I’ve been meaning to order a specific book off Amazon for a couple of weeks but just never gotten around to it. I walked past Waterstones today and thought I’d pop in to see if they had it ready to buy off the shelf. I was excited to find it until I saw it was literally double the price at £17.99 compared to £9.00 on Amazon (not on sale or anything, standard price).
I absolutely love browsing Waterstones – not only for the books but the diaries, stationery etc – they have some beautiful stuff. But how can they justify charging double their competitors? Is this something others have come across? Obviously I left empty handed and have just pulled my finger out and ordered it on prime.
by Best_Huckleberry_378
1 Comment
I’m American, not British, but in the States, Amazon’s prices are often much lower than what you’d find in our own brick-and-mortar bookstore chain (Barnes and Noble).
It’s always worth remembering that Amazon dominates the market and that it doesn’t need to make money on book sales right now. Once the competitors have closed shop, though, Amazon could easily increase its prices and make all of us pay through the nose for books.
If you can afford to support an independent bookstore, do it. 🙂 If you can afford to support Waterstones over Amazon, I think that’s a good thing too.
I’m sure others will weigh in with their opinions haha.