« Asia Mind Dynamics in cooperation with JenJobs | Main | My NLP Certification training has started »

July 23, 2007

Harry Potter and the bookstore war

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K Rowling. Finally published and creating waves of consumer "madness" around the globe.

Just read some of the news titles available on the web to gain an impression of the impact:

In India, "Potter mania takes book stores by storm", reports The Hindu.

In LA, "‘Fan’-tastic Wizards Cast Spell Over ‘Harry Potter’ Midnight Madness Event", reports MTV Movie Blog.

Australia is taken by storm, and "Harry Potter mania reigns across Australia".

New Zealand reports that the "Final Potter book breaks all the records."

Good, and in Malaysia? The Battle of the Bookstores is about to begin. Haha, the rest of the world celebrates, while Malaysia takes a different view.

MPH Bookstores, Popular Bookstores, Harris Bookstores and Times Bookshop don't want to continue the launching of the book since Carrefour and Tesco decided to sell the book for less money. Much lesser.

That is their decision - but whom do they want to punish? The consumer, I believe. Sure, Carrefour and Tesco might sell below price, and speculate that shoppers do not only by books, but stuff up their trolley with groceries. This hurts the specialised shops since they only sell books (and a few other items).

In the end, it is the consumer who decides what to buy where and for what price. It might hurt their pocket that the hypermarkets sell cheaper. But hey - I believe that, a long time back, there probably was a discussion about bigger bookshops opening store in residential areas and that then, smaller bookshops suffered. It is an open economy and thus, there are pricewars - sometimes you are on the defending, and sometimes on the attacking side.

So what could the big boys do? Entice the consumers, so that the consumers stream into their shops to get more aside of just a book.

Sure, it is tough to bridge the gap of around RM40 with entertainment and enticement, but I believe they have enough creativity to get something done. Do something, to make it worthwhile for the consumer to come to your place!

If not, well, after a while, even a Carrefour or a Tesco will run out of their copies and then, the consumers are forced to buy in the normal bookshops for normal prices.

My five cents of thinking about the Harry Potter affair.

hpdhcover.jpg


Posted by Andreas at July 23, 2007 06:34 PM

Comments

Post a comment

Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)

(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)


Remember me?