Powells.com

Just a quick note...

I just discovered a new source for on-line ordering of books~they do offer Slow As Molasses Free Shipping when you purchase $50 or more...just read the fine print for yourselves...with amazon.com you only have to purchase $25 to get Slow As Molasses Free Shipping...but I'm willing to spend a little more to put money in the till for an operation I think is solely based on this continent instead of half-way 'round the world...

oh, and about that, I e-mailed Barnes & Noble several months ago & one of their customer service reps said all of their customer service is based in the U.S...I'm not sure if there was some kind of dodge in the specific wording, but I still try to shop bn.com before amazon.com unless the price difference is, to my cheap self, too great...of course, B & N's CEO makes an obscene amount of money...okay, call it "compensation" if you want...but still...how much "compensation" does one man need? 5.5 million in one year? and they've been in trouble for going out of their way to undercut independents...but amazon.com fired employees who were tryin' to form a union...

It is confusing...and irritating...

I guess you gotta pick your demons...kind of like voting these days...

I'm not saying people who live outside of the United States don't need jobs...what I'm sayin' is Americans need jobs as factory after factory is shut down and corporate jobs are trimmed left and right...and I don't think businesses should be sending jobs overseas...I know there have traditionally always been companies who moved internationally, but this...well, this is a horse of a different color...

the issue is a lot more complex than that~I know there are columns and columns of figures, stockholders to satisfy, huge executive paychecks to write and endless other foolishness...enough numbers to make the front part of my head go numb just thinkin' about them...but all those numbers really just seem like they add up to nothin' more than a poor excuse for being greedy, thoughtless, and downright ugly...


Well, for me, when I can choose supporting a company employing people here in the U. S., for only a few extra bucks, that is what I'm gonna do...that part is pretty simple to figure out...

So, small independent bookstores where I can loll about for at least a couple of hours at a time are my first choice (just bought a stack o' books at Malaprops in Asheville), but here in a small town where there is only a used bookstore that is, um, to be gentle, lacking, on-line ordering is going to happen and I'm glad to have found Powells...



anyhoo...check it out...Powells

***disclaimer: I just placed my first order with them today...soooooo...as with all things, proceed with discretion if you choose to order...

***added note of astonishment: I guess this qualifies as my first mini-rant on my blog...who knew where sharing a web address would end up as a little diatribe about the evils of outsourcing?

***additional note of irony: my first ad from ad-sense will probably turn out to be an amazon.com ad...or bn.com ad...assuming I even get approved now...oh well...save me the trouble of having to *filter* some corporations anyway...