter, but there is tangible benefit to the physical B&N.

"Without even a scintilla of value-add" ?

Brick and mortar bookstores add value. They just add it to the process rather than the final product. They shelve the book for an indeterminate amount of time, just on the chance little old you happens to come along and buy it. (Instant gratification has value: for the next three days you will have your book instead of waiting for shipping.) A retail store also provides a different and arguably superior browsing experience through multiple books: you get pre-sale access to 100% of the content.

There's also the magazine section. Try finding a website that lets you browse through all of Forbes, Cigar Aficionado, and National Geographic. The bookstores have created a profitable model that doesn't work online, making magazines free-to-read in order to sell coffee.

Sure, if you are laser targeted on what you want, and either don't mind the shipping wait or consume only e-book content, Amazon is far superior. But there is a real place for the brick and mortar store. They're not just anachronistic dinosaurs, they fill a still-extant niche of the capitalist market.

In some ways, going to a bookstore for me is like going to a museum. I'll wander through the sections, stop to look at things that look interesting on my way around. Mostly I'll walk back out when I'm bored, but knowing a little bit more about what kind of books I might like to buy. Occasionally I'll buy something from the gift shop on the way out.

I wonder if you could operate a bookstore more along the lines of a museum? Or maybe that would be called a library.

I find that Borders employees are generally not that helpful. True story: I bought the "Inception" soundtrack on CD from Borders, and the bookseller checking me out saw it and said, "Wow, I didn't know we had this movie!"

Barnes & Noble employees are a little better on average, in my experience. I've actually gotten some good recommendations there.

"corrective capitalism" - awesome term.

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