Monday, August 07, 2006

Meeeeow! or Pot, Kettle, Black.

http://forums.booktrade.info/booktrade.php?&do=news&bit=All&newsitem=8522

Obviously, Waterstone's got to Ottakers in the nick of time! They were so doooomed before the real deal came along.

('Dead' Stock is books that cannot be returned to the publisher. A bookseller can return books to the publisher between 3 and 12 months of the last invoice for that item. Anything past this is 'Dead', it eats up valuable shelf space that could be used for books that shift units and it also eats up your cashflow - generally the idea in bookselling is to sell the book a few times before you have to pay for the first copy. This, generally, never really happens.

Still, 5%!!!! I've worked in shops where the dead stock was pushing 40%! I could go into our nearest Waterstone's at Trafalgar Square and within the hour point out 10% worth of dead stock and 40% of overstocking. How bloody cheeky are they.

Actually, this kind of hubris makes me jolly annoyed indeed. A curse on all their houses)

3 comments:

  1. Adam

    What possible benefit do you consider will be achieved for your business (Crockatt & Powell) when you knock Waterstone's ?

    Forget them, and concentrate on your own trading prospects.

    Such childish finger pointing at Waterstone's shows a serious lack of business maturity.

    I would suggest that you withdraw your posting.

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  2. Clive,

    A piece of news appears in my inbox this morning that I find a) amusing then b)annoying. The point of us having a blog is to comment occasionally on things we find a)amusing and b)annoying. Do you not understand this blog business?

    And did it not occur to you that the point of the article was Waterstone's slagging off Ottakers for being semi-competent. I hope you've written a strongly worded reprimand for the people at HMV hq for their disappointing behaviour.

    And my trading prospects are surely only improved by telling all our great customers what they already suspect which is that Waterstone's are full of corporate hot air?

    And just who the hell do you think you are telling us to remove our own comments? I'm leaving the post and I'm leaving your pompous reply you old windbag

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  3. Hello Clive - I think I remember legging it a few years back when we were playing knock down ginger in the historic English market town of Langport...

    ReplyDelete