Monday, October 19, 2009

Read 'Em And Weep

This is great news. The price of books is falling.  I'll be able to read more for less, retailers will sell me more books, authors will write more books to feed the demand.
Is this a great country or what ?
I wish Amazon and Wal-Mart would start a price war over gasoline or cherry pie or ice cream or ammunition, all commodities I desire.  Reading makes me happy though so I'm not gonna complain too much. 
The Target at CityPlace is adding more groceries so I am really excited.



http://www.shoppingblog.com/blog/1017094

Wal-Mart and Amazon in Book Pricing War

Amazon.com and Wal-Mart are engaged in all out war: a book price war. Wal-Mart is determined to steal wrong word Amazon.com's business and so has lowered prices on new hardcovers. Amazon.com then matches Wal-Mart's price. Sarah Palin's new book, Going Rogue was marked down to a ridiculously Editorializing. It's obviously not a ridiculous price point for Wal-Mart or they wouldn't do it. low price of $9 by Wal-Mart. Amazon.com followed suit. I might even read her book for 9 bucks.
Wal-Mart triggered the online skirmish Thursday when it began selling its 10 most anticipated hardcovers for $10 apiece when pre-ordered on its Web site. Amazon matched the offer hours later and Wal-Mart then chopped its price to $9. Friday morning Amazon had matched the price.

"I'm worried about the major book-selling chains, and I'm concerned about the implications for publishers and the public alike," said David Young, chief executive of Lagardere SCA's Hachette Book Group, one of the country's largest book publishers Never heard of 'em. He and other publishers ?? said they feared the online pricing could hurt small independent book sellers and big retail chains. It's called competition.

A Walmart.com spokesman said Friday that the discount giant was prepared to make further cuts. Sweet. Now lower the price of beer. The retailer's Web site will continue to adjust its prices, spokesman Ravi Jariwala said in an email, "so that Walmart.com offers the lowest online prices." Late Friday afternoon, it dropped its price a penny, to $8.99.

Walmart.com CEO Raul Vazquez  said in an interview Thursday that the retailer "will go as low as we need to" to underscore Walmart.com's intent to be a low-price leader online. The retailer this month has sought to expand its Web presence, creating an Amazon-like online marketplace for other retailers and offering home delivery for purchases such as shampoo and diapers.
The major publishers and retail chains are quite upset. A spokesman for Hachette said that when major retailers are allowed to sell below cost, the price deflation "Price Deflation" is not a proper term.  A price goes up, down, or remains stable. Deflation is a decrease in the supply of money and credit. destabilizes the market Wrong again. This change that you call a destabilization is a correction. The market is regulating itself.. He noted that in France it is actually illegal to sell books below cost. Charity is illegal in France?  When publishers don't make enough money, they start cutting mid-list authors and won't promote new authors, which means there will be fewer books to choose from. Fallacy. Lower prices raise demand. As demand increases more reading material is published. But it's not just price wars on hardcovers that are hurting the book industry. The lower price of ebooks is also cutting into profit margins. Don't assume though that it will be published archaically as paper and ink. The publishing industry is changing due to the ADVANCE of technology. The market will regulate itself and the adjustment will benefit everyone -  better jobs, valuable money, more efficient transfer of knowledge.

As for independent bookstores, you may have noticed that are becoming more and more rare and the chain bookstores pretty much suck. Soon, they won't exist at all. Speculation, and I will speculate that it is untrue.  It is still possible to buy a slide rule but the market adjusted.  Now, credit card sized electronic calculators can be bought for a song. No one will buy a new Stephen King novel for $35 (full price) when she can buy it from Amazon.com or Wal-Mart for $9 -- especially in this economy.
Right, just like no one pays 40,000 Chinese Dollars for a vehicle that they can buy across the street for 35,000. 

Prices Are Signals — And the Truth of the Message Isn’t Changed by Distorting the Signal -- Don Boudreaux

1 comment:

  1. Well done. It's amazing how many economic fallacies can be crammed into such a small article. I downloaded the new Lyle Lovett album yesterday off Amazon for $3.99, and I didn't worry for one second about the harmful "price deflation" spiral that my purchase would create. Instead, I focused on the leftover money in my pocket - money that can be used to purchase other goods and services.

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