Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Whitcoulls seems to want to clear their shelves of books

Our NZ distributor tells us that the Whitcoulls chain yesterday sent them a returns authorisation request about equal to the annual value of their sales to them.  Probably other publishers/distributors have received the same.

It follows earlier negative signs from that organisation and is in line with our prediction that unless the business model is radically changed the same would happen as before - big time sales drops.  The business model probably will change - but not in a way that favors books, rather it will be the convenience store way with the main emphasis on trinkets and stationery as per their Paper Plus competitors.  And is there room for two identical chains like that?  Doubtful.

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