Akademik

v.

To use a retail store to view and research a product and then purchase the product for less money online.

—showrooming pp.

According to Codex Group, a book audience research firm in New York, people use their neighborhood stores as a form of literary dressing room: Try it on for size, but buy it elsewhere. It's a trend that shows no sign of abating, said Peter Hildick-Smith, president of Codex.

Earlier this year, his firm surveyed 5,067 book buyers from around the country about their buying habits and 28 percent said they "showroomed."

—Rosalind Bentley, " Bookstores losing browsers to Web: http://www.ajc.com/lifestyle/bookstores-losing-browsers-to-1262968.html," The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, December 17, 2011

As the last of what were once more than 500 Borders bookstores disappeared, along with hundreds of independents, Amazon helped to add a new word — "showrooming" — to the fast-evolving digital lexicon.

—John Barber, " Amazon's 'showrooming' tactic the latest to enrage booksellers: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/amazons-showrooming-tactic-the-latest-to-enrage-booksellers/article2282196/," The Globe and Mail, December 23, 2011

Bookstore owners everywhere have a lurking suspicion: that the customers who type into their smartphones while browsing in the store, and then leave, are planning to buy the books online later — probably at a steep discount from the bookstores' archrival, Amazon.com.

Now a survey has confirmed that the practice, known among booksellers as showrooming, is not a figment of their imaginations.

—Julie Bosman, " Book Shopping in Stores, Then Buying Online: http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/04/book-shopping-in-stores-then-buying-online/," The New York Times, December 4, 2011

I'm guilty of a flavour of this "showrooming". Way before I ever had a fancy phone device, I'd use a notebook to copy down intriguing titles and authors. Not to pass on money to the slobbering giant that is Amazon, but to have list when next I visited my public library.Wow! You English speakers surely do love to use nouns as verbs :P