The Scanning Scourge

There used to be a time, way back in March of 2010, when shopping for used books was a thrill for me. Slowly scanning rows of books, I would stop occasionally to pick one, take a good look at it, and place it in my cart. I had a little app on my iphone that would give me an idea of approximately what I might expect to receive for a particular book, and I used it but I didn't let it use me.

If I could fetch a reasonably high price for the book, I would of course purchase it. But sometimes, even if it fell into dreaded 'penny' territory, I would buy it just because I wanted to have it. It might be a classic or a book in a beautiful binding or even a book by one of my favorite authors. Whatever the reason, it made me happy to have that book. 

Then, all at once it seemed, there were a lot more shoppers in the book section. They were more aggressive, nudging me aside to get to a shelf where I happened to be spending some time happily picking through the selection. Strange beeping and buzzing and the sound of books being tossed (TOSSED!) into carts filled the air. What was going on ????

Welcome to the age of the barcode scanner. Some inventive individual figured out how to take amazon.com's massive database and upload it into one of these evil little devices.What could be bad about more technology to help with my business? It would make me faster, more efficient and more competitive, right?

The answer is yes, yes and yes, BUT...those aren't the reasons I became a bookseller. I've watched the Scanners (those who scan) as they whip through the book sections. They don't look at the title of a book. They scan, it beeps, they throw it in their cart. This seems so wrong to me. A book is like a little work of art. Mass-produced art perhaps, but art nonetheless.

I don't shop much for books right now because it's such a turn-off when I do. Eventually I'll run low on inventory. Maybe by then all the Scanners will have worn each other out and I can go back to my peaceful book shopping trips.