20/05/2026
Right then, bookworms! After getting my fill of requests for me to "price-match" Amazon and seeing the same request bouncing in and out of seemingly every single independent bookshop on the planet I've decided to treat you to one of my fun and informative rants.
No, I cannot and will not price-match Amazon. Here's why.
Amazon MAKE A LOSS on their books. They DELIBERATELY make a loss on them in order to undercut the competition and retain market domination. If I were to price-match them I would not be here; my profit margins are already tiny and I simply wouldn't be able to pay everything it costs to rent and run a shop space. I'm not here to dictate how people spend their money, especially in this economy, so if you want to use Amazon please carry on - just don't ask your little local indie bookshop to cosplay as Amazon.
Jeff Bezos is on record as having absolutely zero interest in books and reading. He simply doesn't care about them as anything other than a money-making commodity. (Frankly, he doesn't appear to care about anything or anyone other than as a money-making commodity.) Every person running or working in an independent bookshop cares about books, obsessively, enthusiastically. You can buy your book from a soulless, peak-capitalist husk, or from someone who's going to put your purchase in a bag along with a complimentary bookmark whilst thinking fondly about how much you're going to enjoy reading it.
If we want to have lovely high streets with independent shops that understand their local community as well as their product, we have to use those shops. It really is as simple as that. When you buy a book off Amazon, nobody is personally overjoyed by that (not least the minimum-wage employee who's packing your order and hasn't been allowed to even use the loo for the last 7hrs). Buy a book - or a birthday gift, a knitting pattern, a bag of compost, a craft beer, a lightbulb, lunch - from your independent high street and the owner (who probably also served you) will breathe a little sigh of relief and feel some joy that someone has chosen to shop with them. That shop owner will probably spend their money in the local community too, which is much better than the tenner you spent on a book sitting in an off-shore account and making a billionaire a slightly bigger billionaire.
This isn't a rant designed to shame anyone who buys things on Amazon. But it is to highlight that we can't wax lyrical about interesting, aesthetically-pleasing independent small-town high streets unless we are out there actually buying some things from them. Yes, things often cost a bit more - sometimes a lot more - for various different reasons, and cost is a major dealbreaker for a lot of people at the moment (frankly, I am one of those people). But please - take some time to have a think and at least understand why high street indies can't, and shouldn't have to, price match Amazon. We are absolutely worth that.
