I generally prefer Borders to Barnes-and-Noble because they always seemed to stock more titles. But I almost never buy anything at either of them without one of their 30-50% off coupons, which brings them close to Amazon's price.
I can't find it, but there's an article out there somewhere about how Boston Market has really struggled because they set their prices high and issue a lot of discount coupons, so a lot of their customers are bargain shoppers not people looking for higher quality.
I definitely wish that either book chain (or a new business) would focus more on the "experience" part of what these stores are now. They're always busy, but mostly full of people with laptops. I know some of them won't spend a dime there, but I suspect most of them would pay a couple bucks an hour for a comfortable seat, power, decent wifi, and access to snacks, drinks, books, and gadgets to buy. I know I would.
Amazon reviews are seriously broken. I'm surprised anyone would want to defend them other than Amazon employees or partners.
Sure, there are some good reviews on Amazon by credible critics and book lovers, but they have increasingly become like searching for a needle in a stack of needles. Most reviews I read, even on academic books that the hoi polloi don't read much, variate a great deal and swing wildly between 5 star ratings and 0. They are also filled with petty invective, academic flame wars that have no place on a good review site, and authors faking reviews for their own books (or those of their scholastic rivals).
I find them generally informative, it depends on the book I guess. If something has 20+ reviews you can easily get a pretty good feel for it. I'd agree with you on obscure stuff with only a handful of reviews. As long as you don't have to trust any single reviewer there is a lot of good information to be had, same with IMDB really, every popular movie has reviews at each extreme, but given enough choice in reviews you can get a decent feel for it.
