.
| Hearsay: |
Indigo is hoping to boost the bottom line by offering more toys for kids. It’s like Reisman has no shame. Oh wait, it’s not LIKE she has no shame… she just really does have no shame. It’s because she’s a businessman, as opposed to a bookseller, see.
Here’s a strategy for you, Head (you don’t mind if I call you “Head” — do you, Head?): first, don’t irrationally swell your business as fast as possible to match your ego. Then niche-sell your books to the local area based on need and interest instead. You won’t get the cartoonishly-evil pleasure of ruining the livelihoods and intellectual communities of lesser folk, but you will stay in business actually selling books. That or you can just switch to pimping hookers and pushing hard drugs. I mean, that’s where you’re really headed, isn’t it, Head?
I would encourage all shoppers to immediately stop browsing at Indigo stores. Instead, I suggest you to pause expectantly out front, peek in as though interested, and then just walk on by. If you step in, see, you risk being converted to a statistic in Head’s next report. And don’t think she doesn’t think of you like that that. The last time she bumped into someone who wasn’t a “yes, ma’am”-man, she was handing him the keys to her Jag and telling him to put a towel down in the seat this time before he drives it around back.
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September 21st, 2006 at 6:41 am
I understand sidelines, my little shop does it and some independents do a lot of it.
But publishers have to be pissed about offering up preferential discounts, getting creamed by
returns and now books are on their way to becoming a sideline.
It’s wholly depressing, but I’ve no idea if it matters to an occasional reader or even a
ravenous one, if their retail experience is book specific or not. Bless every one of them
I know how our regulars feel, but I have a sinking feeling that if Heather (Head) Reisman
morphs entirely into Sam Walton, it won’t make much difference overall.
September 21st, 2006 at 8:24 am
I can understand why people walk around Indigo’s stores without buying anything. The stores are attractive and the staff are friendly, but the books are expensive. If you can buy the books you want in excellent condition for a lower price at a secondhand bookstore, why wouldn’t you do it? If you can find hard-to-locate books on the Internet in the comfort of your home while saving travel time, why wouldn’t you do it?
September 21st, 2006 at 8:57 am
perhaps because any intelligent reader realizes that
1)books are not expensive. How much were your shoes? What’s your car payment? Lunch? Your fucking socks? I’m tired of this argument from people who think disposable entertainment, like movies or drinks at a bar are fairly priced, but a book, which can last more than a lifetime and be used hundreds of times over, is overpriced.
2) writers don’t get paid for 2nd-hand sales. If you could download music for free, why would you buy it? Because you are honest and honourable, and value the work received.
on a seperate point, hate Heather as much as you feel like. But whatever she does, she’s not responsible for the business failures of others, retail or wholesale. If publishers and independants can’t make a living, it’s easy to blame someone else. Try attracting customers for a change, instead of blaming competitors. I’m also very tired of people using this argument simply to vent some of their own spleen. Sure, there aren’t a lot of cobblers left in the world, but I don’t see a lot of blogs blaming Nike or Hush Puppies for it.
September 21st, 2006 at 9:33 am
But Nike and Hush Puppies actually sell shoes. Indigo swept into the market at the turn of the millennium, bought up Chapters in a deal that Heritage Canada should have squashed from the get-go, became a retailing juggernaut with a disproportionate market share, thereby driving independents out of business (Britnell’s, anyone?), demanded ever deeper discounts from publishers while returning upwards of 60% of what they ordered, and now, having done immeasurable harm to the Canadian book industry, the CEO decides it’s more profitable to sell candles and yoga equipment. If Indigo was in the book business, I’d have no quarrel with them. (Okay, I’d have less of a quarrel with them.) But every time I hear Heather Reisman described as the “chief booklover,” I think that irony really is dead.
September 21st, 2006 at 10:10 am
Hello Michel!
I detect a note of frustration in your voice. But . . .
1. If you re-read my post, you’ll note that I said that books at Indigo were expensive. I didn’t say that all books were expensive.
I buy lots of books. I get them from Amazon, Abebooks and BMV in Toronto. I don’t think the books are expensive.
By the way, you’re corresponding with a guy who rigorously excludes superfluous expenses. I rarely go to movies. I hit a jazz club only two or three times a year. I don’t own a car. I stopped paying for cable TV in 1996. But I still buy and read books!
2. You mention that writers don’t get paid for secondhand book sales. That’s true, but writers do get paid when their books are sold the first time. You don’t have a valid complaint there.
I don’t download music for free either. I buy it from iTunes, Sam the Record Man, HMV and Amazon (again). I do believe in paying the artist, whether he or she is a musician or a writer. But I still want a good price.
3. Finally, I don’t think anybody today said that they “hated” Heather Reisman. I certainly don’t hate her.
It is now after 11 a.m. in Toronto. I have to get back to work!
September 21st, 2006 at 5:04 pm
I “strongly dislike” Heather and her monopoly, as I “strongly disliked” Darth Vader and his Deathstar – same destructive, all consuming, all controlling nature. (I feel most comfortable framing my fear in geek terms). And yes, if the Indigo-Chapters merger had been stopped – in the spirit of competition being an intrinsic part of democracy – then there would be no reason to bitch about the company. Indigo is a cancer. Further, books ARE expensive. If you look at other countries – England most notably – they are far more affordable. Take off the GST to start and then let’s look beyond.
September 21st, 2006 at 8:43 pm
Really? No one said they hated H.R. (on Bookninja!)? It’s all about convenience though, really–if I can get my candles, coke AND hookers in one place, well… Oh and ummm books.
September 21st, 2006 at 8:44 pm
Books being expensive or not is more about perception and that’s fine,
but I wonder if the time for cloth titles has come and gone. Trade paper originals
would drop the price for everyone and make prices comparable to DVD’s or
whatever else floats around out there. As an aside, independents are well aware that
whining does nothing but when I hear “try attracting customers for a change” that suggests
that we aren’t doing our damnedest to do just that.
As for Amazon, they create no jobs, tax base or charity income to the country. Cheap
books come and go, tax burdens are forever.
September 21st, 2006 at 9:23 pm
As self-hating novelists go, Michel is a particularly whiny Indigo apologist.
September 21st, 2006 at 9:44 pm
I respectfully disagree with your assertion, Mr. Thompson, that Indigo is a “monopoly.” Indigo merely has a large market share.
Book lovers who are determined to stay out of Indigo (and its subsidiaries, Chapters and Coles) can easily do so. They may buy books and magazines online, they may shop at used bookstores, and they may borrow from public libraries.
And, of course, book lovers may buy books from first-run independent booksellers.
If you don’t know where the smaller independent booksellers are in your town, try contacting the Canadian Booksellers Association. I’m willing to bet that the CBA will give you a list of names and addresses.
You could also exchange contact information with Mr. Worsley. He apparently has some books to sell!
September 22nd, 2006 at 12:08 am
I definilty disagree that books are expensive.
A book provides, at the very last, many hours of “entertainment.” A paperback book costs about 16 bucks US.
OTOH, going to a movie costs about 8 bucks for an hour and a half of entertainment and a music concert costs from 10 to…. well, to over 100 sometimes.
Buy 2 drinks at a NYC bar and you’ve paid for a book.
September 22nd, 2006 at 4:13 pm
Books become expensive when you’re moving… I don’t wish they were cheaper, I wish the damn things weighed less.
September 23rd, 2006 at 2:34 pm
Books are expensive in Canada. Books in England are much cheaper than they are here, but that’s because the market is so much larger. It’s similar to the situation with magazines. Canadian publishers would love to sell books and magazines for cheaper prices, and they would if there was a larger market, but its just not generally economically feasible. At the same time, the high prices keep *some* consumers away. I would love to pick up more magazines on a regular basis, but when the price of many of them is creeping up to $10, I just can’t justify more than 1 or 2. I also can’t justify the cost of movies, so I never see them.
Franklin: The argument for second-hand books doesn’t really work. By buying the second-hand book, you are withholding money from the author that would have been hers/his if you had purchased a new book.
Oh, and I go into Indigo regularly, but only to use their generally clean bathrooms.
September 23rd, 2006 at 11:03 pm
Hello Pageblank!
What you say is true: buying a book from a secondhand bookstore doesn’t “work” for the writer. The purchase doesn’t put any money into the writer’s pocket. But buying a book from a secondhand bookstore does “work” for someone. It works for the customer. It works for me.
Borrowing a book from the public library doesn’t work for the writer either. Reading a library book doesn’t put any money into the writer’s pocket. But lots of people visit libraries. Guilt-free!
Perhaps the writer does benefit, though, from secondhand book sales. Perhaps the writer gets publicity. Perhaps the writer’s reputation grows. Publicity and reputation do have value in our commercial society, although they are not guaranteed.
To be honest, I don’t think about the writer’s income when I buy a book. I don’t worry about the writer’s financial health. But the arrangement is 100 per cent reciprocal: the writer doesn’t care about my income and financial health either!
September 24th, 2006 at 9:51 am
In fact, FC, the library system does compensate the author through public lending rights. I know one writer who makes more money a year from her writing through PLR and Access Copyright than she does on sales. So, go to the library even more guilt-free from now on.
September 24th, 2006 at 10:42 am
Hello Kathryn,
I wasn’t aware of public lending rights. I don’t know how they work. But I am pleased to see that writers can earn some money from such rights.
I have heard of Access Copyright (and of copyright collectives in general). I even know someone who works at Access Copyright. But I wasn’t thinking about it when I posted my message yesterday.