No Free Reading Please!

We always see in this bookstores, imploring would-be buyers to avoid ripping off the plastic coverings of the books sold. There are several explanations for this but the answer is actually very simple: it hurts their business.

They would say it looked like they're selling books that are not straight off from publishers. They would also cite to their defense the presence of the following passage in many books: "If you bought this without a cover, you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as "unsold and destroyed" to the publisher and neither the author nor the publisher has received any payment for this "stripped book.""

Fancy words, but the end means the same: It hurts their business. It's actually pretty simple. We all know about this but I just love the blog about it. I always make it a point to preach from personal experiences so I'm going to use a personal experience about the "No Free Reading Policy."

A few months ago, I bought a book entitled "The Only Basic Piano Instruction Book You Will Ever Need" by Brooke Halpin. The book is actually very good, very informative... good value for the PHP545 investment I made for the purchase. I learned quickly, and am now progressing through the major and minor scales of music. The circle of fifths, if you may. I wouldn't say that I'm good at playing the piano. I plain suck. Anyway, it is at this point irrelevant to our discussion or conversation, whatever you may call it.

If you were in my place, would you right away make a purchase of PHP545 for a book whose contents you don't even know? As for me, I'm normally a risk-taker, but I was on the lookout to learn. There were a lot of other books that were cheaper, but still I chose to buy Halpin's book. You want to know why? It's because I violated the No Free Reading policy. I opened the plastic cover -- it was actually opened by someone who browsed through the book before I did -- and browsed through the contents. That's how I found out that the book would really teach me to play in as short a time as possible (it's still constant practice and study that matters, after all).

Business is war, they say. Businesses are not only at war amongst themselves, but also against consumers. In these days of financial hardships, consumers have developed ways to make sure their money don't go wasted on products that would otherwise be unusable. In the context of books, people want to make sure that what they need is on that book and it will help them in whatever purpose they have for that book. As for me, I needed to make sure the book has the right structure and the lessons that will help me learn the piano as quickly as I could possibly learn. So far, it has been effective.

Businesses are always out to earn something, and in this age, they are evolving as well to make sure customers buy their products. The No Free Reading Policy is intended to make sure the bookstores' stocks are emptied or else they incur loss. Of course, it's part of business but from a businessman's point of view, losses should be minimized which is true hence the policy.

But, in the end, the customer will always prevail if they are just keen enough. That's the same reason why there are a lot of opened and unbought books in National Bookstore because people are browsing through the books and magazines before they decide to buy them. I may think that's the reason why there is a spot there where people can read some magazines and books for free. Businessmen may have realized they are powerless against the consumers, who actually have the power to hold their business hostage.