[toyg]

This could potentially enable what I always thought the final model will look like: you go into a store, find the book, point an app at its store-specific barcode, and you get it physically delivered or saved as ebook - the store makes a percentage but prices can still be competitive with Amazon, and everybody is happy. If you really want to take the book home on the same day, an extra fee is added (to pay for traditional stocking costs).

You could even do it without custom barcodes, just with some geofencing or wifi identification. At worst, with a dedicated touchscreen device in-store.

Alas, i’ve repeated this idea everywhere for years and nobody in the industry seems to have latched on it yet, so maybe something I don’t know about the industry makes it unviable ️

[mdorazio]

I don't see how this can be cost competitive. You would have to add a percentage on every purchase high enough to cover the entire overhead of the store, including property and employees, while at the same time maintaining a large enough selection to get people into the store instead of going online in the first place. There's also no guarantee that people won't do what they do today, which is browse in the store and then go straight to Amazon on their phone to save money instead of using your scan approach.

[toyg]

The margin is already there today, but it’s “under siege” by Amazon prices. My model would shrink it a bit per item (getting closer to the Amazon one) and then recoup it in aggregate by dramatically reducing local inventory while ensuring the same (or higher) amount of total sales. Basically you shrink costs while making it easier for customers to give you money.

Obviously you cannot stop people from going to Amazon anyway, but if you make it easy enough and convenient enough for customers to buy stuff right away (including ebooks, which currently are not sold in-stores at all), I think you have a good chance to compete.

[solarkraft]

Now the only problem left is: Why would I go so in the first place? To browse? For the nice book store feeling?

Maybe some people do that. Since I just read E-books that were recommended to me I'm long lost anyway.

[toyg]

Some of the best books I’ve read in my life, I picked up almost randomly in a store - maybe they were highlighted by employees, maybe they had a particularly nice cover or backcover... that feeling of having discovered a gem on my own, or the fun of spending an hour browsing dozens of books to find The One, maybe talking about it with friends or employees, is so satisfying that it keeps me going back.

The online experience is severely lacking, imho. Maybe it will be different for generations that grew up with Amazon, but to me the bookstore experience is superior. I think they are missing a trick by not allowing me to couple their experience of serendipitous discovery with the convenience of ebooks.