Yeah Right!
July 3rd, 2006Heather Reisman, CEO of the large Chapters/Indigo bookstores, dream on, if you think this will help (click for large version):
Heather is the person who tells us what cannot be read (she will not sell books that promote hatred, like Hitler’s Mein Kampf: it is apparently OK for her to read them, though, so that she can determine what we must not see.
Anyway: Heather has a problem.
The Canadian Dollar is now almost the same as the US dollar (around 90 cents). So the fact that a book is marked something like “US: $11 / Canada: $19″ does not impress people. I saw a book the other day that was US$24, and the “set” Canadian price was $54. I can almost drive to Buffalo, NY for that price difference and go buy it myself.
So Heather has a problem. And what does she do?
- She tells us the price of books is pre-set. As though that isn’t the problem in the first place! It is also untrue: Heather can discount deeply, so no reason why she cannot discount all books.
- She refers to the cost of printing in Canada. Nonsense. These books are not printed in Canada. And if they are, then don’t: just go buy them in the US if they print books for half price there, Heather.
- “Under no circumstances do we benefit from these price differences”. Even if this is true (which I seriously doubt), then why on earth should I care?
The bottom line is: they are hurting and they will go on hurting because people do not like being taken for a ride by the book trade. It is high time this ridicuolous “fixed price” system was abolished anyway. Maybe now that it hurts them instead of benefiting them, it finally will be.
In the mean time, my book buying is done at Amazon. Cheaper, better selection, and neither disingenious arguments nor Heather’s censorship. When I get to pay a fair price at Chapter’s I’ll buy there again. but not before. And I am not alone, if that desperate sign at the entrance is anything to go by.
July 3rd, 2006 at 4:41 pm
Oh, and Heather also banned the sale of Harper’s magazine recently: See this link.
July 3rd, 2006 at 4:43 pm
Heather is evil. Her husband is responsible for the nasty development of condos in Toronto that cause major shadows and ruin nice places like High Park. I do most of my book shopping at Amazon. Tell me what to read will you! Dumb ass, we NEED to read Mein Kampf to see what a jerk Hitler was!
July 3rd, 2006 at 4:48 pm
Hear hear: I could not agree more.
July 3rd, 2006 at 10:14 pm
I find that also totally annoying! Costco always sells books for less, also new releases. Book’s selling at “Heather’s” for $ 11.99 are sold by Costco for $ 6.99! Also, you are not allowed to bring magazines and or books to the coffee corner without having purchased them This is a problem, because they also removed all the benches (used to be comfortable chairs…) So, better to buy from Amazon from the comfort of your chair. Saying that, we bought last month for $ 88.- in books magazines etc. at the local Chapers….:-( So I still don’t feel sorry for Heather.
July 3rd, 2006 at 10:25 pm
No, I certainly don’t feel sorry for Heather either. Just annoyed at her disingeniousness, and hopeful that necessity will force the model to change.. and also bored, since I can just use Amazon.
July 3rd, 2006 at 11:17 pm
I always found Chapters bad for shipping etc. so was elated when we got amazon here in Canada. It hjas improved but Chapters is infuriating. I keep renewing my membership though but even that sucks as you used to get $5 certificates to use on anything after spending so much money, which pretty much paid for a magazine subscription each month…they haven’t had this for years now.
Another Canadian business that ends up sucking. Heather should learn about Consumer’s Distributing. I always felt like I was lining up for goods in an old Eastern block communist country when I shopped there. Canadian Tire is our only hope!