The Bookseller Who Balked at a sale on Black Friday
By Edward Nawotka in Publishing Perpectives

CAMBRIDGE: Last Thursday--Thanksgiving Day in the United States--Lorem Ipsum Books, an independent bookstore in Cambridge, Massachusetts, announced what they called a "new Black Friday Shopping tradition": The Anti-Sale. "In this special, one-day only event, the bookstore with 19,000+ gently used books will be offering none of them for sale at a discount," said Matt Mankins, the store's owner, in a press release." As an added bonus," he invited shoppers to "pay more than the cover price."

What? A store balking at the prospect of offering a massive discount on Black Friday and having the gumption to ask for more?
(read on ...)

Bonus Material: Does Constant Discounting Lead to Asset Devaluation?
By Edward Nawotka

In our lead story, I asserted that perpetual big discounts offered on books by retailers, whether bricks or clicks, dedicated booksellers or not, ultimately lead to asset devaluation. I argue that book buyers are being becoming accustomed to never paying full price for books-something that is likely only to to only become more entrenched in our psyches as long as the economy continues to waver. In the long run, this is essentially asset devaluation.
(read on ...)