It is interesting that as I was searching Buy.com for other books (and some videos) to purchase, many items had virtually no product information.  For these same items, Amazon.com had decent information; information that made me more confident that I would be purchasing the "right" product.  I made the purchase this evening from Buy.com because I am a big believer in free shipping and I knew about the book Sir Cedric.  All else being equal or near equal, however, the site that provides the most helpful information (e.g., Amazon.com) -- when I need help -- will get my business.

This is a very interesting issue and it has been alive for quite some time; it is perhaps magnified to some extent online due to the ease of search (though it is all relative).  A common conflict among full service retailers, discount retailers and manufacturers is that some consumers shop the full service dealers for helpful information and then buy from a discount retailer who provides relatively little information (by the way, I am not saying that all discount retailers provide relatively little information and I am not saying that all of the full service retailers provide information of value). This bothers full service retailers because they argue that they have expended the cost to make the sale and then they do not get the reward.  This is not exactly what happened in my purchase of Sir Cedric; yet had I purchased certain other items -- those on which I could not find good information -- from Buy.com, it would be fair to say that this might have been the case -- though note that I thought about this and did not purchase anything else from Buy.com today.  I could debate both sides of this issue (e.g., not all consumers need full service so why should they pay for it, or perhaps some full service retailers have significantly higher prices because they are inefficient).  I've got a one month old who needs her dad, however, so this will have to wait for another day.