Everybody needs to get paid, and everybody needs to make a profit.
The folks that store the books (think Wholesale), the movers/couriers, the retail that has to pay rent/employees/etc _and_ make a profit.
The consider that (depending on the country) there is a VAT on that book. It slowly adds up.
I remember in Brighton back in the 90s I had found a second hand bookstore, that had 5x the books per sqm comparing to the Barnes & Noble in the center of London. B&N had wide corridors, the shelves on the perimeter were all the way to the ceiling, but the non-walled ones were 1.5m high. And considering that they wanted the books to look cool, they were nicely spaced.
Now when you compare this to the second hand bookstore, where presentation is not 'a thing'.. you got many-many more books per sqm, and the authors/publishers don't need to get paid again. But still.. a second hand book will always been 1/3 to 1/4 of a new book (from own experience).
EDIT: I sometimes think that if my life takes a very dark turn, and for whatever reason I end up poor and alone, I will find the smallest/cheapest possible village that has a public library back to my country of origin, and I will be spending max amount of hours in that library.. free wifi, free heating/cooling, and ALL the books I can read(hey, my name is Henry Bemis after all!!)
Off-topic, but wow there were some good used bookstores in Brighton. I think I know the one you mean, but the quirkiest was the one with a massive pile (literally a pile) of unshelved, uncategorized books in the basement. Hardbacks were £1, paperbacks 50p. It smelled faintly of mould down there, and there were some chairs and beanbags (the beanbags were too dodgy for me to sit in, lol) around the edges, so we'd sneak in cans of beer and spend the afternoon going through the pile and reading what we found. Once or twice the owner shouted down the stairs that he was going to the pub and to turn off the lights and make sure the door was locked when we left.
Sometimes I miss being young and poor. I'm not sure I'd enjoy spending a day like that anymore, and I'm not sure why.
Everybody needs to get paid, and everybody needs to make a profit.
The folks that store the books (think Wholesale), the movers/couriers, the retail that has to pay rent/employees/etc _and_ make a profit.
The consider that (depending on the country) there is a VAT on that book. It slowly adds up.
I remember in Brighton back in the 90s I had found a second hand bookstore, that had 5x the books per sqm comparing to the Barnes & Noble in the center of London. B&N had wide corridors, the shelves on the perimeter were all the way to the ceiling, but the non-walled ones were 1.5m high. And considering that they wanted the books to look cool, they were nicely spaced.
Now when you compare this to the second hand bookstore, where presentation is not 'a thing'.. you got many-many more books per sqm, and the authors/publishers don't need to get paid again. But still.. a second hand book will always been 1/3 to 1/4 of a new book (from own experience).
EDIT: I sometimes think that if my life takes a very dark turn, and for whatever reason I end up poor and alone, I will find the smallest/cheapest possible village that has a public library back to my country of origin, and I will be spending max amount of hours in that library.. free wifi, free heating/cooling, and ALL the books I can read(hey, my name is Henry Bemis after all!!)