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Store Philosophy
Here's the thinking behind our practice:
We want to give you the best deal we can while still enabling the business to thrive.
This does not mean that we will always have the lowest prices (though we may), but that our prices will be
fair, that we will pass on to you special discounts we may obtain, and that we will call your attention
to possible defects or lower-priced editions that may affect your buying decision.
We avoid all deceptive and manipulative practices, including those which are a part of current business practice.
Example: "Price barrier" prices, such as $1.99, $5.98, $19.95, etc. This practice takes advantage of the fact that many people have trouble comprehending decimals, or when rushed will tend to ignore everything after the decimal. These people will think of $19.95 as being much less than $20.00, and will be more likely to buy it for that reason. Our prices are usually rounded to whole numbers, or rounded down to the nearest 75c, even though this means that some people may think they are paying much more here. Example 2: Bargain bins. These are designed to promote buying for the sake of buying. We feel that if you really wanted a book on a particular subject, you would have looked in the appropriate section. We have quite a few books at great prices, but you'll find all price ranges in the same subject section. New books discounted 10% are next to half-price used books, next to deeply discounted remainders, next to hard-to-find higher priced out-of-print books. If the price is too high for you, it costs nothing to browse!
We will give you the best advice that we know of, even if it means losing a sale.
If you are asking about the merits and demerits of tree identification books, for example, we'll tell you
about all of them we know of, even if we don't have the one you may prefer in stock. If you are
seeking an out-of-print book, we'll advise you on how you may do this on your own on the internet
(www.bookfinder.com), and if you would like us to do the search for you, we'll add on very modest
fee---even though many bookstores will withhold that information from you, and will tack on a substantial
percentage to what you are charged. We want to help create a community of people who can
think and do things for themselves, who are not dependent on intermediaries, (though intermediaries can be both useful and convenient).