Please Shut Up About Harry Potter

Shockingly enough, unlike the entire British media, I do not consider “hyped book being sold way below wholesale price outsells more expensive books which were less hyped” to be big news. So please stop reporting it as such.

9 thoughts on “Please Shut Up About Harry Potter

  1. Surely you mean the RRP?

    If you sold below the wholesale price you would make a loss, which wouldn’t be good business sense seeing as you’re talking about a best seller.

    IF they were selling below the wholesale price that would be news because it means ASDA and everyone are being stupid fuckers.

  2. While i agree that it is probably the RRP large companies like Asda make so much profit on the thousands of other products that they sell, that they can afford to run other products below wholesale price.

    This is called a “loss leader”, and in the case of Asda, it would probably work. Such is the unnecessary hype surrounding the book, people were flooding into Asda stores buying it and no doubt buying a few other products at the same time.

    So to describe Asda as “stupid fuckers” for what has obviously been a fantastic marketing ploy is perhaps a little short-sighted

  3. It is a loss leader. The wholesale price is about £9, isn’t it? It was on the news.

    In any case, I wonder whether, after queueing all night to get a book, someone is going to (a) read the book or (b) do a spot of shopping.

    I can’t see the loss leader being that good for business. But what do I know about running a supermarket? Not a lot, I think.

  4. Its not just the very dull and clearly pointless people that queued all night that they are targeting through this, its the housewife/mother on a budget. Bring them in with the loss leader product and keep their custom, which is worth a hell of a lot.

    You also have to factor in the value of the publicity they received from this.

  5. Is that the publicity that said “how dare they; they’re running independent bookshops out of business”?

    Housewives, fair point, though.

  6. Well if the price of running independent bookshops out of business means no more romantic comedies with Hugh Grant being a bookshop owner, i think i can live with it

    Plus Borders and Waterstones have been doing a good job of that anyway

  7. “It is a loss leader. The wholesale price is about £9, isn’t it? It was on the news.”

    Oh well if it was on the news it *must* be true!

    £9 a copy sounds ludicrously high for a wholesale price to a huge volume seller. In any case the point of a loss-leader is to encourage people instore.

    I’m skeptical that ASDA would experience a significantly (to them) higher volume of other sales: who goes to ASDA just to get HP? It’s not even like it’s *that* expensive anywhere else.

    To be fair the RRP was 17:99 I think.

    Anyway, stop whinging about “hype”, go back to your inane blog or better yet why not release some more albums*

    Luna

    *if you don’t know what this means it’s a great shame.

  8. Well, I don’t know. You may be referring to my producer’s role on a number of albums, including Thunder’s. Possibly my performance in Duran Duran or my, albeit pseudonymous, work with The Sisters Of Mercy. Who knows?

  9. You seem to be suffering from the inexplicable delusion that the media selects what it reports based on what is considered newsworthy.

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