Explain Like I'm Five

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ELI5: How is Amazon able to sell me books so much cheaper than brick and mortar book stores in my area (self.explainlikeimfive)

submitted 1 year ago by DrMango to c/explainlikeimfive

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I like shopping in book stores. There's something about wandering the aisles and waiting for a book to jump out at you that I can't get shopping online. Unfortunately, whenever I compare the price of a book Amazon has every in-person store beat, often pricing their offerings 30%-50% lower (or around $10/book in my experience) even when I go to a large chain like Barnes and Noble.

How is it that Amazon is able to afford to offer the books so much cheaper and also support all of the infrastructure involved in shipping it to my doorstep compared with in-person stores?

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[–] PorradaVFR 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

All the solid answers posted plus they're now a massive store - they can live on, say, $0.10 profit on a book because they made plenty more on the backpack and tire patch kit and deodorant you also added to your cart because convenience.

Plus no retail rent, no retail staff to pay.

It's like gas stations barely breaking even on gas, but making bank on snacks. Bookstores usually won't have those other product categories to fall back on like Amazon does.