The storeowner who didn't get his cut is not a part of the buying equation at that point. They lost my business. His wear and tear is part and parcel of doing business - depreciation.
Depreciation only applies the discounting of equipment or buildings used to run a business. It is a recognition of deterioration of the business' ability to produce items or services for sale.
Wear and Tear on the goods a business is selling is a loss of inventory. Loss of 1 unit of inventory because of wear and tear must be either written off as a loss of inventory (identical to a theft or some other kind of destruction), or must be compensated for by raising the per unit cost of the inventory...usually in advance.
Since online retailers don't have physical browsing, they don't have to account for wear and tear of their inventory.
If your purchase pattern is browse locally, buy online, you're raising per unit costs for LGS's and shifting that cost to the people who actually buy at the LGS.
I don't make enough use of them to be loyal to them when they jack the prices through the roof. <snip> I don't hate small store owners, one of my friends is one, but I will not buy from him if he jacks the price and he knows it.
As stated before, by myself and actual game owners- the higher prices in LGS's are usually NOT the result of the game store jacking the price, but rather, the online retailers being able to sell the product at a price the LGS will NEVER be able to match. Usually, this is done by either subsidizing product prices with higher prices on other goods or by using oligopoly power to negotiate a much lower per unit cost- sometimes, ruinously lower.
freebfrost
What resource did I use exactly? The book is still there. The storeowner can still sell it, or if it is damaged, return it for another. There is no loss to the storeowner.
In both economics & law, this is called an opportunity cost. If you're acting like a customer, using the staff's time, etc.- but you know you're not going to buy in that store no matter what- you have cost the store the chance to sell to another customer.
If, for example, you've ordered a special version of a game online, but before it arrives, you take 30 minutes inspecting the only copy at Bob's Game store, you've prevented others from inspecting the copy, possibly costing Bob's a sale.
The same goes if you go into Bob's before you make your special order online, but you know you're not buying it there because you think Bob "jacks up" his prices. Your 30 minute perusal may have cost him his sale.
But if you go into Bob's to see the special product, browse, decide against it, and then change your mind afterwards and order it online, you haven't done anything unethical, even if it isn't exactly fair to Bob who took his time to showcase the product to you.
Its about intent.
