Well, I've yet to find a local store (book or otherwise) that offers Amazon-like pricing, customer service, convenience or shipping (especially if you're a Prime member).
Well, it's really not necessary to worry about shipping if you're shopping local, is it? As for customer service, amazon is generally good but speaking to a human being in person has its advantages. And you're right - like Wal-Mart, Amazon benefits
hugely from economies of scale and can offer very competitive prices.
If you have those types of stores in your area, that's great and feel free to support them. But I wouldn't try to scare off people that choose to shop elsewhere.
Anyone easily 'scared off' by anonymous personal opinions on the internet isn't much of an intellect. Presumably we can all look into these things and draw our own conclusions.
You could make your argument for every big retailer (including Apple). I'm sure you don't shop at Apple online or the Apple Store, right? Do you buy all your Macs from your local Mac resellers?
Yes. Out of the three Macs I've purchased over the years, two were purchased in-person at local Authorized Apple Service Centers (not Apple Stores). The third was bought (used) from an internet reseller. I have only bought something at an Apple store on two or three occastions.
That doesn't mean I have any problem buying from the Apple Store - and at any rate, there's a difference between buying an
Apple product from
Apple and buying a third-party product (such as a book or music CD) from Amazon that is available at hundreds of other stores.
Amazon has pretty much set the gold standard for retail in general. They're competing like everyone else. They'll never be able to completely one-up your excellent local stores because they can't provide you with a physical product instantly.
There should be plenty of space for both to exist. But if you think they're "competing like everyone else" you're dreaming. They operate an incredible information-gathering operation to try and find out what people are buying, where they are getting them from and for how much. Their reach is truly global and on a massive scale. They spend hundreds of millions of dollars to find ways to gather consumer information and mine it to create sales strategies that lure you to their business.
I don't think you should feel guilty just because you bought something from Amazon. But their growth as a company ought to clue you in on just how much they are out-competing everyone. And your implication that more local operations can somehow compete directly with them is completely false.
If we all shopped strictly based on cost criteria all the time, only big-box stores and global ebusinesses would be viable.
