Don’t shop at Amazon’s new Chicago store

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From The Chicago Tribune:

I have a favor to ask: When Amazon opens its retail store in the Southport Corridor area of Lakeview later this year, please do not shop there.

It will be tempting, because the store will seem shiny and the merchandise will interact with your smartphone, informing you of prices and additional recommendations. You will be offered discounts on Echo, Amazon’s home “digital assistant”; Prime memberships; and access to streaming content.

And the books will be less expensive than at your local independent store.

But those few dollars saved will come at the expense of something more important: our community, our values.

Amazon is not evil, but it is a corporation, and corporations do what corporations do — whatever it takes to maximize profits and shareholder value. In the case of Amazon, in the past, that’s meant subjecting warehouse workers to inhuman conditions and their corporate employees to a kind of white-collar Hunger Games.

. . . .

Beyond the privacy issues, Amazon is unconcerned with quality of life in local communities. We have seen entire towns crash on the shoals after giving in to the siren song of Wal-Mart’s low, low prices.

Wal-Mart moves in, bringing not just those low prices but low-paying  jobs too. Unable to compete, the existing local businesses fail, putting communities into a death spiral, until so many people leave that Wal-Mart also pulls up the stakes.

Instant ghost town.

Obviously, Chicago isn’t going to become a ghost town, but we should be very aware of the cultural and community riches we have in our many independent book stores.

Link to the rest at The Chicago Tribune and thanks to Dave for the tip.

This was a very tempting article, but PG will limit himself to only a couple of observations.

Amazon is a “corporation”.

Gasp.

If the community bookstores the author of the OP is trying to preserve are consulting competent attorneys and accountants, they are probably doing business as corporations or limited liability companies. One good way to preserve a community bookstore is to protect the owners from random spurious lawsuits.

Entire towns “crash” because of Walmart’s low-paying jobs.

When a new small-town Walmart is nearing completion, it starts hiring staff for the store. The line of job applicants is always very long and includes a great many employees of local retailers.

Why?

After the store is finished, Walmart employees will be the best-paid retail employees in town. With much better benefits than small town retailers provide. And a career path that includes wage increases and the possibility of promotions within the local Walmart or in other Walmart stores nearby.

Working at a small-town Walmart can be a career. Working at a local small-town retailer is a dead end.

 

40 thoughts on “Don’t shop at Amazon’s new Chicago store”

  1. “I have a favor to ask: When” you notice The Chicago Tribune has written a piece of junk, please don’t read there.

    “It will be tempting, because” they’re a big well known name, but they print stuff to gather in the all mighty advertising dollars and will print anything to get them.

    Take this for example, just another little anti-Amazon piece, though they admit they don’t like Walmart either.

    The Chicago Tribune “is not evil, but it is a corporation, and corporations do what corporations do — whatever it takes to maximize profits and shareholder value. In the case of” The Chicago Tribune “, in the past, that’s meant” printing whatever their corporate overlords thought would sell papers — no matter how stupid.

    (Me off to find caffeine …)

  2. Let’s make people pay more for books, have a less pleasant shopping experience, restrict their choices (and restrict them to titles chosen for them by other people)…all to preserve our culture and community.

    Let’s make it more expensive and difficult to buy food to fight hunger. Lets make it take longer to reach a hospital with an emergency to improve health.

    I sometimes wonder if any of these fools ever REALLY think through the nonsense they say and support.

    • Uugg, the neanderthal, had a terrific business selling bugs on a stick over by that big rock near the river. Then Amaco Caveman Enterprises opened a fire pit just across from him that sold roosted mastodon strips and completely put him out of business.

      That was 40,000 years ago. If it hadn’t been for Amaco Caveman Enterprises I’m pretty sure Uugg would still be in business. These days it’s almost impossible to get bugs on a stick.

  3. Worst case of ADS I’ve ever seen.

    “They’re just trying to sell you stuff!!”

    Geez dude, calm down already.

  4. What alternative universe where Chicago isn’t full of corporations and chain stores does this person live in? Have they ever stepped outside the front door of the Tribune offices?

    Also, what are Chicago’s community values beyond the Cubs vs White Sox, the Bears, the Blackhawks, and pretending the Bulls don’t exist? I really don’t think shopping at Amazon will change that.

        • Error in my comment to say “can be” filmed elsewhere.

          “B roll” is the name for secondary footage for TV and film…it was meant to be secondary, i.e. not the “main” show or the A footage. Some people have taken A roll to be “Action” with the actual main characters while B was for Background, but that isn’t the original meaning.

          It usually is done for shows supposedly that take place in expensive shooting locales like New York. It is too expensive to actually shoot the whole movie there, same with Chicago, so instead they shoot say a shot of the Empire State Building or Statue of Liberty, or Chicago lakeshore or Sears Tower, thus “establishing” the show as taking place there. These are from the B roll that are shot and can be edited into other clips to make a newscast background or opening credits or transitions in movies as people are driving around. Then the actual show is shot someplace cheaper to film, like Toronto or Vancouver, with generic building serving as local places.

          Chicago is the locale for lots of TV shows and movies, many of which are actually shot elsewhere, but the B roll inserts make it look like it was shot on-locale. Sometimes they do a few establishing shots on-locale and the rest is eitehr B roll or shot elsewhere.

          P.

          • There are some fascinating clips on Youtube from StarGate Studios that show movies and TV shows being filmed with green-screen inserts. Relevant to this discussion was a series of shots for the show Ugly Betty, which was supposed to be filmed in New York. The shots show the actors walking across green-draped streets on an LA backlot (palm trees are a giveaway) — and then the same shot with a New York street scene magically added to the green areas. The result is that the scene with the actors appears to be on the New York street, but all of the expense of actually going there and closing off the street and filming on it, is eliminated.

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clnozSXyF4k

            Search for Stargate Studios Virtual Backlot

          • I’m sure that’s true, but I do know that for Chicago Fire (I think that’s the name; I’ve never seen the show, almost all the outside shots are filmed in Chicago. (I have a patient who has been working steadily on that show as a cameraman for a few years now.)

            But it is amazing what they can do with mapping images onto shapes. I suppose if they can do it with Leia’s and Tarkin’s faces in ROGUE ONE, they can do it with buildings a lot easier…

            • “But it is amazing what they can do with mapping images onto shapes. I suppose if they can do it with Leia’s and Tarkin’s faces in ROGUE ONE, they can do it with buildings a lot easier…”

              If only you knew …

              http://www.daz3d.com/headshop-oneclick-plugin-win

              Take a picture of someone and paste it on a body and away you go. (Yes, a little tweaking can make it look more lifelike, but even without you might be able to get people to say: “But he/she/I wasn’t there!” before they take a closer look.)

              Now a days you can believe nothing you might hear or see.

    • This year we were pretending that both the Bull and the Bears didn’t exist. And most years we don’t have to think about the White Sox that much either.

      And we do value our pizza and our Chicago-style hot dogs. And boats. And some pretty cool architecture, even the President-Elect Tower.

      But yeah, it’s not like there are no Barnes and Nobles in the city (though there aren’t a lot of them far as I can tell). An Amazon store will be great. When I’m anywhere near it, I will check it out routinely…

  5. I’ve been self-employed my entire life, so I can sympathize with anyone who tries to run a business. But why is a small company have an inherently greater right to survive and prosper?

  6. I don’t care about the “community.” I make my own community by the people I choose to closely associate with in varying circles. When I buy a book, I want a pleasant experience and I want low prices.

    If the bookstores they are offering as alternates pay their employees more in wages and benefits than Amazon, that would be ONE consideration.

    I”ll pay more for food that offers a qualitative difference: tastier, more wholesome, less full of additive and fillers, healthier/humanely-raised animal proteins, organic. I won’t pay more for the exact same thing at two different stores, just because it’s at a different store. If my fave free-range raised chicken eggs are 8.99 at A shop and 5.99 at B shop, I’m getting those eggs at B shop.

    Ditto books.

    Ultimately, I’m a consumer. Books are a product. I comparison shop. When I give to a charity, I get a tax-deduction. If they want me to treat the community bookstores like charities and pay more than I could somewhere else, I want a tax-deduction.

    • “When I give to a charity, I get a tax-deduction. If they want me to treat the community bookstores like charities and pay more than I could somewhere else, I want a tax-deduction.”

      I love this, Mirtika. My sentiments exactly.

      I’ve seen some desperate attempts to save community bookstores that involved guilt-tripping customers into buying books. When a business has to resort to guilt-tripping and shaming and borderline coercion, I look elsewhere. It’s not a fabulous business model.

  7. Clearly this Trib staffer rarely leaves the Loop. Chicago neighborhoods have “food deserts ” in which residents must travel a long way to find groceries that aren’t Pepsi and Cheetos. Does this writer really think bookstores flourish in these communities where it’s hard to score an orange? All the time I worked in the city, I saw no evidence that large chains or small stores were in Pilsen or Little Village in order to enhance the community.

  8. “…whatever it takes to maximize profits…” Except Amazon hasn’t been maximizing profits, they have been maximizing revenue and reinvesting in their business = low/negative profit.

    • Come on, you are expecting a person who thinks Chicago is a bastion of small businesses with no taint of Eeeevil Corporations to know the difference between profit and revenue?! What are you thinking, that he’ll consult a dictionary?

      /sarcasm

  9. I really don’t blame this guy for not wanting the Amazon bookstore to do well. He’s talking about Lakeview in Chicago, which really *does* have some wonderful independent bookstores–Unabridged Books, Bookman’s Corner, The Gallery… only to name a few. These bookstores are special, have character. If Amazon opened a bookstore in Wicker Park, I’d want to save Myopic Books. If they opened a store in Fort Wayne, IN, I’d want to save Hyde Books. They have community value.

    He brings up some valid points, but I think he misses the mark. Yes, okay, Amazon isn’t the nicest to its employees; sure, they aren’t as invested in the community as the independent stores. But the biggest reason is only touched upon (with the Walmart example): Amazon is playing the long game in which the consumer will ultimately lose.

    Why does a merchant show up and sell four books for the price of three? Why does it undercut competition? Why does it sell some of its devices at a loss? Why not make about the same profit as competitors and enjoy the extra money?

    Yes, Amazon can sell more this way… but it can also force competitors to close their doors. We’ve seen it with Walmart’s behavior. Borders has already gone the way of the dodo. B&N is fighting extinction. That’s the big guys dead or dying. Now it’s time to go after the little guys. The indie bookstores. And once that’s done, what reason will Amazon have to keep discounting so heavily? If they’re not undercutting a competitor, do you suppose they’ll keep prices low, even when they’ve cornered the market?

    Healthy competition keeps prices low for customers. Amazon is destroying its competition. Will those low prices remain? My guess is not. Will the store even remain in the community? Considering Walmart anecdotes, it’s not looking too good.

    If he wants to complain about anything, it should be about that… not that it would do any good. “Don’t buy this cheap book because it may result in expensive books years down the line” falls on deaf ears–consumers have shortsighted economic habits. It’s a losing battle. Can’t wait for the Trib’s companion article: “The Importance of Saving Up for the Future: Planning Ahead to Buy Full-Priced Books at Amazon, the Only Bookstore in Town.”

      • Hey, I’m not saying Amazon is all bad–I love what it’s done for indie authors, and the consumer has certainly benefited up until now.

        But it’d be naive not to watch very closely what happens. Antitrust investigations keep circling Amazon, and who knows whether there’s some merit there? An article on The Hill said:

        “Politicians on both sides have hammered Amazon recently for antitrust issues, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump.

        “Google, Apple and Amazon provide platforms that lots of companies depend on for survival,” Warren said during a speech in the Capitol in June. “But Google, Apple and Amazon also in many cases compete with those small companies so that platform can become a tool to snuff out competition.”

        … but hey, this is all just speculation.

        (Also, your ad hominem is showing. I thought people could have civil discussions here.)

        • Wow name dropping senator Elizabeth Warren like she doesn’t have an agenda. I think her views on corporations are so extreme that Stalin treated the farmers of Ukraine better. Just because a politician is grandstanding for his or her sound clip doesn’t mean there is any basis to the claim.

    • Amazon is playing the long game in which the consumer will ultimately lose.

      A commonly raised bit of FUD that does not hold true. Amazon is not Standard Oil, trying to run competitors out of business, then raise prices to the sky and use strong-arm tactics to keep competitors out of the marketplace. Amazon attracts market share with lower prices, (or at least the reputation of lower prices,) and would lose market share if they did not keep offering lower prices. Nice try.

      • But the price of oil dropped dramatically during the time when Standard Oil had a so-called ‘monopoly’. In fact, one of the complaints against Standard Oil was that they sold oil TOO CHEAP.

        There are only two ways to create a real monopoly:

        1. Sell things for less than the competition. Typically that happens because economies of scale mean the biggest organization has the lowest costs.
        2. Have the government put your competitors out of business.

        Only in the latter case can you artificially increase prices.

      • I didn’t assert that Amazon is Standard Oil. Or even that Amazon *is* a monopoly.

        Back in the 2000s, Borders was the only bookstore in my old neighborhood within 40 minutes. Back then, Amazon introduced the 4-for-3 promotion for nearly any mass market paperback I wanted to buy. It was a no-brainer. Why wouldn’t anyone want to save money?

        Naturally, the Borders in my neighborhood closed and everywhere in 2011, and B&N was on the back foot. Did you know that in 2012, the 4-for-3 promotion was then discontinued by Amazon? My choices, and for many others, were to either buy mass market paperbacks from Amazon at the same price as the bookstores but with no sales tax and free shipping to my door, or to drive 40+ minutes to the nearest bookstore.

        After Borders disappeared, 4-for-3 disappeared. Is it so unreasonable to watch for Amazon to possibly behave similarly as it destroys more competitors?

        Amazon has been destroying its competition, and it’s possible Amazon will use its position to do what it is in a corporation’s nature to do: profit. I’m not saying Amazon is all bad, or that this will definitely happen, but neither am I sticking my head in the sand.

        • I used to live in Kingsville TX (’89-95), tiny town, no bookstores worthy of the name. Every Friday my buddy and I would take turns driving ourselves to Corpus Christi where there was a Book Stop, nice store, plenty of computer books and sci-fi for our weekly pilgrimage — and it didn’t hurt that there was an E-Z’s right next door.

          Borders and other bookstores offered books for less and ran Book Stop out of business. B&N helped kill Borders by being there and cheaper. Now we hear moaning that it’s all Amazon’s fault that B&N is dying. And it’s by being better and cheaper. Sadly customer loyalty wasn’t enough to save Book Stop, or Borders, nor it seems B&N.

          Oh, while we’re in our ‘Amazon be the evil for selling things cheaper’ mode, let’s not forget they’re hurting traditional publishing where it counts — in the pocketbook. No, trad-pub is still getting every penny due them for every a/e/p/book sold, but Amazon is also letting indie/self publishers sell right next to them, and without the trad-pub overhead they can offer their a/e/p/books so much cheaper and still take home more that they would have if they’d been able to sign a trad-pub contract.

          “Amazon has been destroying its competition, and it’s possible Amazon will use its position to do what it is in a corporation’s nature to do: profit. I’m not saying Amazon is all bad, or that this will definitely happen, but neither am I sticking my head in the sand.”

          Ah, but your head is already firmly in the sand, because if Amazon somehow managed to kill off all their competitors and then jacked up their prices — then another will come along and undercut them. Or they’ll have a newer/faster/better way of delivery — just like Amazon did.

          It’s all on the wheel, it all comes around in cycles. The trick of course is knowing whether you should jump to a different wheel, which one — and when.

          • 75% of all Borders were within one mile of a B&N.
            Obviously those towns weren’t big enough for both.

    • What I expect of Amazon in the future or at least hope is that it will continue to be the rational player it is today. Amazon prices its own books and encorages its authors authors to price their books at the point where revenue is maximised. No rubbish about devaluing books or pretending they are not products but somehow above the sordid commercial world. Just finding the point where total revenue and profit is maximised. Which is far less than the sky high prices the tradpub oligopoly set and still clings to. Yes, an Amazon without effective competition could follow the lead of the oligopoly. But their market, revenue and profits would all decline. It has become quite apparent tha sales of books are price sensitive.

  10. When I read these articles about Amazon putting small, local, business out of business, they never mention all of the small, local, business people who earn a living via Amazon. Not just authors, but thousands and thousands of vendors and all of the people they employ. Amazon isn’t just warehouses and corporate offices.

  11. Makes me feel like visiting Chicago just to buy from Amazon’s physical store. Fortunately I don’t have to.

    My prediction? Amazon Books is going to do very well. The way newspapers are going it may still be there when the Tribune is history.

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