Returns can be such a problem for small publishers that one press has finally done what lots of them have probably dreamt of doing for years. According to Publishers Weekly:

Lots of small publishers complain about the financial problems caused by returns, but few, if any, have done what Jasmine-Jade Enterprises, parent company of Ellora’s Cave and Cerridwen Press, just did–sue Borders and Baker & Taylor over the matter. In separate civil suits filed in Summit County, Ohio the company is charging the two parties with breach of contract and fraud. The lawsuit is seeking at least $1 million in damages.

…

The complaint alleges that Borders and B&T “knowingly ordered excessive quantities of [Jasmine] titles in order to return the excess to [Jasmine], thereby generating a credit on Defendant’s account.” The number of returns were in the tens of thousands during the time in question, the complaint states. As a result of Borders and B&T’s action, Jasmine “incurred unnecessary business expenses such as shipping costs, as well as lost business opportunities, damage to its credit rating, loss of good will with vendors and authors and other consequential and incidental damages,” the complaint says.

It’s often perceived as a “problem” that print-on-demand books aren’t carried by most brick-and-mortar bookstores. But when we see the many genuine problems associated with the way the corporate publishing and bookselling industry has structured the industry — for the benefit of those corporations, of course, not for the benefit of readers or authors — it doesn’t look like such a big issue at all. The demands that big booksellers put on small presses have the result of keeping many worthy books off the radar of many readers, so that even many books published the “traditional” way — which is supposed to be superior to print-on-demand — never get into the hands of readers anyway.

All those physical books getting shipped back and forth, sitting in warehouses and storerooms, and never being read. This is superior how?