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From: ergo@netcom.UUCP (Isaac Rabinovitch)
Newsgroups: comp.edu,comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: Summary of responses regarding Jim Joyces Unix Bookstore
Keywords: books, unix, mail order
Message-ID: <12565@netcom.UUCP>
Date: 22 Jul 90 23:26:11 GMT
References: <1581@stsci.edu> <37505@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> <7858@ccncsu.ColoState.EDU> <1990Jul17.174054.29575@nbc1.ge.com>
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In <1990Jul17.174054.29575@nbc1.ge.com> scott@nbc1.ge.com (Scott Barman) writes:

>Just one question:  Why use any of these mail order companies to get
>books anyway?  I could understand if there was a significant discount,
>but by the time you pay for shipping, etc. the savings are minimal.  I
>have never had a problem walking into (say) a B. Dalton's and ordering
>any book they didn't have in stock--and I've never paid shipping charges
>either.

I think the big incentive for a lot of mail order business is sales
tax.  If a retailer has offices in only one state, then it doesn't
have to collect sales taxes on orders from the other 49.  Legally,
customers are supposed to report their out-of-state mail-order
purchases, but nobody does, and the states would hardly find it
profitable to prosecute thousands of <$100 tax cases, assuming they
ever even find out about them!  

There's another, more legitimate difference.  B. Dalton employees are
not long on computer expertise (though they no longer think that Unix
is a programming language!), and can't give you much help on selecting
books.  Specialized mail order firms often work very hard in that
department.  Except for a misguided bookclub membership, I've never
purchased books thatway (in SiliValley lots of bookstores with
fair-to-good computer sections, not to mention a small chain with
nothing *but*), but PC Connection's employees are a lot more
knowledgable than those of Egghead Discount Software!
-- 

ergo@netcom.uucp			Isaac Rabinovitch
atina!pyramid!apple!netcom!ergo		Silicon Valley, CA
uunet!mimsy!ames!claris!netcom!ergo

	"I hate quotations.  Tell me what you know!"
			-- Ralph Waldo Emerson