21 July 2007 -News Focus: Major chains won't sell book due to price war By : Nisha Sabanayagam and Suganthi Suparmaniam
PETALING JAYA: Harry Potter will not be casting his spell at four major bookstore chains today. Eager fans who have been awaiting the magic moment should not go to the hundred-odd outlets nationwide that make up MPH Bookstores, Times the Bookshop, Popular Bookstores and Harris Bookstores unless they have pre-ordered the latest book on the boy wizard. "There will be no Harry Potter books on the sales floor for walk-in customers," said MPH Bookstores (M) Sdn Bhd chief operating officer Patricia Chen on behalf of the four booksellers. In a bold move, they have withdrawn the seventh and final book in the series titled Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows from shelves in protest over the "indiscriminate" price discount offered by hypermarkets Tesco and Carrefour. The hypermarkets are selling the books at RM69.90, which is RM40 cheaper than the recommended retail price of RM109.90. The latest — and cheapest — price was only made known to the booksellers yesterday morning through advertisements in the newspapers and over the radio. "It came out of nowhere and was a shock to all of us (the booksellers)," said Chen at a hastily held press conference yesterday. Also present were Popular Bookstore Co (M) Sdn Bhd executive director Lim Lee Ngoh and a representative from Times the Bookshop Pte Ltd. Chen said although the hypermarkets had sold the sixth Harry Potter books at discounted prices two years ago, this year they were selling the latest title at "a very low price" and on the day of the launch. The booksellers have also decided to cancel all activities related to the launch of the book with the exception of a costume party held last night.However, both MPH and Popular Bookstores will be open at seven in the morning today to cater to those customers who had pre-ordered the books since February of this year. Both bookstores have also agreed to refund the deposits placed for the books, should the customers decide to cancel their orders, said Chen. Customers placed a RM70 deposit at MPH and RM50 at Popular for a copy of the book. Both bookstores have a total of 43,000 books in stock, about 11,000 of which have been pre-ordered. Lim said that the protest was to let consumers know that they were not simply pricing their books to make a "quick buck". As book operators, she said, they had certain costs to meet including marketing and promotion expenses.
 Wow, they got it wrong this time ... Harry Potter is not an ordinary book. Congratulations to the hypermarkets for serving the public - as hypermarket should do. I know about selling books and I know the profit margin they make, so I am all for the low prices. They have misjudged a few areas: the bookstores have already taken deposits ... at an average of RM60 for 11,000 pre-ordered books gives you ... RM660,000-00. And how long has that been sitting in the bank? Honestly, how much promotion do you have to make for Harry Potter's book? The WHOLE WORLD has been waiting for it .. it promotes itself, dang !! Integrity? Bah !!.. if they know the hypermarkets only have limited stock, what are they worried about? Typical Malaysians .. aiyaa.. tak tau lah ...
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Books in Malaysia is expensive! Before retiring, I used to buy many books to read but now I find that I cannot even afford to buy a book month. And we cannot afford to boycott these bookshops, if we are to buy and read English books. Maybe that is one of the reasons why Malaysian do not read, and even if they read they only read those non-value created newspapers and magazines..