Welcome to Friday Debate, a feature on cup of tea with that book, please, where every Friday a question will be posted that tantalize the brain and expands our horizons. For this week’s question:
Forbes released an article that made an outrageous suggestion. A misinformed contributor suggested that Amazon should replace public libraries in order to save taxpayers money. The suggestion was so ridiculous that it caused an uproar over the internet, from librarians and book lovers. The backlash was so severe that it caused Forbes to take down the article from its website.
I thin it is safe to say that Amazon Books can never take the place of libraries. But you are probably asking “Amazon has bookstores now?” The answer is yes. As of 2018, there are 15 locations, with future plans to open more. However, different from what Amazon thinks, their bookstores are not necessarily well-known. A lot of people don’t realize that these stores exist. So if Amazon Books were to takeover public libraries, how much of an impact will they have on communities when they don’t even know of their existence?
So the discussion of Amazon Books and their “popularity” leads to me ask these two questions:
If you want a firsthand experience of what it is an Amazon Books store like, read my blog post on the subject, which you can find here.
Please post any comments you have below.