Are you in the market for a special book? Do you wish you could see it priced at several competing bookshops, just to make sure you’re getting the very best price ever? Now you can, thanks to Keith, who pointed us to…
It instantly compares prices at a couple dozen different stores including Amazon, Half.com, B&N, Alibris, and many others. (Thanks Keith!)
Is money our highest value? If Christians always buy books at the lowest price, realize that we are putting local Christian bookstore owners out of business. Bookstores can serve their communities in many more ways that Amazon could or would have any desire to. We have already put most Christian bookstores out of business, to our loss.
Hi Ellen. Thanks for your great work. You do such a great job facilitating others in missions thinking.
However, on this question of getting the best price for a book, many will likely choose to differ with you, especially those in a free market economy. By definition, a free market will theoretically work out all these pricing questions, right? Bookstore owners who are ingenious will find ways either to create great pricing structures — or add value to their services in such a way that buyers will WANT to purchase from them. Right? If part of that value for you is that you would rather pay a higher price to a person because he or she is a Christian, then that means you CAN. That’s the advantage of freedom and liberty, right? But if someone else is short on funds, maybe even because he or she is raising support for every dollar, then maybe lower prices help that person get the tools (books) he or she needs, right?