Comments on: Loss Leader

By: Barb

Barb — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 01:18:50 +0000

Well, on their website, here’s what they say happens to the books:
Books that are returned in good condition are then resold at half price. If the returned book is not in good condition, the book is donated to a local charity in support of literacy.

I would suspect the reason you don’t see any half-price books out for sale is that nobody actually bothers to return the books. Not very convenient to do unless you are a TRUE hard core traveler who will (a) not want to keep the book (b) be in an airport with a Paradies shop sometime in the next 6 months, and (c) be willing to drag a book you’re through with along on a trip just to return it. For me, (c) is the killer.

By: Madeleine Robins

Madeleine Robins — Mon, 28 May 2007 17:29:24 +0000

That’s possible. I’m not sure whether the program is hardcover-only or bestseller-only or includes any book you find in the shop.

By: Steven Gould

Steven Gould — Mon, 28 May 2007 14:26:55 +0000

Well, just to suppose they’re not doing the worst thing (stripping the returned covers and returning for credit) let me suggest that they might be feeding the returns into a separate used bookstore venue.

By: Madeleine Robins

Madeleine Robins — Mon, 28 May 2007 05:53:04 +0000

Didn’t see any second-hand books, Rory. And I’d be stunned insensible to find that the author sees any benefit from this at all. The program has been in effect for several years, and I haven’t heard a peep from publishers. So either they can’t do anything about it, or they don’t see that there are going to be huge sales from it, either to the the bookstore or the publisher.

By: Rory Harper

Rory Harper — Mon, 28 May 2007 04:58:56 +0000

So, I gather you didn’t you see any books they were selling as used, at a discounted price? Because I suspect from your post that they’re re-selling them as new.

Not to be all humorless about it, but if that’s the case, there’s no way anybody is getting any extra royalties, and the author is REALLY getting ripped off under this program, because they’d be cannibalizing sales of new books.

As do you, I like the re-cycling aspect of it, but this sounds really dicey, unless there’s something going on behind the scenes that makes it right.

By: Ken Houghton

Ken Houghton — Fri, 25 May 2007 16:53:29 +0000

Airport bookstores have been picking off the Library-impaired?