On Competing Values

In spite of Chamber of Commerce propaganda to the contrary, we Americans worship at the altar of the free market. We've embraced moving manufacturing jobs overseas, eroding of organized labor, and the Wal-Marting of the country in the quest for cheaper stuff. In some cases, the market provides a staggering array of choices, but in others the domination of a few megacorps has the effect of squeezing out smaller retailers.

In Germany, they have a different perspective, at least when it comes to selling books:

If you want proof that a cultural divide separates Europe and America, the book business is a place to start. In the United States chain stores have largely run neighborhood bookshops out of business. Here in Germany, there are big and small bookstores seemingly on every block. The German Book Association counts 4,208 bookstores among its members. It estimates that there are 14,000 German publishers. Last year 94,716 new titles were published in German. In the United States, with a population nearly four times bigger, there were 172,000 titles published in 2005.

Germany’s book culture is sustained by an age-old practice requiring all bookstores, including German online booksellers, to sell books at fixed prices. Save for old, used or damaged books, discounting in Germany is illegal. All books must cost the same whether they’re sold over the Internet or at Steinmetz, a shop in Offenbach that opened its doors in Goethe’s day, or at a Hugendubel or a Thalia, the two big chains.

And, oh by the way, book prices dropped a half a percent last year. So the Germans get more selection, reasonable prices, and maintain local businesses. Do they know something we don't?