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| Hearsay: |
Supermarkets now sell one in five books. (In related news: Reisman announces Indigo to develop frozen foods section.) The poison line forms to my left, the noose and tanto blade lines to my right.
Figures for volume share in 2009, provided by the three leading supermarket booksellers, Asda, Sainsbury’s and Tesco, and based on Nielsen BookScan data, show that the supermarket sector has more than trebled its share of the books market in the past five years. The combined market share of the three supermarkets is now estimated at just under 20%, compared with the 6.4% share of the market they were estimated to have by TNS in 2004, reported by the Competition Commission’s investigation into Woolworth’s takeover of Bertrams.
Tesco’s volume market share this year is 9.24%. Category manager David Cooke said this figure was more than half a percent behind last year because of continuing fallout following the collapse of its supplier EUK in late 2008. Asda’s market share is 7.61%, up from just under 7% in 2008. Sainsbury’s average market share in 2009 is approximately 2.72%. The figures do not take into account book sales from Morrisons, Waitrose or Costco.
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July 31st, 2009 at 12:20 pm
How is this a downer? It’s not like these are books that would otherwise be sold elsewhere. You can bemoan that supermarket chains over-stock the likes of Dan Brown, and therefore over-inflate the popularity of such books — and maybe there’s something to that, if it’s reflected in fewer less popular titles at the publisher’s end (and more Dan Brown books). But mostly, I just think it’s good. I’d rather have one in five books sold at a Tesco than only have four books sold.
July 31st, 2009 at 9:24 pm
I don’t see a problem. I would like to see books sold in every store on the planet. Because, while I have a preference for independent bookstores, I just like to see people buying books regardless of location.
As Fred said, it’s a pity they carry so much Dan Brown and a lot of other authors who like to tack the names of historical figures/groups to the words “Code” “Conspiracy” and “Plot,” but the one in my neighborhood does stock other stuff.
Westerns and horror novels must be popular in my area, because the local store always has a big batch of them next to the big name bestsellers. Is that the same in anyone else’s town?