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COPYRIGHT 2002 Consumers Union of the United States, Inc.
Most book buyers want a choice of titles ranging from "Anna Karenina" to "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance." Many appreciate sales clerks who know that Homer's last name isn't Simpson. Some ask for all that and a good mocha latte, too. But everybody wants a good price--and we discovered that you need not pay top dollar.
In a study that combined reader surveys, a price survey, and a hunt for hard-to-find books, we found:
* You'll pay far less than list price at used-book sites such as Half.com and the used-book part of Amazon.com (click on "Books" on the home page, then "Used books"). Before you think "yuck," consider that those sites sell many books described as "brand-new in shrink wrap" or in "very good condition."
* When you opt for a new book, the big Internet sellers--Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, and BooksAMillion.com--can be cheaper than other sellers, even when shipping charges are included.
* Books can be inexpensive at mass-merchandise chains such as Wal-Mart, Kmart, and Target and at warehouse clubs such as Costco Wholesale and Sam's Club, which charge an annual membership fee. But you'll find far fewer titles than at a conventional bookstore.
* Barnes & Noble and Books-A-Million charged us more in stores than they did online--sometimes $8 or $10 more per title. Usually, a slight gap remained even after we factored in shipping costs (online) and approximate sales tax (in stores).
* B. Dalton, Borders, and Waldenbooks joined independent stores as the most expensive sellers overall.
SIZING UP THE SELLERS
Just as the economy has soured, a good price has become harder to find.
Although booksellers still tout big sales, they have in recent years quietly hiked prices by reducing discounts. And those discounts tend to apply primarily to best-selling hardcovers and new releases. Want David McCullough's biography "John Adams"? Some sellers have cut at least $10 from its $35 list price. Yet our search of five sellers failed to turn up a penny's discount on Voltaire's "Treatise on Tolerance" ($20 list). Sometimes even new, popular works aren't on sale. Michael Pollan's "The Botany of Desire" was selling at list price, $24.95, not only at the dozen independents we contacted but also at five brick-and-mortar chains.
You can save money by visiting a library, of course. The downside is that you may have to wait for a best-seller to become available. You may also find slimmer pickings than in years past: An American Library Association study found that many libraries are spending more on computer-based resources and less on print materials. Besides, sometimes you just want to own a book.
There's more to book buying than price, of course. (We'd bet that few people spend a morning happily browsing for irons while munching a scone.) And in a survey of 25,000 readers, we found differences among booksellers in ambience, service, selection, ability to back-order titles, and ease of navigating stacks.
A seller that satisfies everyone is almost fact, or not quite fiction. Independent stores come closest--if you don't mind paying nearly full price. Altogether, the dozen independents we contacted cut a mere 2 percent off list price for our market basket of 10 books (see box at right). The service and ambience are so good, however, that readers don't seem to mind. Eighty-eight percent said they were either completely satisfied or very satisfied with their experience at independents, which puts those stores on a par with the highest-rated stores from any CONSUMER REPORTS survey in recent years.
Online booksellers came in a close second (85 percent of readers were highly satisfied), followed by chains (70 percent), book clubs (61 percent), and...
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