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Readers may be shivering with excitement at the thought of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows being released on July 21, but to those who sell the book, it is more likely to be remembered as Harry Potter and the Nightmare on High Street.
For, to them, Harry Potter is a loser. And that may well include Bloomsbury, the publisher that found a diamond in the rockface when it discovered the author J.K. Rowling.
The problem is that the seventh and last book in the Potter series is expected to be the fastest-selling book of all time.
So British supermarkets, never ones to miss a "pile 'em high, sell 'em cheap" trick, will sell it way below cover price. And that means trouble for other British retailers, even the book chains.
Small bookshops, especially, will suffer as they struggle to keep up with the discounts offered by the industry's big players.
Shop owners such as Marilyn Brocklehurst of Norfolk Children's Book Centre in Alby, near Cromer, said she would have to stock the book, once again, against her will.
"We will make a loss on it, but we can't afford not to sell it," she said. "We have to pay Bloomsbury £10.74 ($27.60) a copy, so I can't afford to sell it for the price it is in Asda [a supermarket chain]." At £8.87, almost half the £17.99 cover price, Asda is treating the book as a loss leader to tempt customers through its doors.
- INDEPENDENT
