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New York Schools Streamline Book Purchasing, Cut Out Independent Booksellers

First Posted: 06/19/10 06:12 AM ET Updated: 05/25/11 05:10 PM ET

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The New York Times:

Scores of salespeople traversed the city, going from school to school, peddling so-called trade books: the novels, works of nonfiction, test guides and other publications that teachers use to supplement textbooks.

But the city has transformed the way it buys these books, abandoning the decades-old process in which numerous vendors competed in door-to-door or bazaar-like settings, to one in which nearly all such books -- literally millions of volumes -- are purchased via computer from two large discount wholesalers that have promised savings of at least 30 percent.

Read the whole story: The New York Times

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hypnotoad72
Real democracy = living wages.
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06:22 PM on 04/19/2010
What happens when the indies vanish because of "low low prices"? Profits for the big boys go down, which means they ramp up prices to compensate. So much for "competition is a good thing".

Still, B&N and Borders will be begging for bailouts no doubt. They whittled down indies as well and now amazon.com is taking them down. Just wait for amazon's prices not only to go up, but for sales tax to be added on top of their shipping costs (and hope their shipping standards don't get whittled down either). People will be begging those evil overpriced indies to make a comeback. In theory...
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