I stumbled across this at lunch today, listed as the most emailed current article from the NY Times web site.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/13/opinion/amazons-jungle-logic.html?_r=1&emc=eta1The gist of it is that Amazon was offering $5 discounts to those who check prices on items in physical bookstores and transmit them to Amazon. The clear subtext seems to be that you can get a better price from Amazon. Which is surely true, but do they have to rub it in after decimating so much of the independent bookstore business already? Please understand that I was a very early adopter of Amazon and have spent untold thousands of dollars there -- tens of thousands, probably -- over the years. In fact I had ordered a book earlier this morning. This just seems unseemly to pile it on.
The writer of the op-ed piece, BTW, is Richard Russo, one of our best contemporary novelists. He has been right there with my favorites for a long time. Fortunately he doesn't try to crush other novelists a la Amazon.
