Posted on 12/26/2008 7:47:08 AM PST by rabscuttle385
I have been a Costco member from it’s inception. We have their Amex card and the “premium” membership. There are seven costcos within 30 minutes of our house.
Interestingly, I have found myself more and mors shopping Costco online. We got our projector TV there, some patio furniture, and even some headphones.
When we move to Central Kentucky we will probably do virtually all our Costco shopping online, only going to Louisville every couple months for stuff like coffee.
I bought a few books from Amazon back in 2001 but that was it.
Same here. The major retailers are moaning about how poorly they're doing; they want a piece of the government's bailout money. I think what's really happening is a paradigm shift. Amazon.com is the new Mega Mall of America.
I check Amazon before buying just about anything. I joined some “club” mentioned above and two day shipping is free. Overnight is $3.99. Returns are a snap and the prices are usually the best.
That's an excellent way of putting it.
You people have been lucky. Or maybe I’ve been unlucky. I have been dissatisfied with many items I have ordered and I have received wrong items. I decided not to order any more through mail or Internet.
Thanks. In the future, if you get any of my books, Freepmail me first and I’ll give you my address. You can have Amazon send it to me, then I’ll sign it and forward it on to you. I do this all the time for Freepers.
I'm sure the auto dealerships are struggling.
Good for him GD. I noticed that my books are “carried” in the bookstores (B&N has one or two, Borders often a few more) but they sell out quickly, and when the stores re-order, they get 3-5 copies when they need to be getting 10-12. The clerks say, “Well, we sold out and have re-ordered,” to which I say, “Why aren’t you ordering more if you sell out every time I’m here?”
Barnes & Noble Online is a competitor.
Oh cool! Thanks will do!
I've got to agree with you on that, amazon makes a killing on their selling fees. I also sell books on Amazon and half.com For those books where I can't be the lowest seller for $5.00 or so I list them on half.com
The only way to beat some of the high commission is to become a seller merchant or something like that and pay them a monthly fee to list your books instead of paying them $1.00 per book sold but you've got to sell more then 40 books to break even since it costs around $40. So if you can sell 80 books a month you can reduce that $1.00 a book to 50¢ a book, and save a little on fees. I've only been selling for a few monthes but I get the impression that some time this year they jack there rates up really high, and there was some really unhappy sellers.
Yes they do, probably the biggest competition is half.com which is run by ebay it is ebay version of amazon.com.
As far most mass marketed books you can find them on both sites. But I have found that half.com doesn't have everything that amazon has when it comes to those rarer non-mass marketed books. But as far as costs goes sometimes you can save a quarter going half.com or a quarter going with amazon. Another thing most old people will go to amazon because that is the only site they know of, where the younger generation will check out both.
A second answer to that question is yes, just google the title of a book and google will give you all the competition to Amazon.
That's why Amazon.com survived the Dot-Com bubble and will be stronger than ever. Their masterful stroke of opening the MP3 download store has made them the first viable alternative to iTunes Music Store in terms of buying music. Besides, my current set of excellent computer speakers (the Klipsch Groove PM20) was bought from Amazon at a price way cheaper than I could get it at any local "brick and mortar" store.
At least they are stocking your books.
I can remember about a decade ago not finding Rush’s book or the Black Advenger’s books in the West Coast, Nevada and Arizona and being treated rudely when I asked for them.
Thanks to Amazon, I can buy any book and have it delivered here with no insults from some deranged purple haired deviate with metal rings in their nose, ears, lips and tongues. These seem to be the abynormal pos who work the bookstores out here.
A few weeks ago, I went into the local Borders, which had about a dozen copies of my book. I walked up to the "help" desk with a stack in my arms. The two ("kids") there had just had an exchange with another customer, who stalked off muttering something about how unhelpful they were and they were giving here the "What's-wrong-with-you?" look. So I said to the guy, "Would you like me to sign my books for you?" and he just stared. I was pissed. I set them on the counter and using fake sign language repeated real slowly, "WOULD YOU LIKE ME TO SIGN MY BOOKS FOR YOU?" He wasn't real happy about that. We finally got them signed, but what a couple of horses' patoots!
Years ago when I got back into Fly Fishing, at first the big independent book store and the chain book store in our town didn’t want to stock the Fly Fishing Magazines and books.
After a lot of suggestions from members of the local Fly Fishing Club, they started carrying some and placing or hiding them on the bottom shelves.
The last so called co managers of the chain, a poster it for the book store employee deviates I described earlier and a 250# lesbo, discontinued carrying all of the magazines to support PETA. Of course all hunting magazines books were not carried.
Finally, I tired of this harassment, and got the local fly shop owner to carry a good assortment. They have the magazines in the fly line section and some at the checkout counter and often sell out. This store has a fly shop, regular fishing shop and a hunting store in different areas. They do very well with the fishing/hunting magazines and books.
It was a special Amazon was running to attract new prime customers back in October.
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