Mirror of Justice

I have often bought from my local independent bookstore when I could have purchased from Amazon at a lower price (though not as much as I should have). The pressures on independent booksellers are enormous, and I hope my local bookseller can stay in business. It never occurred to me that when purchasing on line I should avoid Amazon where possible as well (though I have purchased books from Powell's, the Seminary Co-op, and Barnes and Nobles). I should have been purchasing from Powell's and the Seminary Co-op on principle when not supporting my local store because they are two of the best independent bookstores in the country as well as online sellers.

But I did not realize the nature of the sharp practices engaged in by Amazon, practices that have threatened publishers in serious ways. Many a publisher has been pressured to give higher discounts to Amazon in high-handed scurrilous ways. If I had known of this behavior, I would previously have been scurrying for alternatives to purchasing from this ethically impoverished institution. For an eye-opening study of the business practices employed by Amazon and the practices that will likely follow given the arbitrary pricing of e-books, see the Boston Review.