Hell and High Water wrote:
This goes for music stores of all kinds and book stores too. I love Amazon, but I realize what a struggle it is for the local book and music stores. We have a giant Borders, but I wouldn't set foot in there for about a year after it opened, I went only after receiving gift cards! I still use Amazon to browse titles and save thing to my wish list, but only to keep track of them. When the time comes to buy, I head downtown for the independents, they have a flavor unique to our area, Borders is totally bland. And where else will you find all that VINYL?!
You and me both, Hell. That's exactly what I use Amazon for.
I use a small, independent, family run book shop. There is a chain store bookseller within walking distance for me but I always go to the independent one.
There was something called the Net Book Agreement in Britain, where books had to be sold at the full price, but it was abolished a few years ago, so that big chains could sell books at lower prices. It protected small, independent shops but a lot of them closed because of the Agreement being abolished.