After reading this article titled “E-Fairness Victory in North Carolina” I was a bit incensed; if for no other reason than the insinuation that business is or should be fair. I can’t speak for other countries, but here in the USA, business is most certainly not fair…and that is exactly why so many immigrants want to come here to launch their dreams.
Here is what fair business would look like in the book world: This Book is $12 and every bookseller must charge $12 for it, it is available to everybody on the same day and everybody pays the same tax for This Book no matter what state they live in…even Alaska. If This Bookstore wants an online shop (so must That Bookstore have one), and every online bookstore must also have a retail shop in turn. This Book must be offered the same to everybody, so if This Bookstore wants to offer a copy of This Book signed by This Author, That Bookstore must also have This Author signed copies of This Book. If This Bookstore wants to have an event with That Author, said author must also visit That Bookstore (and every other bookstore) on the same day (we have to be fair) and at the same time and…
What does fair business look like? It looks an awful lot like communism if you ask me—and communism only looks good on paper…and sometimes it doesn’t even look good on paper, either. My point is that business isn’t fair in a capitalist society and we’d all pay dearly if it were. The level playing field is that anybody with the drive and determination has a shot at being successful in business regardless of class, religion, sex, race, sexual orientation, etc. (not to be confused that they all have the same odds of succeeding, but that’s another topic entirely).
In the article is a link for a copy and paste form letter to send to your representative in Connecticut to fight for a similar law to be passed in that state.
“The bottom line is, I am simply asking for a level playing field while out-of-state, online giants wish to maintain an unfair competitive advantage. At present, by not enforcing sales tax laws, our state is providing out-of-state retailers with a 6 percent advantage right out of the gate.”
I completely understand the frustration of mom-and-pops being muscled out of business by big box retailers with low prices that small shops cannot compete with. But that is what it’s about: low prices, not taxes. As long as price is king, the big guys will stay on top because they have the power to buy in massive quantities and offer much lower prices than someone buying in much, much smaller bulk amounts. Do you think tax is the deciding factor here? Maybe for a $2000 Plasma HDTV, that $120 or so makes a big difference (and I’m even skeptical on that example), but for books?! Honestly, is someone going to buy a book from Amazon that is available from their local bookstore just because it is 50 cents cheaper? I’m not saying it doesn’t ever happen, but I am saying that’s far from the likely representative scenario and not even close to the heart of the issue.
Someone is making a choice each time they buy anything and those choices have a comprehensive impact. This Book has a list price of $15.99 and excluding any sale, coupon, or frequent patron discount, you will often pay $15.99 (plus tax) for this book at a local indie bookstore. Amazon will offer This Book for less than the list price about 99%* of the time, and often by several dollars. I will insert a real life example here: I needed a book A.S.A.P. for a class I was taking; the book was relatively new and only available in Hardback. Since I needed it right away, I called my local bookstore (Borders) to see if they had it in stock. Lucky for me it was in stock and even better, I had a $5.00 off coupon, score! Off I went to buy the book and to my surprise it was a whopping $39.95 (this is a 350 page non-fiction but it was not written as a textbook) and even with my coupon, I paid $35 plus tax (make that $37) for the book. Want to know what Amazon was charging for it? …I’ll tell you anyway: $25. Yes, $25, nearly 40% less than the list price and even if I had paid tax on that, it would still have been more than ten dollars less than the same book at Borders (a big name retailer with heavy buying power). Hmmmm…
So let’s look at this “unfair competitive advantage” a bit closer. I’m going to use Amazon vs. Your Local Brick and Mortar Bookseller (big and small) because Amazon is the glaringly-obvious-example-that-shall-not-be-named in all of these articles anyway.
Amazon Advantages:
Price. This is a big one, Amazon buys in mass quantity and though they may pay for warehouse space, this is significantly cheaper rent than retail space with window dressings and walk by traffic.
Convenient Home Delivery. For rural customers and introverts alike (the latter of which I suspect is a proportionally larger group in the book lover world than the general population), your favorite book is delivered to your door…as long as you are willing to wait and pay for it.
Selection. I don’t know if they physically have all these books somewhere or if they drop ship some of them from the publishers, but whatever they do, Amazon has a much larger selection than any brick and mortar bookstore I’ve ever seen.
Browsing Ease. If you’re looking for a specific book, all you need is to type in the title and up pops everything you need (or need to know) to buy the book. No finding the subsection book category and meticulously searching spines for author names and hoping they are really in order.
Reviews. If you put stock in reviews from random “average joes” to authors, to Publishers Weekly, they are all there for your perusal on Amazon.
Brick and Mortar Bookseller Advantages:
Instant Gratification. If you want a book, right now, you can go to the store and buy it (as long as it’s in stock). No need to wait for UPS.
Walk By Traffic. Hey bookworm, waiting 30 minutes for your table at a restaurant? Need to kill some time? Book store next door for the win! Impulse buys abound. Double bonus points if the restaurant is part of the bookstore and there’s always a 30 minute or more wait which makes browsing the bookstore a smidge below being mandatory…aren’t you a clever bookseller?
In Store Events. Book signings, children’s storybook hour, coffee and poetry. Watching a video clip from an author on Amazon does not even begin to compare.
Atmosphere. Enough said.
Personal Touch. I know when I go in a bookstore that chances are high the employees love books just as much as I do. They are (usually) eager to answer any questions I have or make book recommendations. Those off shore “how do I get in touch with a real person again?” customer service guys…where loving books is well below the job requirements to be computer and American culturally literate and speak English (if book loving even makes the list at all)…not so much.
Community. A local bookstore helps the community and the local economy, not to mention how it can bring people together.
Real. Live. Books! I don’t care how much “look inside” digital content is available, it is not the same as seeing, feeling, smelling, and flipping through a real, tangible book. Any bibliophile can tell you that.
I could go on and on (feel free to add to the advantages list), but I think there is enough here to illustrate my point. I’m not even arguing if these e-tailers have nexus in your state or not, I’m just observing that the whole indie bookseller’s whinging about taxes seems like tattling at best and sour grapes at worse. And before you go throwing rotten cabbage and tomatoes at me, please understand that I love and respect independent booksellers and mom-and-pop shops in general, I’m just saying, the tax battle is not the right battle to pick here. If you want to be competitive, do it! If you can’t be competitive on price, find another way, get creative, or get left behind. Amazon got creative and they eventually started making money (if you think that Amazon is making profit from selling books, you haven’t been paying attention). Look only to the recent failures in the music industry if you want to see what picking the wrong battle can do to your business (R.I.P. indie record shops of my youth, I still miss you).
I only wish I had an indie bookstore to patronize (the good patronize) within 20 miles of my home. I dream of one day having enough money that I can open a bookstore in my community just for the sake of having one and making it a cool place to be without financially needing to make a profit. That is not to say that bookstores cannot do well. My most favorite bookstore is an indie bookstore in the city (a little too far from me to frequent), that is doing something right because they continue to thrive…even in the face of Amazon.
There are a myriad of complications in the bookselling world today, not the least of which is competitive pricing. Convenience also plays a big hand: I’ve seen books in grocery store checkout lanes, Target, Walmart, Costco, and other warehouse type stores (I would suspect if these books weren’t selling, they would no longer stock them). In fact, a grocery store near me just remodeled to include a mini book store area in the grocery store (I say ew, but time will tell if people embrace it). And let us not forget the unprecedented entertainment/distraction market books must now compete with: the internet, video games, television, movies, cell phones, music players, and the like.
The bottom line to me is: I’m not convinced that bookstores are hurting because Amazon isn’t charging tax for their books; and if Amazon were forced to charge tax, it would only serve to make a lot of consumers very angry and open the door to the potential of that internet tax Big Brother (Amazon/1984 pun fully intended) has long been pining for.
It's DeeeLovely! 