It seems the moratorium is over. I went shopping for books – no emergency, I just I felt like it.

And, I put the Amazon boycott into effect. I shopped at a real bookstore! It’s not like I haven’t done that at all these last 13 years, it’s just been somewhat rare. (Every once in a while I would run in somewhere if I needed a book faster than Amazon would get it to me. Or, I would sometimes check out bookstores while travelling. Or, my mother, grandmother, sister and I would stop by a bookstore if we passed by one after one of our lunches, which was always a bad scene because we’re all alike and we can’t restrain each other any more than we can restrain ourselves. But the vast majority of my book purchases have been through Amazon for a long time.)

There were three specific books that I wanted. So two days ago, I headed out to my closest Indigo. I didn’t really feel good about this plan either, as we’re not “supposed” to support the big chains any more than we do Amazon. We’re “supposed” to shop indie… but to do that, I have to drive a ways away, then find and pay for parking. In theory this doesn’t seem like it would be too difficult a task to pull off every once in a while, somehow in practice it just never seems to happen, probably thanks to Toronto traffic and parking. The Indigo at the close-by mall is easier.

But… Indigo didn’t carry the first book I went looking for.

So much for that. I left empty-handed.

Then last evening I made my way to the nearest indie, 7.3 km away.

They didn’t carry the book in question either. But guess what… you can ask your friendly bookseller to order it for you!

In the end, I came home with four books, plus that one on order. (That’s only two more than I set out to buy, so don’t judge me too harshly. They’re mostly for Reading Bingo, anyway!)

I’m not sure though that the experience was an unequivocal victory for me. Here’s a comparison. (The Amazon aspect is hypothetical, but I’ve shopped there enough times to know how it would have gone down.)

The cost factor: AMAZON WINS

The five books would have cost me $92.11 on Amazon, with no sales tax and no shipping fees. For the four books I left the store with, I paid $106.16 + $5.31 HST + $1.75 for parking. That doesn’t include the book that’s on order.

The convenience factor: AMAZON WINS

If I’d shopped online, I wouldn’t have left my apartment. I would have spent about two minutes on the website finding the three books I was after, and maybe about 10 minutes total if I’d spent time picking out additional books from my wish list (which resides on Amazon) to purchase. The books would have shown up right at my door within three to five business days, and I would have spent one minute unpacking the box. Done.

But in this case, I spent 30 minutes in the bookstore (some of that time was browsing, but much of it was searching for the specific books), and 35 minutes travelling there and back. Not to mention that I now have to go back (or send hubby) when the last book makes its way to the store in a week or so.

The enjoyment factor: BOOKSTORE WINS

I admit, I do love opening the big box of books that Amazon drops at my door, but shopping at the store is even better. I was a little befuddled at first; I’m used to finding specific titles with a few clicks, so searching through walls and tables was a bit daunting. Especially without the computer to tell you which shelves to target, like the big chains have. But then I relaxed my mission to find certain books, and just took it all in. It’s a wonderfully enjoyable sensory experience to browse among heaps of real books. Touching a book, picking it up, reading a couple of passages, putting it down and grabbing the next. (And maybe surreptitiously taking a sniff, if the bookstore employees aren’t watching.)

The purchasing-on-a-whim-and-ending-up-with-extra-books factor: TIE

Of course it’s hard for me to resist all those books when I see them piled up in a store, so it’s no wonder I bought a couple more than I intended. But, my Amazon orders were usually several books at a time – a book or two or three over the $25 free-shipping threshold, just because I often couldn’t resist seeing all those books lined up on screen.

To boycott, or not to boycott?

It’s a tough call. The savings at Amazon are really appealing. But I know those prices are artificially low because Amazon has beaten up the publishers, not paying them what the books are worth and then selling the books for little or no profit or even at a loss. (It’s an attempt to completely corner the market (at which point they’ll raise prices) and to get us consumers into their online storefront (where they hope we will buy some of the bazillion other things that they do sell or fulfill for bigger margins).)

Then again, if I boycotted every company with bad behaviour, I’d have no things at all. No possessions. No clothes. No food. No computer on which to write this blog. I bet I still wouldn’t have books in that case, because the publishers are also probably a bunch of jerks. Hey, maybe the authors are sometimes assholes, too! Where does it end?! Well, I’m not prepared to give up my possessions, clothes, food, blog or books. So, what’s the point? What’s the harm in supporting one more terrible company amongst all the other terrible companies that profit from my just going about my daily life?

Now that I’ve depressed everyone…

I might keep the boycott going for a bit, especially while it’s a hot topic in the bookish news. But I suspect that before long I will probably end up buying from at a mix of sources. Maybe I’ll shop at independent bookstores when I feel like going on an excursion and have time to browse (and when they are selling books at IFOA or other author events), Indigo when I need to make a quick purchase around the corner, Costco if they happen to have something from by TBR list on display, and Amazon from time to time for specific titles, especially ones that are more obscure.

Tell me, my four loyal readers, where do you shop for books?