“Amazon is way cheaper.” A comment I was grateful to receive on a recent Instagram post.
It gave me the perfect opportunity to explain a few things.
First, let’s chat about books. You are correct; Amazon is way cheaper. Amazon is way cheaper than almost every other bookseller on the planet because they undercut the publishers’ recommended prices. They are so big that they can operate at a loss and they buy in such volume that their wholesale costs are lower than a regular bookseller’s.
Regular booksellers are not out to gouge anyone; we price according to the publishers’ prices, which leaves us with a pretty slim margin for a whole lot of effort spent choosing, cataloging, and promoting the books we sell. We do it because we’re passionate about books and platforming authors, not because we’re trying to be billionaires.
That’s just the books. What about the other items I sell? Candles, tea, incense… these are all handmade, unique products created by me or other artisans. We have material costs. We deserve to be paid for our labour. The end product that you get to enjoy is of higher quality and a more ethical source than anything you get on Amazon. So yes, again, you are correct that Amazon is way cheaper if what you’re after is mass-produced crap made by people in horrible working conditions.
I get that not everyone is able to afford to shop small all the time, but buying everything on Amazon only feeds the monster that is destroying our planet and does nothing to support real people who are trying to build better alternatives. In small businesses like mine, it’s not just me who benefits when customers shop small, it’s all the individual makers whose work I carry and the authors whose books I promote. It’s a whole ecosystem of actual people who are supported, not a giant corporation that treats humans like robots and our planet like a vending machine.
I hope that clears things up.