Walmart.com and Amazon.com have been in a head-to-head battle over book prices for quite some time now. Target has now joined in on the battle overcoming both Walmart and Amazon. Starting on Monday, Target began offering six different books that are soon to be published at a low price of $8.99 on their store website. Walmart had already made the same soon to be published books $8.99 on Friday.
Originally Walmart had the books for $10 then dropped the price to $9 once they saw that Amazon had matched their $10 price. Soon enough Amazon also dropped their price to $9, and Target, new to the book war, dropped their price by a penny to $8.99.
The books being offered at $8.99 are as follows: Sarah Palin’s “Going Rogue”; “Under the Dome” by Stephen King; “I, Alex Cross” by James Patterson; “Pirate Latitudes” by Michael Crichton; “The Lacuna” by Barbara Kingsolver; and “Ford County,” a short-story collection by John Grisham.
The book wars can be potentially for bookstores because people will want to buy books at the cheapest price possible. Authors have asked for readers to take into consideration how much they value local bookstores. If people keep buying their books at the cheap prices Walmart, Target, and Amazon are offering, bookstores will be highly affected in their sales and could possibly go out of business.
I feel bad for local bookstores here in Jacksonville. With the economy the way it is, it's no surprise that people will want to buy their books at a low price. I am guilty for buying books from Target because they are cheaper. When Twilight got really popular, I bought almost all of the books at Target because they were significantly cheaper than Books-A-Million. I think that it will be beneficial for local bookstores to come up with some sort of incentive for their buyers to stick with them and not go somewhere that is asking for less money.
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Local book stores may be at risk. One Barnes and Noble closed down earlier this year in town. I've never bought a book at a Walmart or Target before, but I have bought them off amazon; a mix between amazon and a local book store. The book stores do cost more, but I buy a book when I can.
ReplyDeleteAs long as those companies don't go into the comic book business then I won't have any complaints. However, it is sad to see small businesses take the brunt of the effects from the bigger merchants.
ReplyDeleteI think that there is no stopping consumers from buying from the cheapest retailer, esp. in this economy. I bought my twilight books at Book-a-million and paid $25 and then saw them at target a week later for like $13. I was so mad! Sorry to say, but I think that books stores should get with it! Books are their specialty and they should be competing with the best of them!
ReplyDeleteI agree with Nikki. I dont think there is no stopping the consumers from being the less expensive retailer. With this economy everybody is doing what ever they can to get cheap things. I would go to Walmart and get a book any day ( if they have it ) over books a million or barnes and noble because i know its going to be more money.
ReplyDeleteI have to agree with you. I want to buy my books for the lowest price. However, I feel bad for the local businesses. It is a catch 22. Its hard to say but they people will buy wherever the best deal is.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure small, privately owned bookstores would love to compete with places like Target and Amazon, but they can't. They need to turn a profit. Hopefully they have their loyal customers and can find a way to survive off of that, but like you said, I don't blame people for going to the cheapest place, I would too.
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