Amazon To Close Book Depository Online Shop (theguardian.com) 24
The online shop Book Depository is due to close at the end of April, vendors and publishing partners have been told. This comes after the bookseller's parent company Amazon announced it had decided to "eliminate" a number of positions across its Devices and Books businesses. The Guardian reports: The Gloucester-based bookseller was founded in 2004 by Stuart Felton and Andrew Crawford, a former Amazon employee, with the mantra of "selling 'less of more' rather than'more of less'". It aimed to sell 6m titles covering a wide variety of genres and topics, as opposed to focusing solely on bestsellers. While originally a rival to Amazon, it was acquired by the retail giant in 2011, causing some in the publishing industry to worry about the tightening of the American company's "stranglehold" on the UK book trade.
According to the trade magazine the Bookseller, an email sent out to vendors and publishing partners explained that Book Depository will be closing, and that the last date customers will be able to place orders is 26 April. "Over the coming weeks we will complete a winding down of the business, including discontinuing our listings as a marketplace seller and closing our website," Andy Chart, head of vendor management, wrote. "I would like to take this opportunity to say a big thank you, from everyone at Book Depository and our book-loving customers, for your supportive partnership over the years in helping us to make printed books more accessible to readers around the world," he concluded.
According to the trade magazine the Bookseller, an email sent out to vendors and publishing partners explained that Book Depository will be closing, and that the last date customers will be able to place orders is 26 April. "Over the coming weeks we will complete a winding down of the business, including discontinuing our listings as a marketplace seller and closing our website," Andy Chart, head of vendor management, wrote. "I would like to take this opportunity to say a big thank you, from everyone at Book Depository and our book-loving customers, for your supportive partnership over the years in helping us to make printed books more accessible to readers around the world," he concluded.
That's too bad (Score:3)
I've bought a fair number of books from them (through Amazon.) Good prices and quick delivery, considering the stuff came from Blightly. I will definitely miss them!
(What other companies swallowed by Amazon will be shut down?)
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(What other companies swallowed by Amazon will be shut down?)
I assume you've already seen the news about DPReview. If you haven't: DPReview [dpreview.com].
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Yeah, that's exactly what I was thinking about. The forums on DPReview were particularly helpful in answering questions I posted there (with a relatively minimum amount of snark and pre-judgement.)
Box Office Mojo (Score:3)
(What other companies swallowed by Amazon will be shut down?)
Box Office Mojo still updates their numbers, but hasn't written an article since mid-January:
https://www.boxofficemojo.com/... [boxofficemojo.com]
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Me too. Same same.
Engineered Uncertainty (Score:3)
They keep saying "Economic Uncertainties", but all these companies seem to be doing it to themselves. The economy is recovering from a pandemic. Things are going to be a bit weird as the supply chains keep coming online.
Panicking and doing mass layoffs is a stupid thing to do, just exaggerating the effect of things trying to return to normal. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
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They keep saying "Economic Uncertainties", but all these companies seem to be doing it to themselves. The economy is recovering from a pandemic. Things are going to be a bit weird as the supply chains keep coming online.
Panicking and doing mass layoffs is a stupid thing to do, just exaggerating the effect of things trying to return to normal. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
But it was broke, according to most of these businesses. The FED is pushing for mass layoffs because big business owners didn't like the fact that unions were starting to gain traction, and even where they weren't, employees were starting to behave as if they felt they had some form of power, rather than dejected slaves. This is not acceptable to modern businesses, and the only cure is to continue smashing the public in the face with "ECONOMIC DOWNTURN, WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE" until we get the message and fall
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That's some atrocious crap right there, I don't care who you are.
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I don't think our government, nor the businessmen that tell them what to do, will be happy until there is no middle class. Once we're a country that can drop the charade and just be uber-wealthy as quasi-royalty and uber-poor as peasants? Maybe prices will drop again. Maybe.
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I’d start my own business tomorrow but the lack of health insurance isn’t worth the risk.
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Can't afford insurance anyway, so that'd be no deterrent for me. The bigger deterrent is I'm too tired to even take hobby time most days. How the fuck am I supposed to start my own business, even if I had an idea that was a money maker?
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That's besides the point. The only reason why Amazon buys these kinds of companies is that they offer a service that Amazon can't and won't offer. Then they close them down after a while. This ensures that Amazon is the only go-to place and that they only need to keep those products in stock that they can take margins on. Rinse and repeat.
This has nothing to do with middle class, or unions, or anything even vaguely connected to politics. It's the standard business model of these companies: buy and destroy
BookDepository is the first... (Score:5, Insightful)
...then Amazon will close other book shops they own, like the second-hand market AbeBooks (called IberLibro in Spain).
That happens when you have a monopoly...
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Truthfully, it also happens when your company's CEO (who was an avid book reader and started the whole company with book sales) is no longer in charge.
Amazon could literally shut down ALL of its mail order sales tomorrow and it would still be hugely profitable, based on everything the AWS division does (hosting servers world-wide for private businesses and government/military).
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Good thing Barnes and Nobles is still in business then.
Remember folks (Score:5, Insightful)
Consolidation is good. When your competitors can be bought out, prices naturally fall and better services are provided. Look at how well that's worked out for ISPs in the U.S., or even airlines.
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You mean competition is better if you create monopolies. Who knew?
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ISPs are already natural monopolies [wallstreetmojo.com] by virtue of geography.