I understand the obsession with being on Amazon, but can we please normalize selling elsewhere? The internet is a vast expanse. Why do we think Amazon is the end all be all? I do not understand this.
However, most sellers have a hostile attitude towards their own customers, whether the seller is a business or individual. They won't make a decent webpage, they won't make an acceptable and smooth buying experience, and they won't match price or give a better price than the platforms. So, naturally customers will go to who they trust.
1. The manufacturer doesn't sell its own products! This is usually the case. Often they will helpfully list "dealers" where you can go find it (which all charge more than Amazon).
2. The manufacturer sells the product but their purchase and checkout experience is brutal (and/or it doesn't accept my desired form of payment) and I drop out of the funnel in frustration.
3. The manufacturer sells the product but it is inexplicably 25-50% more than Amazon and 50%-100% more than used on eBay.
They might say they dislike Amazon but they seem to be doing everything they can to push their customers to them.
Besides: The chances of either of them going belly-up are faaaaar lower than for Joe Random's webshop or, heaven forbid, physical store.
A massive issue missing from this statement are the problems around fakes which has grown and is unaddressed by Amazon. Not such an issue with books though.
But still. Shopping at Amazon is so damn riskless, why would I buy at a small shop I don't know anything about? I got burned, family got burned - I just became very, very selective with buying elsewhere.
The risk is too damn high.
WTF, here in Germany (or rather Europe as a whole) it is the other way around for the mandatory 2 years - if something happens, you return the item where you bought it and the seller is completely responsible for dealing with everything, and on the hook for delivering you a working item.
Only after these two years expire and you have an "extended warranty" in place you have to deal with the manufacturer.
https://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/regulation/consumer-...
As a consumer, I invest time and money to try buy elsewhere (and boycott Amazon) when I can, but it's not always easy. Also, I'm aware that these kind of Don Quixote boycots seldomly have an impact macro economically. Nevertheless, I keep trying...
Macroeconomically, it probably makes precisely zero difference, but it makes me feel better to be supporting local shops.
I figured it was an event, and had nothing else to do, so I got in line, too. When the doors opened, they all scattered to different parts of the store. So, no author signing or music release. Just people who like books.
Are you British by any chance?
At least around where I live, this wasn't a single-step process. What happened was that big bookstores (both chains and local) started pushing out the mom and pop indies. And then they themselves complained as Amazon in particular ate their lunch.
I really did like going into town to do various shopping, in particular bookstore (new and used) browsing, once or twice a month. On the other hand, I can't say I hate instant ebook delivery or a physical copy in a day or two if that's what I want for some reason.
Nowadays, many do have online offers where you can "borrow" e-books.
Of course, any library's catalogue is probably smaller than Amazons, but they usually are quite up-to-date with mainstream stuff and have more than you could ever hope to read in any case.
Plus you get to have a warm fuzzy feeling for supporting an institution that is really good for your local community :)
They wrote a book, I'm happy to pay for it in some manner and Kindle Unlimited honestly seems like the fairest possible solution, I as a reader aren't required to buy in advance, I can try it to see if I enjoy it and if I do the author gets paid per page read.
And the inventory isn't censored either. I started a reread of Gravity's Rainbow and that came from Carrolton (college town). Certain gory/raunchy murder mystery series come from the oddest places. Series like Game of Thrones. And highbrow academic stuff like Anne Hollander.
Reminds me I got to log on and extend a couple of titles.
But yeah, we still buy dead tree books, occasionally, from Amazon, but only if we want to keep them. It turns out PINES is great for that, too. Just put it on hold, review it in person, and if it's actually good, buy it.
The only other store that I know of is Rakuten and that’s by far a worse experience.
For other stuff, I just go to the hardware store. The only real amazon thing I depend on is a kind of micro-fibre wipes I use for my glasses.
It's actually mostly happened organically since amazon got so bad, although the last few times I used it I abandoned my cart trying to navigate the dark pattern of paying without buying prime or getting tricked into shipping fees.
Barnes and Noble. Their Nook isn't as good, but it's an alternative. I also will buy books [1] direct from publishers, and there are still more narrowly focused sites like History Book Club and Christian Book Distributers.
[1] I dislike using qualifiers (physical books, postal mail) which turn centuries-old words into phrases. If I mean e, I say/write e, otherwise I mean what the words always meant.
However, Apple is almost as controversial (with this crowd), as Amazon.