SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
As covered by the Guardian, and CBC Radio Canada, but not the English side of CBC.
The annual Prix littéraire des collégiens has been cancelled following protests by the Quebec authors who were in the running for a $5000 prize. Authors were concerned that the prize was now being sponsored by Amazon. In a statement they said:
“Our great unease comes from the dangerous competition this giant has with Quebec bookstores. Need we remind you of the precariousness of the book trade and literary publishing? Need we mention the inhumane methods of this online giant, which constitute a danger for small traders and culture at large?” they wrote.
“Could the [award] do without the money from Amazon? Find sponsors more in line with the values it stands for?” they asked. “Unfortunately, we believe that by uniting with Amazon, the prize is failing in its principal mission, which is to ‘promote Québécois literature today’ … We believe that the defence of Québécois literature and the promotion of a multinational that harms bookstores … cannot go together.”
Award organizers are now working to find alternate means of supporting the award.
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 20 2018, @09:57AM (2 children)
Half their own conduct. As nasty as amazon and company are, I remember going to the local stores, finding them overpriced, and dicking you around when returning merchandise that was unfit for use. In contrast, K-Mart, Ross, TJ Maxx, Sears, etc were quite good with returns, and slowly other segments of the market got similar 'big box stores' who eventually ran the other little businessmen out of town. Other businesses with unpleasant locals survived either because no other business served their niche, or they had a lucrative location with Apple-esque cult of personality. Most of those businesses still survive around here to this day, to different levels of success (some have shrunk in size, some have expanded, some have remained the same.)
Long story short: Some areas did better thanks to the big nasty corporations, others did quite badly. But how much each was just about cost vs how much was about service, would really require more in depth interviews with locals who can still remember the good (or bad) old days and what sorts of trials dealing with the locally owned businesses really entailed.
On a related note: The majority of comic/rpg hobby shops in the area are now corporate owned where I am. There are still established invidividual stores, but most of them are either aging out or running out of business over time.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 20 2018, @03:12PM
I've seen small businesses bend over backwards to serve the customer however when they start the the path to going out of business it forces miserly behavior. As soon as I notice this in a restaurant I'll stop going there because it'll be downhill quality till they do close.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday November 20 2018, @06:14PM
There were miserable, miserly fools in most towns. They didn't participate much in those events I mentioned. Some might, if they were dragged along by peer pressure, but the really miserable old fools weren't easy to pressure.