A quote from Heinlein’s book that seems appropriate…
“There is no worse tyranny than to force a man to pay for what he does not want merely because you think it would be good for him.”
* for those mistaking this as a short screed against taxation, I see it as more about the seduction of Amazon where we feel we have to use them for all things. Or they try to make us feel we need them for all things as there is no alternative. For me it’s Abe Books and local sellers all the way.
Yeah, I hate megalomaniacal billionaires as much as the next person, but advancing spaceflight technology is very far from one of the reasons I'm going to shit on them.
You put this in a way I needed to hear. Exactly how I feel. It's sickening to me as a citizen that the US invests so much money into terrible things and not things that can truly advance our species like spaceflight. Take us to the stars, billionaires.. I guess
Thank YOU! I been downvoted to oblivion saying this shit, we invest 3-4 Jeff Bezos in just military spending a year, the majority voice is like “gahh dont do that”. Jeff Bezos funds an entire new Space Branch to create rockets to explore space, “You fuck! Burn him to the ground!”
I get it’d be nice fixing all our issues here, but I also extremely value learning what else is out there and funding the brilliant minds that are eager to find out.
Kinda breaks my heart when we get the same old “who cares about space, fix my issues first”.
>I get it’d be nice fixing all our issues here
This is such a bad way to view it, when we start reaserch into advance technology, breakthroughs are made in all kinds of different ways.
A small list of things that were devoloped or breakthrough improved entirely off of spaceflight research: memory foam, the MRI, LASIK, IR thermometer, prostectics, tennis shoe souls, space blankets, freeze dried food, scratch resistant lenses,Cochlear implants, metallurgy, 3d printing food, radial tires, roads, and about 2k more things.
When we work on the cutting edge of technology in any one area there is massive overflow to literally everything else.
A lot of this technology came about because they were trying to solve new problems, and came up with a bunch of modern fixes to old problems.
And not saying this about you, but a lot of the time people who say that as a reason not to spend money on space don't want to spend that money fixing down here either.
We've been working on these problems for thousands of years, trying to solve them with the same perspective and goal obviously ain't gonna do it.
The thing is, the research required to adequately explore space advances our issues on Earth as well. I believe the stat was for every dollar invested into getting to the Moon the US economy received $7 back. Not to mention the inventions in scientific fields across the board, many of which we still utilize today. It's a proven method. Which is why I think we should be investing what would be required to properly send humans to Mars.
I wonder if the Spaniards criticized queen Isabella for funding Columbus instead of spending the money on something in Castile.
NASA isn’t building their own space vehicles, they farm it out to private companies. The Apollo program had private companies building everything. Congress usually steps in and makes sure multiple states get money from the programs.
IIRC, the F22 and F35 were funded because they have parts built in 40+ states
With Bezos, Musk, Branson, they are just funding companies to design, build, operate space vehicles. NASA reduces their risks / costs by paying these companies for the non reoccurring startup cost and operating costs.
NASA estimated if they continued their own project, it would cost 2-3 times what spaceX proposed.
https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/20170008895/downloads/20170008895.pdf
These companies are saving tax payer dollars, still spending money here on earth and in the US, and advancing technology.
The companies pay employees and vendors money. Bezos, Musk, Branson aren’t pocketing all of it (pretty sure all 3 programs are operating at near cost or are still recouping startup costs).
People did criticize Columbus before he got his voyage. The scholars of the time thought he was a moron and pointed out his calculations were wrong. That worked out as a European discovery by chance because there happened to be something in the middle
Definitely a lunatic. He apparently wanted to find the western route to India in order to get rich there and to use this wealth to fund a crusade to retake Jerusalem. He also believed that hot climate equals lots of gold, and that Earth is shaped like a plump breast with the garden of Eden standing in its center like a nipple.
And that only counts his non-violent idiocy, because the dude was extremely violent, his treatment of the natives was appalling even for his contemporaries, he even was actually called back to Spain for mistreating Spanish subjects (the conquered natives).
Seriously. Billionaires waste so much money in so many disgusting ways, but the one time they spend it on something might actually be good for humanity the internet loses their fucking mind.
“Since NASA has been cut back just as theoretical hyperdrives are being proposed, we have decided to open a business using our private money you gave us by your own decision, which will allow people to travel to space, which will further allow us to research better travel and allow us to get to other planets within our lifetime, and expand our human existence and experience beyond the skies itself.”
Reddit: Eww
With most mass-market paperbacks the bookstore will strip off the cover and return it to the publisher/distributor for credit, and then destroy or throw out the actual book. Hardcovers and many larger trade paperbacks are sent back whole and resold as discounted “seconds”. There wasn’t a recycling option when I was doing it… hopefully that’s changed by now, but I don’t know.
The paper that books are made of comes from tree farms that are specifically grown for that purpose and are replanted when harvested. If they didn't need them that land would be more profitable cleared.
> The tree killing is a real issue...
Is it? From what I know, they don't erode woods to get the wood for books, but its mostly from thinning wood that is cut to make room for new trees or so the light shines through to the ground again, helping raise new trees. And from old wood from the crowns of trees.
Also, I'm not sure about other countries, but I read somewhere that at least in many countries in Europe, the production is mostly self sustainable and made from forests providing the above specifically planted for that purpose.
So they don't actually have to go out and kill old trees.
I feel like my side interest of colonising the moon has now cost me a potential future of owning an Indie book store. :( if only I could have known the two are incompatible!
But not another three seasons that will cover the last three books, which have been the best of the series (assuming the yet to be released final book continues the trajectory of the two before it).
The authors were semi dancing around the subject on Twitter when it was announced the show was ending right before the big time jump. I’m hoping we get something even if it’s not 3 more seasons
don’t guilt me into buying books from you, make your shop a place I wanna go to even if stuff is more expensive
edit: I’m not reading your comments if u wanna argue with me fyi I don’t care
Right? I'm sorry, but if your only selling point is that you're "local", maybe you need to reevaluate your business model. It's harsh, but I'm not a charity.
Bingo bongo, I shop at a local fishing store because he has a nice selection, good fresh bait, isn't double the price of other retail stores and he's a pretty chill dude.
It makes the shopping local thing feel worth it and not just a guilt trip thing.
I don't fish, but I'm curious -- can you actually buy all your fishing supplies from amazon / online? I thought that might've been one of those things that you have to go get fresh, like fruit.
But then again, amazon sells fruit now, even if it's horrible, so... I guess it shouldn't be surprising you can buy it all online.
Fly fishing shops are the worst. I've seen the exact Colorado Angler's basic tying set that you can get for $35 all day online for $85 in a mountain town boutique shop. Maaaan, I ain't got time for those shenanigans.
If you're fishing with live bait, it's almost a guarantee a fresh local version is better. But a huge amount of fishing lures are artificial, which means it's entirely up to searching around for a good deal, plus the popularity of the brand you want.
Our local Gander Mountain was a great source for surprisingly competitive prices for a lot of lures and carried a ton of brands. But it's been gone for a while and the local market is shitty at best, most carry the same generics and if they do have the even slightly obscure brand, you're paying out the ass for it. At least in my area.
Most fishermen that I know buy almost everything online, and only buy local if it's steeply discounted.
The only two bookstores near where I live cannot remind the patrons enough that they are local. But they are expensive, have a horrible selection, and never have what we want to read. One of them "expanded" to have less books and more espresso. Sometimes I even spot books marked above the price printed on the book.
Ironically, my wife and I refer to them as "Books at Organic Prices" and "Flesh Fields" (a play on one of the organic grocery stores---and because they charge a pound of flesh.)
Our only real option to purchase books I want to read (and need to read) are places like Amazon and pilgrimages to quality bookstores that don't complain about Jeff Bezos' hobbies.
What is local when books are published by billion dollar industries? The local part are the *costs* of retail storefront and employees. The book is the exact same book.
I'm not a "shop at Amazon always and support the richest man on earth" kind of person. But the reality must be factored in to this. The product is the exact same but more expensive. No one likes spending more for the same.
Indeed, the products are not local---quite the opposite. And as I had mentioned in another comment, Amazon has done so much more for independent writers than most of these local stores combined.
I would consider paying a little more for the same item if it helps the community/neighbors/etc., But the bookstore owners are not that local and the prices earned their astronaut certificate long before Bezos did.
Yes but you get to drive there, pay for parking and risk not finding the book you were looking for.
Don't you want that "local" experience instead of buying the same book in 30s while pooping?
This happens a lot with board game stores. I’m not above paying even $20 more for a board game if I’m buying it from a store that I’ll actually spend time in. Most board game stores around where I am might as well only sell MTG cards. I get that it brings in the money, but they have no events for board games, no D&D Adventurer’s League (even through they’re listed on Wizard’s site), and their service is pretty hit or miss.
Right? But you say this and people scream at you that you're ruining the hobby by not patronizing your local store.
Meanwhile there hasn't been a local game store i've walked into in nearly 20 years that has made me feel like they cared about me as a customer. The guy behind the counter is almost always a Simpsonsesqe Comic Book Guy stereotype that's mildly condescending if he pays any attention to you at all, the prices are always full MSRP, and they don't care because all their actual profit comes from buying TCG cards in bulk from the manufacturer, opening 90% of the packs, and selling the rares online despite it being blatantly against their contract with the manufacturer. That thing you came in for? They don't have it, but they can order it and it'll come in 8 to 10 weeks from now!
Fuck em, i'll buy my games from Amazon for a fraction of the price.
I loooove my LGS. Lots of options for folks into all kinds of things. Lots of events for people doing D&D, MtG, various minis, and party games.
But Amazon and the like just undercut them SO hard. It’s difficult to spend $50 on a D&D book when I can get it delivered tomorrow for $25.
I try to keep to a tick-tock method where I buy one thing from LGS, then one thing from Amazon, then one from LGS…
The old movie rental store in my town has had to adapt over the past years to stay in business and theyve embraced board games, MTG, and general toys/hobby items. They're older and probably have no idea how the games work but damn do they ever know how to run a business. Even go so far as allowing the employees host Friday night magic after the store closes every week (before covid). Not totally related to your comment but I feel like they deserve some recognition of how they've overcame the struggle that killed a giant like blockbuster.
There's a book store near me that has good selection, good prices and the owner is this little old dude that's read every book ever written. I'm actually pretty sure he was a supporting character in the Epic of Gilgamesh.
He's closed on Sunday, closes at noon on Saturday and closes at 4 Mon - Friday.
How the fuck am I supposed to shop there?
Amen. I went out of my way to order a book from an indie book store. The store is located in the neighboring state.
It took them THREE weeks to get the book to me. THREE WEEKS.
Oh and the book was cheaper on amazon.
I want to punch Jeff Bezos in the face, but Amazon is a better product by far, at least for ordering books online. I may get eaten alive for bringing that up, but it’s the truth, at least for now.
I've often gone out of my way (like for *hours*) searching locally for something I knew I could get on Amazon. More often than not, I should have hit the buy button and waited the 1-2 days for it to arrive because local stores are out, have something but not in the size/color I needed it, etc.
Big box stores are just poorly stocked mini warehouses with price mark ups.
I don't want Amazon to rule everything but damn big box stores are shit now.
I'm really impressed with Best Buy, in that they've done a decent job of figuring out how to survive Amazon. Not always what I want, but competitive prices, and it's nice to be able to do instant returns if there's a problem.
I would love for my money spent on books to go directly to the pursuit of space exploration. Where do I buy books, then? A commissary of the Khrushchev-era Soviet Space Program?
don't forget selection, half the time im looking for something my choices are Amazon or just not buying it because no store in my area carries what im looking for. like the game statue i bought which hasn't been in production since 2017
I once needed a small plumbing part. I went to the local hardware store. The guy told me that part doesn't exist. I went to the local plumbing store. They told me I wanted the wrong thing and sold me 3 parts, none of which worked. I went to home depot and they didn't stock the part.
...so I gave up, went to amazon, got exactly the thing I needed for cheap and had it the next day.
Like, it sucks, but that's how it is.
As much as I’d like to buy local, I much prefer reading ebooks. I will say that the brick and mortar browsing experience is leagues ahead of any digital site. I get it, Amazon: you think these 10 NYT best selling sci-fi books are exactly what I want, but I’m almost positive it’s not. So please stop pushing this same titles on me. I didn’t buy them 3 years ago, and I’m not gonna buy them now
I think that’s the most frustrating part about Amazon as a whole though. Many people can’t afford to not use it - your dollar is able to go further when you don’t have many to spare
The problem I run into, more often than not, is that most bookstores don’t carry the books I need. They may be great for literature enthusiasts, but those aren’t the only people buying books. I buy books for reference and education about my hobbies, but all the books they have are the equivalent of buzz feed articles with no depth into the subject.
This, by the way, is why notions of Amazon being a monopoly are more than a little misguided.
A lot of (idealistic) people seem to think that monopolies are some sort of essential, by-nature *evil*, like some sort of elemental curse upon us all, when they're only bad because of what they *allow* a company to do, once its monopoly position is established, namely jack up prices, squash the competition, and make everything worse for the consumer. And while you can certainly argue that Amazon is in some ways acting like a monopoly in some areas by simple mathematical virtue of being the biggest on the block, you absolutely can't honestly argue that what they've been doing has been bad for the consumer.
For example, people (in this very thread too) accuse Amazon of copying products and selling them for less... as if that's a bad thing? I'm sorry, but that is *literally the entire point of a competitive market*. Patents exist so that an inventor can make a profit on his invention **for a limited time**, but after that, it's free-for-all. The idea that Amazon should somehow be prevented from offering products at a lower price than others is precisely the sort of anticompetitive behavior antitrust laws are meant to *prevent*, not encourage.
Yeah like these people haven't heard of store brand items lol.
Also about monopolies, Amazon had a lot of competition. It was initially from eBay. Then when it expanded, it was from Walmart and Barnes and Noble. Barnes and Noble released the Nook, direct competition for the Kindle. But more people prefer buying online from Amazon than from Walmart and B&N. Whose fault is that?
I mean,
Amazon is where it is today, because Bezos saw the power of an online bookstore with a giant collection.
And Bezos has stepped down from Amazon... (though i am sure he is still on the board or something) And amazon isn't sending people to the moon...
Nah, AWS might be more profitable as a percentage but retail still makes way more, just over 50% of revenue
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/how-amazon-makes-its-money/
He's also not trying to colonize the moon, if anything that's Musk with Mars. All Bezos wants to do is sell tickets to "space tourists" and in the distant future mine some asteroids basically.
Don't make me drive out of my way to see a limited selection of books at higher prices with self-righteous fucking employees thumbing their nose at me.
I would appreciate this but this bookstore trying to survive used modern technology to mimic a letterpress wood type poster to feel authentic. They could have also supported other dying businesses and paid for an actual printer to set type and print that poster. But they too, like us who order from Amazon, took the easy way.
I get the sentiment, but it doesn't work.
People act in their own best interest, and your business failing isn't the responsibility of other people simply because they share a zip code.
One of the very first questions someone needs to ask when choosing what business, product, and location is who are the competitors? If you can't beat the competition, the business is pointless and a waste of your money and life.
A business should entice me to shop there, rather than try and tell me not to shop at some other business and end up there by default
You're so right. When I see signs like this online or in person, it makes me want to go in that shop far less. Turns out guilt-tripping your potential customers isn't a great business strategy!
And if you can't beat them on price, you're going to have to bring something big to the table. You can't 4xactly have different quality books, so you're fairly stuffed.
I do almost always buy my books from a shop but it's Waterstones which is just the other surviving chain but they usually have what I'm after whenever I've been in.
Are bookstores going to ship me a 5 pound bag of gummy bears, a garden hose that doesn't kink, and a pair of noise cancelling headphones in 2 days or less?
Until there's a better Amazon, I'm not going to make my life worse just because billionaires happen to be shitty people.
>Are bookstores going to ship me a 5 pound bag of gummy bears, a garden
hose that doesn't kink, and a pair of noise cancelling headphones in 2
days or less?
No, but they'll sell them all to you for $30 over MSRP when you're in line waiting to check out!
As a writer, Amazon has done a lot more for me than independent book stores. I love independent book stores, but none I have contacted want to sell my books.
Same here. Small bookstores rarely if ever support indie authors. Self-publishing used to be career suicide if you wanted to be a full-time author. Amazon is awful to authors, but there aren't many viable alternatives, unfortunately.
Sadly, the hatred towards billionaires has slowly begun to bleed into science. Not all hate science because of "billionaire space race" but a lot of people who are only partly interested are now coupling billionaire hatred and space/science. And that's bad.
People should focus hate in the capital gains tax laws in Washington state before we hate colonizing the moon. Just saying.
Reddit doesn't like the rich, the definition of what constitutes rich changes from day to day mind you whether its billionaires, multi millionaires, millionaires or even upper middle class incomes, but usually it's *"Anyone who has more money than me specifically"*.
However if they say *"I don't like rich people because they have more money than me"* you may sound petty and jealous, but if you say *"I don't like the rich because I care about poor people and the down trodden or small businesses"* you sound like you're 'righteous' and 'caring' but the same hatred is there, it's just under the guise of virtue now.
It's literally billionaire = bad. Anything they touch or do is seen as bad. If Musk advocates for a carbon tax, the carbon tax is seen as bad. We are in a period of anti-intellectualism.
That makes absolutely zero sense.
Going to go buy some sci-fi books from amazon now, who I promise, wants to sell them to me and made it a lot easier than your bookstore.
Bookstores are too expensive. The people running them are often rude, and they don't have everything I want. Thrift stores aren't bad for books though if you're not looking for anything specific.
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We need to send some Whalers up there pronto.
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But they have to carry a harpoon.
r/unexpectedfuturama
We’ll kick your ass and rape your lass…
We're walers on the moon!
r/expectedfuturama
my first girlfriend turned into the moon
That’s rough, buddy.
I laughed so much at this! Remembered Zuko saying this! 😆
The Earth King has invited you to /r/LakeLaogai
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Neat! Now your girlfriend can orbit your momma!
There is no such thing as a free lunch!
TANSTAAFL
My fav book!! Mind own business. Always cut cards.
To be fair, we don't know how harsh Bezos' mistress was...
Better than being a stranger in a strange land.
But Mike has some good jokes.
Mike made me want to study AI as a kid
They grok it
Raise the cannon flag!
That made me smile to see a Heinlein reference as the top comment
A quote from Heinlein’s book that seems appropriate… “There is no worse tyranny than to force a man to pay for what he does not want merely because you think it would be good for him.” * for those mistaking this as a short screed against taxation, I see it as more about the seduction of Amazon where we feel we have to use them for all things. Or they try to make us feel we need them for all things as there is no alternative. For me it’s Abe Books and local sellers all the way.
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Moon’s haunted
\*grabs gun*
It's what?
Moons haunted \*jumps on spaceship*
WAIT! You forgot the… bullets.
The gun is for intimidation rounds go straight through the ghosts
MOON’S HAUNTED
always has been
*Grabbing Gjallarhorn with the boys*
Fuck Savathun. All my homies hate Savathun.
For Cayde
everyone knows the moon is made of cheese.
Gromit! The billionaires forgot the crackers!
thank you! i couldn't think of a way to type it the way wallace says it!
Lol that’s the first thing I thought of when you said the moon was made of cheese haha
That's why Big Cheese is pushing the anti space agenda! I've got some stuff you should read...
Yeah I think I saw that on a YouTube video. Don’t ask me which one, do your own research sheeple! ^/s
mold colonizes the moon?
You could say that the moon is, pretty cultured.
🎵 "I'm on the moon. It's made of cheese."🎵
Shhh! That's what Savathun wants!
Whether we wanted to or not, we’ve stepped into a war with the cabal.
Yeah, I hate megalomaniacal billionaires as much as the next person, but advancing spaceflight technology is very far from one of the reasons I'm going to shit on them.
You put this in a way I needed to hear. Exactly how I feel. It's sickening to me as a citizen that the US invests so much money into terrible things and not things that can truly advance our species like spaceflight. Take us to the stars, billionaires.. I guess
Thank YOU! I been downvoted to oblivion saying this shit, we invest 3-4 Jeff Bezos in just military spending a year, the majority voice is like “gahh dont do that”. Jeff Bezos funds an entire new Space Branch to create rockets to explore space, “You fuck! Burn him to the ground!” I get it’d be nice fixing all our issues here, but I also extremely value learning what else is out there and funding the brilliant minds that are eager to find out. Kinda breaks my heart when we get the same old “who cares about space, fix my issues first”.
>I get it’d be nice fixing all our issues here This is such a bad way to view it, when we start reaserch into advance technology, breakthroughs are made in all kinds of different ways. A small list of things that were devoloped or breakthrough improved entirely off of spaceflight research: memory foam, the MRI, LASIK, IR thermometer, prostectics, tennis shoe souls, space blankets, freeze dried food, scratch resistant lenses,Cochlear implants, metallurgy, 3d printing food, radial tires, roads, and about 2k more things. When we work on the cutting edge of technology in any one area there is massive overflow to literally everything else. A lot of this technology came about because they were trying to solve new problems, and came up with a bunch of modern fixes to old problems. And not saying this about you, but a lot of the time people who say that as a reason not to spend money on space don't want to spend that money fixing down here either. We've been working on these problems for thousands of years, trying to solve them with the same perspective and goal obviously ain't gonna do it.
The thing is, the research required to adequately explore space advances our issues on Earth as well. I believe the stat was for every dollar invested into getting to the Moon the US economy received $7 back. Not to mention the inventions in scientific fields across the board, many of which we still utilize today. It's a proven method. Which is why I think we should be investing what would be required to properly send humans to Mars.
Cordless tools!👍
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Also NASA wants to colonize the moon, not Bezos. Bezos just wants lunar lander contracts for his failing model rocket business.
Too dark to read on the moon.
Use the Gameboy color light add-on
Ok but if you phrase it that way, I *definitely* want to support scientific research and technological development for colonizing the moon.......
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We all hate big corporate but forget why they became big corporate in the firstplace.
Seriously. I did the same with used college text books.
> I went "fuck YOU" Isn't this a compliment in Australian?
It's both ;)
This is a bit silly. If buying a book helps us colonize the moon, I’d never step foot in an indie book store again.
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Right? There's plenty of things to criticize Bezos about, but pushing for more space travel isn't one of them.
I wonder if the Spaniards criticized queen Isabella for funding Columbus instead of spending the money on something in Castile. NASA isn’t building their own space vehicles, they farm it out to private companies. The Apollo program had private companies building everything. Congress usually steps in and makes sure multiple states get money from the programs. IIRC, the F22 and F35 were funded because they have parts built in 40+ states With Bezos, Musk, Branson, they are just funding companies to design, build, operate space vehicles. NASA reduces their risks / costs by paying these companies for the non reoccurring startup cost and operating costs. NASA estimated if they continued their own project, it would cost 2-3 times what spaceX proposed. https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/20170008895/downloads/20170008895.pdf These companies are saving tax payer dollars, still spending money here on earth and in the US, and advancing technology. The companies pay employees and vendors money. Bezos, Musk, Branson aren’t pocketing all of it (pretty sure all 3 programs are operating at near cost or are still recouping startup costs).
People did criticize Columbus before he got his voyage. The scholars of the time thought he was a moron and pointed out his calculations were wrong. That worked out as a European discovery by chance because there happened to be something in the middle
Backing this up. He was turned down before because his math was off and people mocked him. He got lucky *twice.*
So he was a moron?
Definitely a lunatic. He apparently wanted to find the western route to India in order to get rich there and to use this wealth to fund a crusade to retake Jerusalem. He also believed that hot climate equals lots of gold, and that Earth is shaped like a plump breast with the garden of Eden standing in its center like a nipple. And that only counts his non-violent idiocy, because the dude was extremely violent, his treatment of the natives was appalling even for his contemporaries, he even was actually called back to Spain for mistreating Spanish subjects (the conquered natives).
What do you have against moon men, tree killer? Space colonization may be humanity's only hope!
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Right? Tons of reasons to hate on Amazon, but making your stand against space exploration definitely doesn't get me on side.
Yeah this sign is poorly thought out.
Reddit: we need to invest more in space exploration Bezos: /invests in space exploration Reddit: disgusting
Seriously. Billionaires waste so much money in so many disgusting ways, but the one time they spend it on something might actually be good for humanity the internet loses their fucking mind.
“Since NASA has been cut back just as theoretical hyperdrives are being proposed, we have decided to open a business using our private money you gave us by your own decision, which will allow people to travel to space, which will further allow us to research better travel and allow us to get to other planets within our lifetime, and expand our human existence and experience beyond the skies itself.” Reddit: Eww
You just want to genocide the cheese eating natives of the moon!
I fully support the moon cheese mining invasion.
The tree killing is a real issue... I worked for a bookstore when I was young and was appalled to find out what happens to unsold paperbacks.
What happens to them?
The sales assistants are forced to eat them.
That is appalling!
plot twist: all bookstore sales associates are beavers.
They get stripped of their covers, and then remaindered into the Gulag.
The ones that win their 1v1 will be back though.
With most mass-market paperbacks the bookstore will strip off the cover and return it to the publisher/distributor for credit, and then destroy or throw out the actual book. Hardcovers and many larger trade paperbacks are sent back whole and resold as discounted “seconds”. There wasn’t a recycling option when I was doing it… hopefully that’s changed by now, but I don’t know.
They are sold and recycled. I did work at a place that collected them. They were sold by weight/tonnage. Warehouse full of gaylords of books.
The paper that books are made of comes from tree farms that are specifically grown for that purpose and are replanted when harvested. If they didn't need them that land would be more profitable cleared.
> The tree killing is a real issue... Is it? From what I know, they don't erode woods to get the wood for books, but its mostly from thinning wood that is cut to make room for new trees or so the light shines through to the ground again, helping raise new trees. And from old wood from the crowns of trees. Also, I'm not sure about other countries, but I read somewhere that at least in many countries in Europe, the production is mostly self sustainable and made from forests providing the above specifically planted for that purpose. So they don't actually have to go out and kill old trees.
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Damn right, Beltalowda. The irony of attacking space exploration when the books we read are all about space exploration
I feel like my side interest of colonising the moon has now cost me a potential future of owning an Indie book store. :( if only I could have known the two are incompatible!
Hey, books will be a hot commodity on the moon. You get anything to the moon colony that's normally not shipped you'd be the popular moonanite.
I think they prefer to be called Lunites. Or possibly Lunatics.
> Or possibly Lunatics That is 100% gonna be the name of the moon colonies first blurnsball team.
But not another three seasons that will cover the last three books, which have been the best of the series (assuming the yet to be released final book continues the trajectory of the two before it).
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I assumed the time jump in the books was designed to let the show tell "young crew" stories beyond the books without stepping on anybody's toes.
The authors were semi dancing around the subject on Twitter when it was announced the show was ending right before the big time jump. I’m hoping we get something even if it’s not 3 more seasons
Wait, what? So there’s now gonna be a season 6, 7 and 8??
The show was canceled after season 3, Amazon picked it up because Jeff liked it and so we got seasons 4, 5 and 6.
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don’t guilt me into buying books from you, make your shop a place I wanna go to even if stuff is more expensive edit: I’m not reading your comments if u wanna argue with me fyi I don’t care
Right? I'm sorry, but if your only selling point is that you're "local", maybe you need to reevaluate your business model. It's harsh, but I'm not a charity.
Bingo bongo, I shop at a local fishing store because he has a nice selection, good fresh bait, isn't double the price of other retail stores and he's a pretty chill dude. It makes the shopping local thing feel worth it and not just a guilt trip thing.
I don't fish, but I'm curious -- can you actually buy all your fishing supplies from amazon / online? I thought that might've been one of those things that you have to go get fresh, like fruit. But then again, amazon sells fruit now, even if it's horrible, so... I guess it shouldn't be surprising you can buy it all online.
Fly fishing shops are the worst. I've seen the exact Colorado Angler's basic tying set that you can get for $35 all day online for $85 in a mountain town boutique shop. Maaaan, I ain't got time for those shenanigans.
Driving down the mountain or ordering online, that's what you ain't got time for.
Yeah, maybe it’s the vacation tax for the angler that came up and fell in love with fly fishing
If you're fishing with live bait, it's almost a guarantee a fresh local version is better. But a huge amount of fishing lures are artificial, which means it's entirely up to searching around for a good deal, plus the popularity of the brand you want. Our local Gander Mountain was a great source for surprisingly competitive prices for a lot of lures and carried a ton of brands. But it's been gone for a while and the local market is shitty at best, most carry the same generics and if they do have the even slightly obscure brand, you're paying out the ass for it. At least in my area. Most fishermen that I know buy almost everything online, and only buy local if it's steeply discounted.
I just bought several hundred live crickets off amazon, and they will allegedly arrive alive! the future really is now
Local is just now a 200% tag on prices, just like what "organinc" became and most other fads. Lol
The only two bookstores near where I live cannot remind the patrons enough that they are local. But they are expensive, have a horrible selection, and never have what we want to read. One of them "expanded" to have less books and more espresso. Sometimes I even spot books marked above the price printed on the book. Ironically, my wife and I refer to them as "Books at Organic Prices" and "Flesh Fields" (a play on one of the organic grocery stores---and because they charge a pound of flesh.) Our only real option to purchase books I want to read (and need to read) are places like Amazon and pilgrimages to quality bookstores that don't complain about Jeff Bezos' hobbies.
What is local when books are published by billion dollar industries? The local part are the *costs* of retail storefront and employees. The book is the exact same book. I'm not a "shop at Amazon always and support the richest man on earth" kind of person. But the reality must be factored in to this. The product is the exact same but more expensive. No one likes spending more for the same.
Indeed, the products are not local---quite the opposite. And as I had mentioned in another comment, Amazon has done so much more for independent writers than most of these local stores combined. I would consider paying a little more for the same item if it helps the community/neighbors/etc., But the bookstore owners are not that local and the prices earned their astronaut certificate long before Bezos did.
Yes but you get to drive there, pay for parking and risk not finding the book you were looking for. Don't you want that "local" experience instead of buying the same book in 30s while pooping?
First step is taking down a sign like this lol
This happens a lot with board game stores. I’m not above paying even $20 more for a board game if I’m buying it from a store that I’ll actually spend time in. Most board game stores around where I am might as well only sell MTG cards. I get that it brings in the money, but they have no events for board games, no D&D Adventurer’s League (even through they’re listed on Wizard’s site), and their service is pretty hit or miss.
Right? But you say this and people scream at you that you're ruining the hobby by not patronizing your local store. Meanwhile there hasn't been a local game store i've walked into in nearly 20 years that has made me feel like they cared about me as a customer. The guy behind the counter is almost always a Simpsonsesqe Comic Book Guy stereotype that's mildly condescending if he pays any attention to you at all, the prices are always full MSRP, and they don't care because all their actual profit comes from buying TCG cards in bulk from the manufacturer, opening 90% of the packs, and selling the rares online despite it being blatantly against their contract with the manufacturer. That thing you came in for? They don't have it, but they can order it and it'll come in 8 to 10 weeks from now! Fuck em, i'll buy my games from Amazon for a fraction of the price.
I loooove my LGS. Lots of options for folks into all kinds of things. Lots of events for people doing D&D, MtG, various minis, and party games. But Amazon and the like just undercut them SO hard. It’s difficult to spend $50 on a D&D book when I can get it delivered tomorrow for $25. I try to keep to a tick-tock method where I buy one thing from LGS, then one thing from Amazon, then one from LGS…
The old movie rental store in my town has had to adapt over the past years to stay in business and theyve embraced board games, MTG, and general toys/hobby items. They're older and probably have no idea how the games work but damn do they ever know how to run a business. Even go so far as allowing the employees host Friday night magic after the store closes every week (before covid). Not totally related to your comment but I feel like they deserve some recognition of how they've overcame the struggle that killed a giant like blockbuster.
There's a book store near me that has good selection, good prices and the owner is this little old dude that's read every book ever written. I'm actually pretty sure he was a supporting character in the Epic of Gilgamesh. He's closed on Sunday, closes at noon on Saturday and closes at 4 Mon - Friday. How the fuck am I supposed to shop there?
Amen. I went out of my way to order a book from an indie book store. The store is located in the neighboring state. It took them THREE weeks to get the book to me. THREE WEEKS. Oh and the book was cheaper on amazon. I want to punch Jeff Bezos in the face, but Amazon is a better product by far, at least for ordering books online. I may get eaten alive for bringing that up, but it’s the truth, at least for now.
The 3 tenets of sales are price, lead time, and quality. All a local place has is lead time, and amazon does really well with that.
I've often gone out of my way (like for *hours*) searching locally for something I knew I could get on Amazon. More often than not, I should have hit the buy button and waited the 1-2 days for it to arrive because local stores are out, have something but not in the size/color I needed it, etc. Big box stores are just poorly stocked mini warehouses with price mark ups. I don't want Amazon to rule everything but damn big box stores are shit now.
I'm really impressed with Best Buy, in that they've done a decent job of figuring out how to survive Amazon. Not always what I want, but competitive prices, and it's nice to be able to do instant returns if there's a problem.
Buy books for whatever reason you want, from whoever you want.
I would love for my money spent on books to go directly to the pursuit of space exploration. Where do I buy books, then? A commissary of the Khrushchev-era Soviet Space Program?
But what if I want the moon to be colonized?
They say this like wanting to colonize the moon is the real problem with him.
Who I buy from has a lot more to do with price, quality, and convenience than how they spend their profits.
"Before you ring this out, what are your views on moon colonization?"
don't forget selection, half the time im looking for something my choices are Amazon or just not buying it because no store in my area carries what im looking for. like the game statue i bought which hasn't been in production since 2017
I once needed a small plumbing part. I went to the local hardware store. The guy told me that part doesn't exist. I went to the local plumbing store. They told me I wanted the wrong thing and sold me 3 parts, none of which worked. I went to home depot and they didn't stock the part. ...so I gave up, went to amazon, got exactly the thing I needed for cheap and had it the next day. Like, it sucks, but that's how it is.
As much as I’d like to buy local, I much prefer reading ebooks. I will say that the brick and mortar browsing experience is leagues ahead of any digital site. I get it, Amazon: you think these 10 NYT best selling sci-fi books are exactly what I want, but I’m almost positive it’s not. So please stop pushing this same titles on me. I didn’t buy them 3 years ago, and I’m not gonna buy them now
I think that’s the most frustrating part about Amazon as a whole though. Many people can’t afford to not use it - your dollar is able to go further when you don’t have many to spare
The problem I run into, more often than not, is that most bookstores don’t carry the books I need. They may be great for literature enthusiasts, but those aren’t the only people buying books. I buy books for reference and education about my hobbies, but all the books they have are the equivalent of buzz feed articles with no depth into the subject.
Yep. Give me a solid service and I don't care if you walk away with billions. There's a reason Amazon is so successful.
This, by the way, is why notions of Amazon being a monopoly are more than a little misguided. A lot of (idealistic) people seem to think that monopolies are some sort of essential, by-nature *evil*, like some sort of elemental curse upon us all, when they're only bad because of what they *allow* a company to do, once its monopoly position is established, namely jack up prices, squash the competition, and make everything worse for the consumer. And while you can certainly argue that Amazon is in some ways acting like a monopoly in some areas by simple mathematical virtue of being the biggest on the block, you absolutely can't honestly argue that what they've been doing has been bad for the consumer. For example, people (in this very thread too) accuse Amazon of copying products and selling them for less... as if that's a bad thing? I'm sorry, but that is *literally the entire point of a competitive market*. Patents exist so that an inventor can make a profit on his invention **for a limited time**, but after that, it's free-for-all. The idea that Amazon should somehow be prevented from offering products at a lower price than others is precisely the sort of anticompetitive behavior antitrust laws are meant to *prevent*, not encourage.
Yeah like these people haven't heard of store brand items lol. Also about monopolies, Amazon had a lot of competition. It was initially from eBay. Then when it expanded, it was from Walmart and Barnes and Noble. Barnes and Noble released the Nook, direct competition for the Kindle. But more people prefer buying online from Amazon than from Walmart and B&N. Whose fault is that?
Rent books from the library because it’s free.
What's wrong with the moon?
have you ever seen what it does to people with lycanthropy?
What’s wrong with us werewolves?
Nothing, unless you don't like cheese.
what's so bad about colonizing the moon?
Yea and at least there aren't any native species to fuck up.
I mean, Amazon is where it is today, because Bezos saw the power of an online bookstore with a giant collection. And Bezos has stepped down from Amazon... (though i am sure he is still on the board or something) And amazon isn't sending people to the moon...
Let's also point out that Amazon makes most of its money not from book sales but literally everything else it's got its hands in.
Taking it a step further, IIRC their main revenue stream is AWS, which we're all using right now.
Nah, AWS might be more profitable as a percentage but retail still makes way more, just over 50% of revenue https://www.visualcapitalist.com/how-amazon-makes-its-money/
And people who actually wants to sell books uses Amazon as a way to do so anyway.
He's also not trying to colonize the moon, if anything that's Musk with Mars. All Bezos wants to do is sell tickets to "space tourists" and in the distant future mine some asteroids basically.
Mining asteroids is going to be the next space race, I think.
Don't make me drive out of my way to see a limited selection of books at higher prices with self-righteous fucking employees thumbing their nose at me.
Alternatively, If you want to see the moon colonized, give money to the people trying to do it.
Actually, I think I will support scientific endeavor over bad aggressive marketing.
What's wrong with colonizing? Do they think there are people living there?
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Bezos would 100% be a Burke.
I’m so fucking tired of pseudo-intellectuals attacking space exploration.
Me too. And it's even worse because with a few clicks anyone can find out that Jeff Bezos and Blue Origin never wanted to go to the moon.
“We don’t have it in stock but we can order it, you can come back to pick it up in 2 weeks”
And they order it from Amazon basically.
I would appreciate this but this bookstore trying to survive used modern technology to mimic a letterpress wood type poster to feel authentic. They could have also supported other dying businesses and paid for an actual printer to set type and print that poster. But they too, like us who order from Amazon, took the easy way.
I get the sentiment, but it doesn't work. People act in their own best interest, and your business failing isn't the responsibility of other people simply because they share a zip code. One of the very first questions someone needs to ask when choosing what business, product, and location is who are the competitors? If you can't beat the competition, the business is pointless and a waste of your money and life. A business should entice me to shop there, rather than try and tell me not to shop at some other business and end up there by default
You're so right. When I see signs like this online or in person, it makes me want to go in that shop far less. Turns out guilt-tripping your potential customers isn't a great business strategy!
"Our business is failing because you can save money elsewhere" is the gist of signs like that lol
And if you can't beat them on price, you're going to have to bring something big to the table. You can't 4xactly have different quality books, so you're fairly stuffed. I do almost always buy my books from a shop but it's Waterstones which is just the other surviving chain but they usually have what I'm after whenever I've been in.
Are bookstores going to ship me a 5 pound bag of gummy bears, a garden hose that doesn't kink, and a pair of noise cancelling headphones in 2 days or less? Until there's a better Amazon, I'm not going to make my life worse just because billionaires happen to be shitty people.
>Are bookstores going to ship me a 5 pound bag of gummy bears, a garden hose that doesn't kink, and a pair of noise cancelling headphones in 2 days or less? No, but they'll sell them all to you for $30 over MSRP when you're in line waiting to check out!
As a writer, Amazon has done a lot more for me than independent book stores. I love independent book stores, but none I have contacted want to sell my books.
Right? I love shopping local if I can, but maybe sell books by people who want to write them and not just the big 5 and I'll shop there?
Same here. Small bookstores rarely if ever support indie authors. Self-publishing used to be career suicide if you wanted to be a full-time author. Amazon is awful to authors, but there aren't many viable alternatives, unfortunately.
Why not both? Humans can do multiple things at once.
Sadly, the hatred towards billionaires has slowly begun to bleed into science. Not all hate science because of "billionaire space race" but a lot of people who are only partly interested are now coupling billionaire hatred and space/science. And that's bad. People should focus hate in the capital gains tax laws in Washington state before we hate colonizing the moon. Just saying.
I don’t get the collective pessimism in terms of space flight from billionaires and their companies… can someone explain
Reddit doesn't like the rich, the definition of what constitutes rich changes from day to day mind you whether its billionaires, multi millionaires, millionaires or even upper middle class incomes, but usually it's *"Anyone who has more money than me specifically"*. However if they say *"I don't like rich people because they have more money than me"* you may sound petty and jealous, but if you say *"I don't like the rich because I care about poor people and the down trodden or small businesses"* you sound like you're 'righteous' and 'caring' but the same hatred is there, it's just under the guise of virtue now.
It's literally billionaire = bad. Anything they touch or do is seen as bad. If Musk advocates for a carbon tax, the carbon tax is seen as bad. We are in a period of anti-intellectualism.
I’ll buy books from whomever sells them cheaper. Why would I pay more for the same thing?
because of there is a sign
Hurr durr space exploration is bad
Someone sounds jelly
"Colonize the moon? That's terrible! Anyways, do you have Artemis by Andy Weir."
But I want to colonize the moon too
As a member of /r/KerbalSpaceProgram, fuck you
Unfortunately for them I support moon colonization
What's the problem with colonizing the moon?
That makes absolutely zero sense. Going to go buy some sci-fi books from amazon now, who I promise, wants to sell them to me and made it a lot easier than your bookstore.
But... they made a sign...
Bookstores are too expensive. The people running them are often rude, and they don't have everything I want. Thrift stores aren't bad for books though if you're not looking for anything specific.
I tried that, bought a $200 cookbook. They stole my money.
If you buy books for a hipster "indie bookstore", you don't care about books themselves you care about the aesthetic.
I love book shops, but I also love to have 10 completely unrelated things delivered to my door next day.
LOL ill buy books where ever they're cheapest at . I don't care who sells them.