Let’s set the scene: it’s the year 2010, the Viggo Mortensen-fronted film The Road has just been released in cinemas, and you want to read the Cormac McCarthy novel the movie is based on. You could buy it from Waterstones for the recommended retail price (RRP) of £7.99 – or you could go to Amazon and buy it for half the price, just £4.
Twelve years later, if you want to read the same novel, the balance has changed: while the novel’s RRP has only risen to £8.99, on Amazon the price has gone up to £7.35. That 50 per cent saving Amazon customers made in 2010 has narrowed to less than 20 per cent.
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