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My sister doesn't like minimum wage, and shared this sob story about a sci-fi bookstore that says it's closing because of San Francisco's rising minimum wage. One line jumps out:
"I can't increase the prices of my products because books, unlike many other things, have a price printed on them,"
Books do have prices printed on them as do newspapers and comic books; why is this the case? Why do we expect books to sell at the same price in downtown San Francisco and suburban Topeka, with no change for variable overhead like labor and rent?
By contrast, see this story about a mall split between two minimum wages because it straddles a county line. As might be expected, the pretzel store with higher wages raised prices a bit and cut profits somewhat. (The shoe store at $8/hour has trouble attracting decent employees given $10/hour alternatives.)
So why don't books get the luxury of a "convenience of buying books in downtown" surcharge? I wonder how many of the industry's woes can be traced to this perceived inability to set prices at the storefront. (Including trouble coping with Amazon. Say I had the choice of selling 100 books at $1 profit or 40 books at $2 profit; clearly I pick the former. If competion means a choice of selling 100 books at $0.10 profit or 40 books at $1.10 profit, I pick the latter. But if my business model means I don't actually have a choice...)
"I can't increase the prices of my products because books, unlike many other things, have a price printed on them,"
Books do have prices printed on them as do newspapers and comic books; why is this the case? Why do we expect books to sell at the same price in downtown San Francisco and suburban Topeka, with no change for variable overhead like labor and rent?
By contrast, see this story about a mall split between two minimum wages because it straddles a county line. As might be expected, the pretzel store with higher wages raised prices a bit and cut profits somewhat. (The shoe store at $8/hour has trouble attracting decent employees given $10/hour alternatives.)
So why don't books get the luxury of a "convenience of buying books in downtown" surcharge? I wonder how many of the industry's woes can be traced to this perceived inability to set prices at the storefront. (Including trouble coping with Amazon. Say I had the choice of selling 100 books at $1 profit or 40 books at $2 profit; clearly I pick the former. If competion means a choice of selling 100 books at $0.10 profit or 40 books at $1.10 profit, I pick the latter. But if my business model means I don't actually have a choice...)