Out-Amazoning Amazon: New Bookseller Comes Online to Challenge Ineqality and E-Tail Giants November 25, 2006
The declared purview of publicreadings.org is the public dimension of libraries, with the caveat that the term library connotes more than a brick and mortar structure where one can obtain, by right of residence, access to books and other media. All of these have some membership restrictions, ranging from tight (enrollment requirements at graduate institutions) to the less restrictive requirements of residency in a particular place. However, a library with public meaning is more than that, and the entrance requirements may also include payment. The critical bit is that the library- collected online , in a house, or in one of those wonderful Carnegie structures- be a collection with a public mission, a vision that reaches beyond itself to the wider world. The online bookstore, Goodbooks, is just such a place. This New Zealand e-tailer donates 100% of its profits to Oxfam’s work in Asia, the Pacific , and Africa. Not fifty or sixty percent: one hundred percent.
The store’s website makes a spare, but complete declaration of purpose and vision:
Our offer is simple: Every time you buy a book from Goodbooks - any book - we contribute all profits to Oxfam to help fight its global battle against poverty and social injustice. There is no extra cost to you. We do not mark up our books to cover this contribution; our prices remain among the lowest you will find, and delivery world wide is completely free. With over two million titles in stock our range is one of the largest and our international delivery times cannot be beaten.Help us open a new chapter in the fight against inequality.
According to Maggie McNaughton in the New Zealand Herald, Dr. Jane Cherrington, the founder and creative force behind Goodbooks, intends for the online retailer to become a “global player “in the world of online book selling, even to the point of competing toe to toe with Amazon.com and other retail giants. Dr. Cherrington believes that there are no preexisting limits on the firm’s potential,and has the activist background as well as the family connections to prove her point. Her father is the founder of The Paperback Shop , an online U. K. bookstore.
Cherrington’s quest will probably meet with obstacles, given the world wide free delivery promise and the sure to gradually increase costs of shipping. Without a network of warehouses, the delivery times of the market hegemons will be hard to beat. She will have to sell the idea of patience, but only a little, and for the best of reasons.
