In light of the media attention on this subject here in Canada, I'm reposting an editorial that Perfect Book's manager put up on the store's website.

For the love of bookstores, people...think about what you're doing when you complain about the pricing and want to pay in American. You're not punishing the right people, you're just hurting the bookseller.

Moggy

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The Discrepancies of Book Pricing -- U.S Price versus Canadian:

What’s That All About?

There has been a lot of media hype on the topic of the markup on books from the American price to Canadian now that we are par dollar wise for the first time in thirty years. I would like to take this opportunity to address this concern and hopefully explain a much muddied situation.

We have always been honest with our customers about the price of books and have never hidden that we do not set the prices. We have suggested for the past two years, as our dollar rose, that they should contact the publishers directly to complain. I have been in the book business for more than twenty years and I have always argued the price of books with the “powers that be.” But as book-loving and literate as we Canadians are, we are only 5% to 9% of the publishers’ market share. We don’t have the population numbers to have any real effect and it makes them slower to respond to any complaints, whether bookseller or reader. It is certainly not fair, but it is the way it is.

Booksellers have suffered over the past two years as well as the reader. How many sales have we lost to on-line book buying? How many customers have forgone a book purchase because they blamed us for all the wrong reasons? We are on the front line and bear the brunt of the complaints and have to deal with the frustration of being able to do nothing while watching our livelihoods affected. Again, not fair, but as small independent bookstores we rely on an intelligent, aware and supportive clientele that want to know what is happening – and let us explain however we can.

So here are the facts, plain and simple:

We do not and have never set the price of books.

Our margin on the books we buy are between 40% and 44%, 50% to 60% for calendars, stationary, journals, cards, etc.

With that margin we have to pay rent, taxes, shipping costs, losses due to theft – and most importantly -- our staff -- the people who help you find the book you are looking for and can recommend books to you when you are at a loss. Been to any “Big Box” stores lately and tried that?

The American price you see pre-printed on your book next to the Canadian price is often times close to or exactly our cost. If some bookstores have made the desperate decision to honour those prices, they are either independently wealthy or have been bullied into it by all this specious media coverage. The fact that these bookstores are making the reader choose to keep that money by paying American or support the bookstore by paying in Canadian is an insult to the customer. Putting the decision in the consumer’s hands is an ugly choice that I won’t force my customers to make even if I could afford to. By turning this price war into a skirmish between those independents that survived the upheaval of Chapters, Costco and Pharma Plus entering the field makes the situation all that much more discouraging.

This situation will not be remedied overnight. There are no quick fixes. The publishers have been passing on some small incentives to us that allow us to alter the prices on the new release fall books and have sent notices that they will continue to do so until the spring.

All we can ask of you is the understanding and patience you have already shown us over the years. We will try our hardest to keep you as informed as possible and thank you for making individual, neighbourhood bookstores possible.

http://www.perfectbooks.ca
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