What do you think of the pricing war between Amazon and Walmart? How might that affect the LDS market?
As a consumer who buys LOTS of books as Christmas gifts, I love it! Comparing several popular national titles, Wal-mart seems to have the better prices, sometimes only by 1¢, sometimes by several dollars.
For LDS (and more obscure/niche national titles), it's a moot point because Wal-Mart doesn't carry them at all, and not all LDS publishers get their titles up on Amazon (and I ask them, Why not? Really?! You like shooting yourself in the foot like that?).
As someone who has a vested interest in books and publishing in general, it sort of bothers me. I'm concerned about it, but I'm still inclined to the same conclusions I came to back in October. Short-term, good. Middle-term, painful. Long-term, we'll see.
7 comments:
My local Wal-Mart DOES carry LDS titles, most (all?) of them from Deseret Book. But I almost never buy books from Wal-Mart so I don't know if they are discounting LDS books. Maybe I'll have to check.
I think that it is not worth it to buy LDS Books from Walmart. They have so few titles and they could not even be a very good deal. I think that Seagull Book and Deseret Book have better selection and quality.
Saving money is nice-but I typically favor buying LDS titles at Seagull over Walmart, though I usually favor independent stores like Provident Book (alas dearly departed) Sam Wellers, Pioneer Book, Book City (in Idaho Falls) and any others I come across over the chain stores.
I live outside of DB and Seagull areas so I buy LDS books from an independent bookstore most of the time. Walmart has very few titles and usually not the ones I want. Besides, I like to support the independent stores.
My local Super WalMart also carries a limited range of LDS titles. Most are DB top sellers, but a few CFI and Covenant ones are there, too. The prices seem comparable to Seagull when I have looked. There are so few independent LDS bookstores in the Mesa, AZ area (one?) I generally buy from Seagull.
I bought a book from Wal-Mart last week, one of a series, but unfortunately, I thought I had the next book in the series and I was wrong. When I went to exchange it for the right book, Wal-Mart told me that their policy is to not accept books back at all for refund or exchange. So buyer beware. Make sure it's a book you really want and is the correct one because you can't return it.
Wal-Mart here in Cedar City carries LDS titles, and LDS ties. Though it's best not to buy much from Wal-Mart at all. Buy straight from the publishers, especially the smaller ones. That makes it more likely that you'll continue to see the kind of books you want.
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