Where I live there is no bookstore with their web store within a close distance (it's greater than 30 minute drive). So, it's not an option. One bookstores within 30 minutes all have very limited selection essentially tied to those who live at the edge of suburbia and rural.

So, if I'm going to order online I'm happy to do it in a way that supports small bookstores.

I imagine there are others like me.

There needs to be some sort of shopify solution for Libary stacks and small bookstores

the bookshop.org site that the parent comment mentioned is an attempt at that solution

yeah that makes sense. some folks will find an independent store from far away and make that their "home" bookstore. powells is that for a lot of people

You have way more trust in people than I do. I don't think people would do anything if it meant just 0.1 more seconds of inconvenience.

I tried but local store really is much more expensive, like double or at least 50% - that is if they can even get it. I dont ever want to go there and browse, just buy some books. For me Amazon is sooo much easier and much cheaper as well, I wonder what the point of supporting local is for.

A site like Amazon is always going to be better than a local shop if you already know exactly what you want.

Local shops offer human curation instead of algorithmic recommendation, and create situations where you can stumble into something that you would have never even thought to search for.

If this isn't a way you like to shop that's fine of course, but it's something that a lot of other people enjoy. Personally, I loathe algorithms that recommend things to me based on what I've already consumed, and certainly hope we don't ever lose our local bookstores.

ditto this. amazon, in its current form, will never be able to emulate a brick and mortar bookstore. a dedicated staff with exceptional customer service will curate books and recommend books that an algorithm will never catch.

also, local bookstores tend be an integral part of the local, geographic community, where you can engage with likeminded folks who live nearby. amazon can't do that in 2020.

and, amazon has so much power that they force publishers to offer lower prices. that's bad for your margins if you're a publisher and causes the quality of book to go down since they're gonna want to sell more of what sells. what sells well doesn't necessarily mean better quality. i don't want the good publishers to go out of business.

and! amazon can't do readings and book signings. if you're not into that, then ok, but book signings are very important for a thriving literary culture.

keep buying on amazon if you want to save money but consider throwing a few bucks to your local independent from time to time, please

> I wonder what the point of supporting local is for.

It's arguably comparable to paying extra for fair trade products.

I'm not sure I agree. Fair trade is about paying people a higher rate; local bookstores seems more about paying for an extra service.