Amazon? Whatever...

My attitude toward Amazon is probably a little unusual for an independent bookstore, but the truth is, we aren't a destination bookstore, we are a drop-in bookstore, and those are two different breeds of cats. I carry new bestsellers for those who happen upon them, but that is not my main focus. My main focus is on books that have a longer lifespan.

My job is to catch the customer finding a book they wouldn't find otherwise, or which they've always heard about, or which I can tell them is a "great" book.

So when I don't have a title, I'll often tell people, "That's where Amazon comes in." I mean, first I send them to other booksellers, especially Dudley's, down the street. But so many books that people want are mid-list books from a few years ago--the least likely for an independent bookstore to carry, but which Amazon probably does.

Perhaps strangely to my my customers, it's the big chainstores I don't like. Amazon wasn't really up and running when the chainstores came along and stomped on so many of my product lines. Toys, cards, games, and so on. That's where I saw the harm.

By the time the internet came along, I'd already made adjustments. 

It's the "click" phenomenon. I can't do anything about people who are willing to look something up on Amazon, click the buy button, and wait for the product to arrive.

It's the people who are browsing in a physical location that are my customers--and Barnes & Noble is more of a competition for them than Amazon. 

But the way it's worked out, even that isn't true anymore. I have so many newcomers and tourists and just drop-in traffic that 95% of my book sales aren't to people looking for a specific book.

Of course, the "single" book buyers are the hardest to satisfy. People are still unaware just how many titles are coming out and how unlikely it is that any store, including B & N, are to have what they are looking for unless it is new and popular.

So I have no trouble referring customers elsewhere. Often, if it's book that I think Pegasus should have, I'll tell them, "I'm ordering it. It will probably be in my store the next time you come in."

And finally, the real answer to why I can't upset by Amazon--because there isn't a damn thing I can do about it.