‘Swallows up competition’: Galway bookshop ‘fearful’ for sector’s future ahead of Amazon.ie launch
by Ok-Yogurtcloset-4003
‘Swallows up competition’: Galway bookshop ‘fearful’ for sector’s future ahead of Amazon.ie launch
by Ok-Yogurtcloset-4003
24 comments
Support local, independent bookshops
Amazon has been around for a legal drink age now, if was going to wipe out the independent bookshop it would have happen by now
I’d love to support local but I’m broke so Amazon wins every time. Adapt or die
It’s not going to make any difference. Amazon has been popular here for years.
I use Kennys a lot and I’m fond of them, but it takes them a working week at least to ship stuff to me even though they’re only down the road, relatively. More than the price, that’s what puts me off using them more.
Edit – Suggesting I go to a physical shop or library if I don’t like a sub par online shopping experience is wildly missing the point. I won’t or cannot do those things or I wouldn’t be buying online to start with.
Local bookshops do a lot for the community. Either giving a place for children to read, launching small independent poetry collections, local history books other academic books that are vital for Universities or PhDs. They also serve as crucial antiquarian sources of older books many of which are out of print or are not digitized or in foreign languages. They also serve as places just to support young artists and do poetry readings.
Support your local bookshops because you don’t miss it until it’s gone. I tend to buy the pulpy stuff on Amazon but if I want something I’m really looking for an older bookshop is a goldmine. The people who work there are incredibly knowledgeable as well.
Kenny’s and WOB.ie are handy alternatives online.
Fuck Amazon. Boycott them . They treat their staff like slaves.
The last time Amazon was a “book” shop was about 1998.
I am looking at the list of purchases from the last three years and it’s *not* books- those come from Kennys, Easons or Dubray.
What I *do* buy from Amazon are, going through my orders here, • Anker USB cables • smallrig camera arm, • Meross smart socket • USB passthrough power meter • Brother label printer tape • stud finder • black cable tie bases • LED strip connectors • 14ga silicone coated DC electrical wire • digital vernier calipers • IP 68 12v LED light bar • headphone earpads • label maker • drone landing pad, • multimeter • netgear 5-port gigabit switch • 128Gb SD Card • hex mechanics bit set • smallrig superclamp 2-pack • Shin Godzilla Blu-Ray• Epson photo scanner • DJI Ronin S-focus gear belt • voltage sensitive/intelligent Split Charge Relay • AA Emergency Snow Shovel • TMZ Folding Wagon Cart • 340mm Grab Handle Safety Yellow Heavy Duty Steel Grip Bar
*Not a single one* of these items is easily available anywhere to buy anywhere near me , never mind in a shop in the city, and if I did *maybe* get the cable tie bases or label maker it would have taken half a day to find and retrieve. Some of the *looks* I would get off people if I asked for some of those things is pretty bad – you can’t buy a flatbed scanner in a shop any more, it *has* to be one of those dogshit LED combo models, not a proper cold cathode dedicated flatbed. You can’t buy a B&W laser printer either! Fucking hell, Bro.
The above kinds of incredibly specialised nonsense are the stuff (and the equivalents for many other hobbies/professions ) are why Amazon is a great thing.
It won’t change much I would imagine. It’s not as if you couldn’t use Amazon in the south before now. It will speed up some delivery times and maybe provide a better selection of item but that’s about it
Easons are a bigger threat than Amazon tbh.
I dont think people use Amazon for books in Ireland. I use it for things that are hard to get. This is mostly camera and hobby-related. If I use Irish suppliers they usually don’t have what I need in stock and they are literally buying the item from Amazon or a competitor and charging me a commission.
I’m not in Ireland, but elsewhere in Europe and we don’t have local Amazon. However, Amazon has good prices for English language books which cost more here in a physical store. At the same time, delivery fees for books make it pretty expensive and ever since Amazon shut Book Depository, frankly, their selection and pricing isn’t great. BD had great prices AND free delivery, Amazon doesn’t have nearly as good pricing (I used to specifically check and compare the pricing of books – often they were much more expensive on Amazon than on BD) and shipping isn’t often free (that maybe different if you have prime or something).
My point is – physical book stores may change and some may disappear, but they haven’t so far and Amazon hasn’t completely taken over that market. Lots of people still want to peruse physical book isles.
Amazon.co.uk is already so good as regards delivery times and availability,
Is the damage a .ie going to do not being overstated? I.e., those inclined towards using Amazon are probably already doing so?
In France we have a law, the « unique price of books ». Each book is to be sold at the same anywhere. Local shops, eason and Amazon cannot lower or increase it, thus giving everyone a chance to compete.
For Kennys, it won’t make a difference (and Tom knows that!).
There’s no duty on importing books from Amazon.co.uk – so for Irish book sellers, Amazon is already effectively ‘here’.
Kennys are also a certain *kind* of bookshop; if I wanted a Wilbur Smith or Tom Clancy, I wouldn’t be looking for it in Kennys. Likewise, if I wanted a old out-of-print book on Irish placenames, or a framed map, I wouldn’t be looking for it on Amazon. If I want to physically wander through a bookshop for the experience of buying a book (which is very much a thing), then I’d be heading to Charlie Byrne’s.
Lastly, if Tom was so keen on selling his books to generic passers-by, he wouldn’t have left a prime location on Shop Street and moved all the way out to Liosbán. He knows who his market is; and they’re not going to Amazon.
Amazon is often not the cheapest
My local bookshop refused to host my one man poetry Jam. I currently have large cutting edge word collections and various rhythm rhymes and was confident through what I call “Poetry 2.0” I could end racism and solve the Middle East crisis.
I think tbh this is a bit alarmist. All of that has already happened. Amazon has been very active in this market since the late 1990s.
Brexit has complicated things and servicing Ireland through their UK portal isn’t really very practical and is not an insignificant market.
By all means support your local book shops, music shops, specialist retailers and communities, but I don’t really see this being anything more than a slightly more Irish specific customer service operation.
The Irish retailers potentially more impacted are ones that Amazon haven’t been able to compete with – for example food and so on.
Still upset that the book depository is gone.
Haven’t bought any book for a good while apart from forbidden planet or Dublin city comic.
Only time I would shop on amazon is for manga if my shop don’t have them.
They can add their own stock to the site and sell it that way. doesnt have to be competition, but opening up to more people. If people did shop more Irish/local there is sa tick box so it only shows sellers from here anyway.
Small bookshops will go the way of xtra vision, argos etc. Times change and they way we consume and buy things change with it.
As someone else said adapt or die.
I know it’s harsh but small shops need to compete on price or offer a proper incentive for people to pay more.
If they can’t do that, I don’t really see the need for them.
it will have zero impact it hasn’t already had.
But think of all the tax their workers will bring to the economy!