The Cost of Convenience November 26 2022

As you do your shopping online, small companies like mine REALLY appreciate it when you buy directly from us ... or a local seller. Though Amazon and Etsy are very convenient (I'm a customer, too), they take what I consider an unfairly large piece of the pie when they sell goods.

To illustrate, here's an order I fulfilled for one of my coffee-roasting logbooks purchased on Amazon.com:

From the original purchase price of $7.00, 33 Books gets just $2.87 from the transaction. This has to cover the cost of printing the books (paper, ink, labor, etc.), as well as all the related expenses of running a business (salary, rent, insurance, fuel, etc.). Is it worth it? Not really, if I'm honest!

I wouldn't be on Amazon at all but for the fact that unauthorized 33 Books Co. retailers were selling the books there for 2x or 3x MSRP, leaving end customers disappointed when they received their $7 book, for which they had paid $20! It hurts my brand for that to happen, and so I am there unwillingly. But that is a story for another day! 

Small companies appreciate every single order ... matter where it comes from. But if you're able to do so, please try to buy direct from the business, or even better, from a local shop in your community. I sell to hundreds of small bookshops, breweries, coffeeshops, etc. and they deserve your dollars way more than Mr. Bezos.