Parliament has adopted a law preventing Amazon and other on-line retailers from discounting books by 5%, as allowed by law, and offering free delivery. This is supposed to protect the independent book shops, of which there are about 3000 in France. Many of Taglines readers probably buy mainly in English from the UK and so pay postage anyway, but is the principle to be applauded? As former booksellers and librarians we love bookshops and would like to see them everywhere, but like any shop they offer a very limited choice and of course hidden away in rural corners bookshops are a rarity. They will order books for you, but this means a wait of perhaps a couple of weeks, whereas the demon Amazon (or FNAC.com or others) will have it for you within days. Is this another French law designed ostensibly to protect consumer choice (or jobs in the sector) which simply means consumers pay more for a worse service and reduce their "pouvoir d'achat"? (spending power).
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