Did Sears Just Whoop Wal-Mart, Amazon, and Target in the Book-Price War

[Are_grits_groceries]

Last week, Wal-Mart cut the price of some popular new books to just $10, a slice of over 60%. Not willing to be out-done on home turf, Amazon matched them. Wal-Mart went down to $9. Amazon went to $8.99. Target jumped in tardily at $8.99. Then Sears jaunted into the battle and dropped some serious knowledge: books for free.

How? Buy any one of those deep-discounted books at Target, Wal-Mart, or Amazon, and send Sears the receipt at , and they'll give you a credit of $9 towards anything you buy from Sears online.

Sears says this is part of some campaign called "Keep America Reading," which would be more appropriately called "Keep America Buying Books." And buy books they'll do, if the $10 price point sticks past the holiday rush.

So what does this do to indie bookshops, struggling as they already are? Well, it might actually help them, according to PubLunch, which reports:

"Boulder Bookstore buyer Arsen Kashkashian has suggested via Twitter that fellow indies cancel their publisher pre-orders on these deep-discounted forthcoming titles and take advantage of their competitors' loss leaders. Bookstores will save money, he reasons, while helping Amazon and Walmart.com lose more."

http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/chris-dannen/techwatch/did-sears-just-win-book-price-war

Good idea about indie stores.

[Ian David]

1. Not that I object to Wal-Mart and Amazon getting a whooping, but...

... isn't this an anti-competitive practice?

[ingac70]

2. Bringing a receipt to use in their store?

Sears isn't literally giving the books away. They are taking the receipts from other stores like a coupon.

[Ian David]

9. If they're intentionally losing money just to under-cut a competitor, then it's illegal, IIRC. n/t

[Barack_America]

3. How so? Sounds like the competition is fierce.

:shrug:

[hfojvt]

4. as a former indie bookstore owner

I sometimes bought calendars at Wal-mart where the same calendars were cheaper than I could get them wholesale. I also bough a few books at Sam's club (on my BiL's membership) and re-sold them.

However, it sounds like they are talking about hardbacks, and I neither carried nor sold very many hardbacks. As a used bookstore that also carried new books, my primary purpose was to provide good literature to the poor and thrifty.

[Sherman A1]

6. When I was owner of a game store, I did the same thing

If I could get a product at a better price by visiting Toy R Us or whoever I did that. It was very infrequent, but you do what you have to as a niche business.

[Speck Tater]

5. I buy most of my books at the thrift store for a dollar or two. nt

[HopeHoops]

7. What? Are they offering to pay ME to take a copy of Palin's bullshit pulp fiction?

We make a lot of fires during the winter - I'm sure it would be appropriate material.

[DireStrike]

8. So this works out to be... good for publishers/authors?

Sears is subsidizing book purchases, right? I don't see anything in their actions that would drive the price down.

Sounds good to me! Americans get more books, Sears gets to make more sales, as well as the other retailers selling the books in the first place.

HOWEVER, it cuts the knees out from any other book dealer besides those three. I think it will be negligeable, but damage is damage.

Bah, I guess by hurting retailers that sell at higher prices, this move helps drive down book prices. Blah.