Why you shouldn't buy books from Amazon
Pleas from a bookseller
I try not to broach this subject too often. I’m very passionate about it, but at some point it gets annoying if I’m constantly ranting about it. I get it. Amazon is cheap (a lot cheaper) and convenient. However, as someone who has worked in a bookstore for seven years and as someone who loves bookstores, I plead you not to buy your books from Amazon (or bol.com).
Note: this piece is written from a perspective of the Dutch book market. It will probably be similar in different places but in the Netherlands we don't have big chains like Waterstones or Barnes & Nobles. Most bookstores here are independent.
Christmas is approaching so people are buying presents. A lot of those presents are books (yes, still. Recently I wrapped 150 books in five hours at the bookstore. To make that easier to visualize, that’s one book per 2 minutes). I recently spoke to someone about why buying those books from Amazon is a bad idea. To my surprise this person had no idea. Which gives me a strange sort of hope. If not everyone knows the details, I might yet be able to convince some people that Amazon is in fact not the better option.
Why do people buy books from Amazon (and bol.com for the Dutch people among us)?
It’s cheap. If I wanted to buy a coffee table book (those large design/photography books) from a bookstore, I would pay around €60,-. That’s a lot of money, but not that much if you take in account that those books are mostly colour print, on fancy thick paper, and those books are huge. On Amazon you will often find these books for around €40,- . So why on earth would you buy a book from a bookstore that’s way more expensive?
Another point is convenience. Amazon has huge warehouses (with poorly paid, badly treated workers, but they are huge) so they can usually ship pretty quickly. Most bookstores don't keep a lot of inventory because it's expensive.
Amazon doesn't care what you return as long as it’s the same weight (apparently people send bricks instead of the original product and still get their money back). And sometimes you don’t even have to return the thing you bought because it’s more expensive for them to handle the return. First and foremost this whole company is terrible for sustainability and working conditions, but that's another rant. Lets stick to the book-side.
Both Amazon and bol.com started off as booksellers. Bol.com (according to their website) was the first online bookstore in Europe, opened in 1999. This is what kicked these companies off. But how did they get so big in this branch? Simple. They sell everything for the lowest profit margin possible.
And that is what kills bookstores.
For example. The Secret History by Donna Tart is €13,95 at my local bookstore. Between €10,- and €15,- is a pretty normal price for a English paperback (we’ll get to the Dutch books later). On Amazon, this book costs a whopping €5,49. Bol.com and Amazon use those insanely low prices to lure you in and give you the idea that they are always cheap. Great marketing strategy.
Luckily, this is not possible for books in Dutch (or Frysk). We have something called the ‘vaste boekenprijs’ or a set price for books in the Netherlands. Which means you are not allowed to sell books for any other price than the publishers sets it. Which is great! Because it takes away the whole price-aspect from Amazon and bol.com.
There is still the convenience part left, but let me tell you a secret: your local bookstore probably ships to you too and they often have free shipping above €20,-. Hooray! And in the Netherlands, especially when it comes to bol.com, they get their books from the exact same distributor as the bookstores do.
And what do you get if you buy at your local bookstore?
People who are passionate about books and would love to recommend you your next favourite read!
They will wrap your books if you ask nicely! (The last time I asked bol.com to wrap it they sent me a plasic bag covered in their logo and if I could wrap it myself thank you very much.)
The survival of bookstores. Beautiful places with people that love books in which you can get lost spending way to much money.
And I get it. If you find the book you want to buy for a lot cheaper on Amazon or bol.com it's understandable why you wouldn't want to pay more. But I urge you to check if your local bookstore has it in stock (maybe even second hand) and especially if you buy Dutch books since the price doesn't differ anyways.
Thank you for hearing my plea.
And let me reiterate that you can also buy your presents second hand this Christmas. It's a great way to save money instead of supporting a company that's destroying our planet and the people on it (: