Retailer's Stance on PDF Deals

mach1.9pants · Apr 10, 2009

Jane Witt said:
Why should I have your books in my store so your customers can come in and "cop a feel" of the book before they buy it from you in PDF form?

Man this got me, does anybody actually go to a brick and mortar sote to 'cop a feel' of a real book to check if they are going to buy a PDF version? I can see you visiting a store, checking out a book before you buy the same thing online at 2/3 or so the cost, but a PDF? I just wouldn't do that...

Anybody do this? Might start a poll, if it wasn't such a ridiculous idea. Her surname is half right!

p.s. Now every one will come out and say 'yep, I do it all the time' and I'll look like the idiot.

JoeGKushner · Apr 10, 2009

Hussar said:
Let's not lose sight of the message here though. He's not complaining that pdf's are cheaper, he's complaining that his suppliers are using the current events to offer deep discounts to consumers without giving him any chance of competing.

If the supplier offers you a product at price X and then sells pretty much same product at 1/2 X, then you might be a bit peeved as well.

Which is why I feel bad for them.

With a simple mass e-mail and advertising it at your selling place online, you're 'there'. The sale is on. No flyers need to be mailed out. No handholding with third party distribution ala Alliance or others. You have control.

If it truly upsets him to the point where he feels anger/betrayal/etc... then he needs to become a producer and not, in essence, a middleman himself. Moving of content will be slowly drained off the physical as people either run out of damn space to put their books or the low prices drag them in.

Complaining about it without enacting any some type of change will do him no good.

Now mind you, for some of the publishers like Green Ronin and Fantasy Flight Games that sell a lot of RPGs, I have no clue if all of the bookstores went ouf of business tomorrow how that would effect their bottom line. Are such companies... secure enough that they cna survive on PDF sales alone? If brick and mortar stores had sense and organization abilities, they'd create some type of entity themselves to get a chunk of that, a PDF 'tax' if you will. "You want your physical product carried in the store? No problem but this entity gets some of the electronic media price in exchange."

Mark · Apr 10, 2009

JoeGKushner said:
So 5K retailers come up to you and tell you that all want to sell and you'd be able to hook that up quickly? I'm not asking out of snark here because the folks at Black Sun Games have expressed some interested in it but have no clue how to do it.

How would it not wind up competing with other PDF companies? And it's own stock?

At what point does it go from being a brick and mortar store into a... well, a mail order store but the mail order is actually the evil online presence?

Well, I do not think that there are 5K retailers but I would certainly be interested in allowing any B&M retailer with a legitimate website and eStore carry my stuff. I think it is only a matter of time before most of them do so. PDFs and print products do not really compete much, if at all. They have separate value due to their distinct functionalities, even when they have the same or similar content (see my classic car analogy here). Someone could probably make a small fortune traveling (probably even virtually) around to B&M stores and helping them set up an eStore. As long as they are competitive in the percentage they charge vendors, and can manage to drive some traffic that other virtual stores do not already have, they have a potential revenue stream to help keep their physical location afloat. I think most B&M stores do some level of mail order already, and likely should do more if it is a money maker for them.

Mark · Apr 10, 2009

Hussar said:
If the supplier offers you a product at price X and then sells pretty much same product at 1/2 X, then you might be a bit peeved as well.

Not the same product.

JoeGKushner · Apr 10, 2009

Mark said:
Not the same product.

Yet the written word, the content, is.

There are differences and strengths and weaknesses to each of course but the content is the same.

Mark · Apr 10, 2009

JoeGKushner said:
Yet the written word, the content, is.

There are differences and strengths and weaknesses to each of course but the content is the same.

It's a matter of functionality and people who view them as the same are missing out on the key aspect.

coyote6 · Apr 10, 2009

Mark said:
Of course they could. If Games Plus decided to add a PDF section to their website and advertise it in-store, I would be interested in having them sell my wares. I have them at eight online stores mow and am more than happy to add as many more as would like to sell them and drive traffic to them.

Retailers that have websites, please sell PDFs, too.

Hey, why restrict it to retailers with websites? Retailers with a broadband connection and a CD burner could download & burn PDFs to CD for customers who don't have a fast connection, don't have a credit card, or otherwise don't want to buy PDFs from an existing PDF vendor.

Mark · Apr 10, 2009

coyote6 said:
Hey, why restrict it to retailers with websites? Retailers with a broadband connection and a CD burner could download & burn PDFs to CD for customers who don't have a fast connection, don't have a credit card, or otherwise don't want to buy PDFs from an existing PDF vendor.

Yup. There's an untapped market of people who simply of not wish to buy stuff online, for whatever reason, and B&M retailers can reach them while online retailers never will.

falcarrion · Apr 10, 2009

Sooner or later we will see pdf stores.
You walk in, tell the clerk what book or game you want.
They ask if you bought in your own media to put it on or do you wish to purchase one. They down load it, ring up the sale and your done.
The store has more titles to offer then they could stock. Plus they would be selling the media. Some customers would come in just to buy the media, cds, flash drives, and ebook readers.

freyar · Apr 10, 2009

It's probably also fair to point out that at least some of these publishers (GR, I remember in particular) have had print-only sales for extended periods the last couple of years. Presumably the retailers could have taken advantage of those.