I need a kick up the ****! Storm's DFW Diary

Storm

I stuck with my original plan, picked it up from Waterstones & was home & reading by 12.30 - I finished at 7.15 Saturday morning, then went to bed! The frustration now is hardly anyone else I know has finished so I'm having to keep my mouth shut about what happened!

hypno06

We don't have a copy yet - Asda had sold out when a friend went yesterday and they don't know when their next delivery will be in. Although I genuinely feel for the smaller bookshops, the DFW in me says wait till you can get the cheapest one.

So wait we will............

Storm

My thing with this HP was that I've been reading them for 7 years, and I did not want to run the risk of anyone spoiling the ending for me (my mum if awful at letting things like that slip!) I'm now biting my lip though for my flatmate to finish reading it (about half way through) and then I'm going to be truly sad & re-read all 7 books so I can pick up all the little hints from the early ones that come together at the end!

I'd ordered one at Waterstones a couple of months ago, when everywhere said they were going to be £9, so for a £1 saving I figured s0d it!

hypno06

Nothing sad about re-reading books at all. You will appreciate them all the more the next time round.

I have read the other 6 and will be popping into asda periodically to see if there is a new supply in. Thankfully, those near to me don't spoil things generally by giving away the ending, so hopefully we will manage!!

Storm

Just read online actually that by selling it at £5 it's less than the wholesale price! Each copy costs the retailer £8 (pretty fair considering the size of the book methinks) - and there's been various arguments from independent bookshops, other chains etc about it 'devalueing reading!'

hypno06

Well, I do feel for the smaller retailers, but sadly as a DFW, needs must!!

And as for devaluing reading......piffle! Anything that gets kids or adults reading is good. The value is in the reading, surely, not in the price of the book? (does that make any sense, probably not!!)

ZTD

hypno06 wrote: »

Well, I do feel for the smaller retailers, but sadly as a DFW, needs must!!

And as for devaluing reading......piffle! Anything that gets kids or adults reading is good. The value is in the reading, surely, not in the price of the book? (does that make any sense, probably not!!)

Yes it does make sense.

What they actually mean to say is that using the rest of your stock to be able to sell below cost something other smaller retailers actually depend on to make their livelihood (and hence raising the possibility of driving them out of business) is anti-competitive.

But that the supermarkets have too many people and too much money pumped into the government to ever get done for it.

No wonder Mr T and friends end up with a placard waving protest every time they turn up into yet another town...

Storm

What I find strange is that with Asda using it as a loss leader I wouldn't have thought they'd actually pick up that much profit elsewhere in the store... Tesco's apparently are selling it at £5 too, but you have to spend £50 instore on other stuff too - might be worth you having a look if you're due to do a big shop anyway...

ZTD

But if you drive the local bookshops out of business, and then can charge whatever you like for your books - how much profit can you make then?

Remember, because of their size, supermarkets get stuff like this on a sale-or-return basis. Your local bookshop can not.

Storm

True - also, supermarkets will only ever carry the 'big' books, and they'll never have the range of a bookstore. I don't have an independent bookshop near me, but I love going in waterstones & being able to browse, pick up stuff I've never heard of, and sometimes discover a new author.

I've wandered over to the 'green & ethical moneysaving' board at times, and it is always so difficult to find a balance between your own pocket & the bigger picture - do we buy fair trade, stuff produced in sweat shops, cheapest option no matter the ethics of the company etc?