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Bookstores battling for limited spending dollars

By Jill Kelley, Staff Writer 4:51 PM Wednesday, November 18, 2009

It is a good season to be a consumer, due to the many rampant price wars dancing before our eyes.

According to the National Retail Federation, holiday spending is expected to be down for the second year in a row.

“As the global economy continues to recover from the worst economic crisis most retailers have ever seen, Americans will focus primarily on practical gifts and shop on a budget this holiday season,” NRF’s chief economist, Rosalind Wells, said in October.

Given that expected budgeting, there is more stress than ever on retailers to battle it out for the fewer spending dollars to be gained.

One of the groups that has been waging a price war of late is booksellers.

Last month, Walmart started the ball rolling by announcing it would sell newly released hardcover books for $10 and offer free shipping online.

This was a cut of 60 percent or more off the regular price on books by well-known authors such as John Grisham and Stephen King.

The day after Walmart’s announcement, Amazon met that price and started selling many of its preorders for $10 as well.

Then Walmart dropped the price on select books to $8.99. Then Amazon met that as well.

More recently, the big bookstores have been getting in on the price-war action.

Borders and Barnes & Noble are offering 30 percent and 40 percent discounts on many of their best-selling hardback books off. This battle is primarily online, but any of the prices also are good in the stores.

Books and Co. and Half Price Books also have discounts, but haven’t changed their prices due to the current price wars.

Books and Co. has a few of the best-selling hardbacks at 40 percent off, as part of its regular discounts, when purchased with the store’s membership card.

However, the store has other best-sellers for full price, which is surprising in this discount-driven climate.

For example, one of New York Times’ best-sellers is “The Book of Basketball” by Bill Simmons. At Books & Co., the price starts at the full $30. With the discount card, it costs $27.

To compare, at Amazon and Walmart that same book is $13.50, at Half Price Books it is $15, at Barnes and Noble it’s $17.55 and at Borders it is $21.

Half Price Books lives up to its name — even for best-sellers.

The store doesn’t always have the new releases, since its inventory is based on what is sold to it, but when it does get those books in, they are sold for 50 percent off the list price.

A store representative recommended calling ahead to check on a book’s status, and said customers can put books on hold.

Books & Co.’s membership card costs $20 for one year and members get an additional 10 percent off everything in the store.

Borders has a rewards card that is free, and offers coupons of up to 40 percent off. Barnes & Noble’s discount card will get you 10 percent to 40 percent off storewide, and costs $25 per year.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-7325 or jikelley@DaytonDailyNews.com.

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Borders overcharged me $18.00 and would not fix it. I will never shop Borders again.

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10:01 PM, 11/19/2009

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