Is readaing a magazine in the store unethical?

Great Debates
1

On any given night, I could walk into the local magazine store (or big book store, or anywhere where they sell lots of magazines) and there are plenty of people looking through the magazines. That’s cool; they want to see what’s in it before they buy it or not.

However, there are plenty of people who also just read the magazines and don’t buy them.

Now, the magazine knows that given X sales, Y people will actually read the magazine (Y, from my understanding, is generally larger than X) and advertisters pay based on Y, not X. I would assume that Y includes people who read the magazine in the store.

Now, there are other media that don’t necessarily have ads paying per eyeball. Specifically I’m thinking about anytime I go to a bookstore and see anywhere from a couple to a couple dozen people reading comics/manga, etc.

What nearly drove me to a screaming fit was a guy who was reading a trade and finished. He then called his friend (or his friend called him, I forget which) and the guy said, “Oh, I was just reading [this comic], it was pretty cool, but I wouldn’t buy it.”

I limited myself to wishing he got hit by a bus, but this begs the question: is it “stealing” to read a work in its entirety while one is in a store, especially a work that one isn’t going to buy and has no intention of buying.

Let’s get a few things on the table:

  1. A library is for lending and letting lots of people read a given work. That’s cool.

  2. If someone lends their friend a copy, I’m fine with that too.

  3. If someone wants to trade their magazine for their friend’s, I’m cool with that.

  4. If someone wants to flip through and read a little to see if it’s worth buying, I think that’s acceptable. To me this is like someone taking a car for a test drive, or asking a salesman to operate a piece of machinery under consideration.

However, I would maintain that reading a work in its entirety in a store is unethical.

I understand that, in a practical sense, it’s not possible to keep everything wrapped in shrinkwrap (nor is it desirable), or otherwise keep people from reading a magazine. I understand that peopole reading and not buying/libraries lending/friends trading is a cost of doing business and should be accounted for by a dilligent publisher.

However, I’m wondering the ethics of the above.

For purposes of discussion, let’s keep this strictly paper-based and not assume that people are scanning and uploading onto the internet. In fact, let’s try not to bring the internet and filesharing up at all.

2

My bookstore encourages reading magazines with signs saying to stay as long as you want and comfy chairs. If the stores are cool with it, then I think it’s cool.

3

Most major bookstore chains (such as the one I currently work at) are fine with this behavior and encourage it by providing comfy chairs, cafes, etc. But the fact that stores let you do this shouldn’t be used as an ethical get out of jail free card. Some customers clearly abuse the privilege, but where to draw the line between use and abuse isn’t so easy and depends on many factors.

4

The reason they let you do this is that they know, overall, the longer you hang out in the store the more likely you are to buy something–maybe not the thing you spend the most time looking at, but something. And this is true even if it is “a work that one isn’t going to buy and has no intention of buying.” That’s the point: browsing convinces poeple to buy who had no intention of buying when they started to browse. Not every customer, every time, but often enough that the big comfey bookstore model has certainly become widespread.

5

I’ll admit to being one of those people that will read entire magazines in stores. The way I see it, there’s usually only two or three really interesting articles in any given magazine, which doesn’t justify the expense of four or five dollars. I think that as long as the store is cool with it, there’s nothing wrong–these magazines are out in the open for anyone to read. Hell, the contents of half of them are available for free on the Internet now (I know you didn’t want this to be about the Internet but I’m not talking about piracy, I’m talking about a licensed online version of the magazine), so it’s pretty clear that it’s not just sales that’s keeping these magazines afloat–ads are the biggest source of revenue. Using that logic, it’s actually beneficial if someone reads the magazine in the store and doesn’t buy it. If someone buys a magazine, the only people who are going to see it from that point on is the consumer and maybe their friends or family. That might come out to a dozen ad-viewers, tops. But if a bunch of people read the mag and look at the ad and don’t buy, you could get fifty ad-scans out of one magazine, which would offset the fact that none of the viewers are buying the magazine. Hardly anyone even buys magazines full price off the rack anyway; almost all magazine buyers are subscribers.

So yes, I read magazines in the store and don’t buy them. Ever since moving to the city, though, I tend to read magazines in the library. The fact that magazine publishers allow their products to be in libraries is one of the signs that they don’t really care if readers buy their product. It’s all about getting you to look at the ads. (Oh yeah, and that whole “informing the public” thing… but it’s mostly advertising.)

6

I know you said “hardly anyone” buys magazines off the rack but that is not true. I spend over $100 a month on single issues. I don’t subscribe to them because I only want a single issue with certain articles. I subscibe to the ones that I consistently need or enjoy. Lots of other people do too. That’s why they have those big displays. Sure, many don’t ever sell but a lot do.

OTOH, I am a bookstore magazine reader too. My bookstore of choice is Barnes and Noble because there is one nearby. They make things quite comfy for people to read magazines at leisure. I do it at least once a week for an hour or more. However, I am also a B&N member and I buy many books there just by browsing the shelves.

I believe that is the way that they compete with Amazon and others. I buy many books and magazines but I almost always do it there because of the way that they treated me. If they hazzled me after five seconds of opening a cover, I would walk out and never come back. I can have everything delivered to my house with a few clicks. However, it is much nicer to be able to browse at leisure and maybe purchase something that you weren’t intending while putting something else back that you came into the store for. That is where physical bookstores excel. Magazine reading is a huge draw.

7

As a business owner (not a bookstore), I have to disagree with the general sentiment here. Would you also expect to be able to read the complete works of Shakespeare just because the store offers comfy chairs?

It’s about the advertising revenue. In order for a magazine to sell it’s ad space, they have to be able to show the circulation numbers which of course don’t include the “Bookstore Vagrants”.

It’s about sales. The mags are not placed there for you to read cover to cover. They are placed there for you to PURCHASE, providing the retail merchant a PROFIT, to purchase more product for you to BUY.

8

Right, but bookstores have learned that people are SUCKERS and that if they think that they can come in and read a magazine for FREE, they will end up BUYING it, or something else. On the other hand, if people are worried about the morality of browsing and they aren’t in the mood to buy a magazine, they won’t go to the store at all. Which means that at the end of the day, fewer magazines are sold, because a lot of poeple go into the bookstore “just to look” and end up buying something. Allowing extended browsing means they sell more books and magazines than they would otherwise.

In any retail business, turning the people who think they are “just looking” into people who actually buy products is important. This is how you do this in a book store.

9

In your defense, it must work for the bookstores because that is certainly the prevalent business model for even the locally owned ones. Perhaps it’s just my mother’s voice that I hear when I see people taking advantage (yes, I know it’s just my opinion) of the retailer.

10

Are you saying I should actually BUY the Left Behind novels?!?!

(yeah, in the space of two days, I read the latest one- about the birth & childhood of Nicolae the AntiChrist- in the store. Heck, I might just buy that one. It at least had some surprises.)

11

My store’s sign says something along the lines of “We know not everyone can afford purchase our products, and we invite you read as long as you keep our products in the store. If you do need to take a book home overnight, please purchase it or check it out from the library. We will prosecute shoplifters.”

12

Magazines in the drugstore rack are fair game while you are waiting for a prescription.

13

I figure the rule is, as long as you’re in the bookstore, you play by their rules.

If they don’t want you to read the magazines and they let you know that, then it’s unethical to read the magazines.

If they don’t you reading the magazines, then it’s fine to read them.

Another customer has zero influence over the ethics of the situation, and there’s no overriding morality that enters into it, except for the ethic that when in Rome (or Barnes and Noble), do as the Romans (or Barnes and Nobleans) do.

Daniel

14

But the mags are placed there so that people can read them from cover to cover. B&Ns obviously know that people are doing this, they put chairs out to facilitate them doing this and they don’t put signs up asking people not to do it.

So if the owners of the magazine (as B&N is once the mag is in their store) allows you to read the magazine, and you do, why is that wrong?

15

It just feels like stealing to me. IMO, the mags aren’t there for my pleasure to read from cover to cover. (That’s what libraries are for) They are displayed so that I may purchase them.

My B&N doesn’t have “comfy chairs” in the magazine area. There are upholstered chairs in other parts of the store but there are no seating in the magazine department. The magazine section is elevated from the rest of the store insinuating that the staff wants to keep an eye on that part of the store.

I’d like to hear from a bookstore owner/employee to explain what their policy and intent really are.

16

Right, but if you go to the library every weekand spend an hour reading magazines, there is a 0% chance you will ever buy anything from the bookstore, whereas if you go to the bookstore every week and spend an hour browsing magazines, there is a chance you will buy something–and marketing types seems to feel that that chance is not trivial–even if you, yourself, think you are immune to the prospect. People spend more money than they plan to, given enough opportunities.

17

I’ve never been in a B&N that had an elevated mag section. And the building for the one near my house was built specifically to house a B&N, so I don’t think that it’s a standard thing. Also, while they don’t have upholstered chairs, they do have benches in the mag areas.

As for thier policy, I’ve pretty blatently grabbed a mag of the rack, walked into the cafe with it, bought coffee while reading the mag but not paying for it and then sat down and continued to read. No one has ever said anything.

They must know that people do this in their book stores, but they don’t make any move to discourage it. If they want me not to read thier magazines, they need to make some effort to tell me that, and I’ll stop.

18

Just emailed customer service, I’ll report back with their response later.

19

Sure they didn’t say anything…you bought coffee, didn’t you? I’ve seen folks buying pastries, too. Think they would sell just as many if they didn’t allow reading of unpurchased materials in the cafe? Or if they hassled people for their receipts while they were sipping and reading?

I’m going with the general flow here…if the bookstores don’t mind, it’s not unethical. It’s not about the ads, so much…but the bookstores encourage unpaid reading. I know I read quite a bit of stuff that I don’t buy, but then I seldom walk out of a bookstore with nothing when I’ve been browsing for a while.

I do think the comfy chairs are significant, though–you don’t see tables and chairs in grocery stores, because you are expected to pay for anything you eat (other than tiny samples given out).

20

I’ll be interested to hear the “official” response from customer service, but Manda Jo has pretty much nailed the intent, I’d say. The longer you keep people in the store, the more they’ll buy.

As an employee I’ve never seen rules on the subject written down anywhere, but the following is generally true:

-You can take the magazines anywhere in the store to read them, including in the comfy chairs and in the cafe. Exception: the bathroom. Can’t take them in there.

-You can read the magazines from cover to cover and not buy them.

I say generally true because people abuse these privileges. Taking two or three magazines to a comfy chair and reading them while having a coffee? Fine, not unusual. Taking a stack of twenty magazines and reading through them all, then throwing them on the floor and leaving? Not technically against the rules, but clearly taking advantage.

If you really want to be ethical at the bookstore, put the magazines you’ve read back on the rack where you found them instead of leaving them scattered all over the store or worse yet, back on the magazine rack but in the wrong place.