I go to Borders all the time to find things I should buy on Amazon. I rarely buy anything. Why would I when I can get the same book half price and have it in 2 days (or now instantly on my Kindle)? Borders doesn't offer enough additional value to make me feel bad about this. I'd have to be stupid to pay their premium.
Yet, when I buy fly fishing equipment, I almost always buy from a local store—and even the "big box" store, Orvis, offers a fantastic in-store customer experience. Why am I loyal? Because they don't try to sell me crap. They let me hang out and talk fishing. They help me find new spots and learn about new techniques. There's a huge value add, and I'm willing to pay a premium.
Big box stores put a lot of mom and pops out of business in the 90s and 2000s. Now they're getting killed by online retailers. I'm not sure who's going to take out Amazon, but I wouldn't be surprised if there's some level of resurgence when it comes to local retailers who focus on service.
> I rarely buy anything [at Borders]. Why would I when I can get the same book half price [...]?
Because you've made use of the facilities at Borders that make them need to charge you more -- the physical store with a stock of physical books and actual staff who can help you if you can't find something or want extra information. You've derived a tangible benefit from your use of those facilities: you've found some books that interest you, and established that some others aren't worth what they cost.
Sure, no one is then forcing you to buy the books in Borders; neither the police nor Borders staff will give you any trouble for freeloading. And it's not actually against the law. If that's all you care about, fair enough. But it's not like there are no reasons for buying things in a bookshop when you've benefited from the things they offer and Amazon doesn't.
Another reason: If you find Borders useful, then you'd probably prefer them to stay in business. You might want to help with that. Again, no one's forcing you to, and you may just not care much about the tragedy-of-the-commons effect that may ensue when you and others don't. But it's a reason.
> Borders doesn't offer enough additional value to make me feel bad about this.
You can give them some but not all of the additional value by buying some but not all of those books from Borders. For instance, the ones where the price premium compared to Amazon is smaller.
(For the avoidance of doubt, I'm not saying "Bricks-and-mortar good, online bad". I buy a lot of books on line, more than I buy in physical bookshops. Amazon offers useful services that Borders doesn't -- customer reviews, the recommendation system, and so on. If you've benefited from those, that's a reason to buy from Amazon.)
What, in borders? I'm pretty sure they're not on commission there.
Borders is a pretty meh experience though. You'll get a much better local experience going to a place downtown with a good reputation like city lights, the tattered cover or the strand. They have a lot of reasons to support them - book readings, local authors and topics, live music, staff picks, newsletters, passionate buyers, enthusiast staff.
I've never been in a Borders, but I assume that the staff are paid, that their bosses tell them to help customers, and that their bosses do this in order to increase sales.
True enough, but they do still represent a value added service. It seemed like you were saying that because it wasn't altruistic it should be left off a list of reasons to support them. Amazon doesn't discount for altruistic reasons, they do it to increase sales. But obviously you consider a discount real value no matter what the intention is.
I didn't intend to insinuate that Borders in particular try to sell me crap, just that plenty of stores do. The fishing section in any Wal-Mart or Target is a perfect example.
I should note, though, that the eReader devices that Borders has on display in their stores are particularly junky. I spent a little time playing around with them, and they were completely unusable for me. I don't find my Kindle particularly intuitive to use (at least until I have a book loaded up), but the devices that I played with in Borders were terrible.
Yet, when I buy fly fishing equipment, I almost always buy from a local store—and even the "big box" store, Orvis, offers a fantastic in-store customer experience. Why am I loyal? Because they don't try to sell me crap. They let me hang out and talk fishing. They help me find new spots and learn about new techniques. There's a huge value add, and I'm willing to pay a premium.
Big box stores put a lot of mom and pops out of business in the 90s and 2000s. Now they're getting killed by online retailers. I'm not sure who's going to take out Amazon, but I wouldn't be surprised if there's some level of resurgence when it comes to local retailers who focus on service.