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£1 Potter at Asda

11.07.08 Alison Flood

Asda is set to re-ignite the Harry Potter price war after taking out newspaper adverts promoting the new Harry Potter paperback for £1. The offer, which kicked off yesterday (Thursday, 10th July), is running until 13th July.

The supermarket ran into trouble with publisher Bloomsbury when the hardback was published last year for its aggressive price promoting, which included accusing the Harry Potter publisher of holding children to "ransom" by raising the price of hardback.

Asda advertised the £1 deal for the paperback edition of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, which has an r.r.p. of £8.99, in the Daily Mail. The book was published yesterday (10th July).

The ad says: "£1. Magic Price. Asda: why pay more?"

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By JULIAN RIVERS

Why dont Asda go the whole hog and give it away with the purchase of £50 of groceries ? Tesco over to you . Its all about market share ...and they are playing around with our product . Publishers know that Supermarkets are the enemy of the booktrade , because they are not in the book trade .Their 10% share is far less than 0.5% of their turnover. They can do what they want and move on if publishers play their game .

11 Jul 08 08:58

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By An Indie

Welcome to the World of Wal Mart. It's a shame ASDA are playing such dirty tactics, just to drive footfall and sell a few more loaves of bread or packets of chewing-gum at the check-out. Jolly decent of them.

11 Jul 08 09:37

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By JULIAN RIVERS

Its hilarious that publishers wax on about protecting their brand , and Jo herself spends time in court to protect Harry Potter . Yet Asda bless their intellect have reduced OUR trade bestseller to a Catherine Cookson bargain bindup . A brave major publisher and there are few , would reduce their offer to supermarkets to bargains, backlist and ownbrand publishing . Let Amazon . Play.com and retail booksellers large and small ,take up the slack.They at least care something for the trade and our product . Never going to happen I know . .

11 Jul 08 10:00

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By Mcthew

I don't understand this at all. If the publishing industry has a problem with supermarkets why are the publishers allowing them to sell their books? I might sound a little naive on this subject, but if I were Bloomsbury following the fiasco on the hardback I would see that ASDA weren't given the opportunity to profit on the paperback. Seems to me that the publishers are smirking in the background but complaining in public.

11 Jul 08 10:03

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By Ray Hollingsworth

Going the whole hog should amount to something like this....give them the book as part of a store promo with discount shopping vouchers...was discussing my new title with ASDA / EUK only yesterday...don't even see the point of putting a price on books anymore...perhaps they should just be used as sales incentives...as for some of those working in publishing...they are so far up themselves they have lost all contact with planet earth...looking forward to hearing of some more job cuts...serves them right...too long in cotton wool...

11 Jul 08 10:42

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By Dave

Welcome to capitalism. The publishing industry should try it one day

11 Jul 08 11:55

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By RobC

"Welcome to capitalism. The publishing industry should try it one day" That's an awfully glib response, which completely ignores the main issue here. We all know that value is as much about perception as it is about something as nebulous as intrinsic worth. Allowing supermarkets to sell 'bestselling' titles at a loss undermines the wider industry. Only the supermarkets (and presumably Bloomsbury, somehow) gain from this, and we all know how great the supermarkets are at distorting and trampling over the wider economy through their actions. Perhaps it will take government action to resolve things - perhaps banning the sale of new goods at a loss?

11 Jul 08 17:30

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By ema

erm why are u moanin, its £1

11 Jul 08 17:53

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By Ray Hollingsworth

Some of the publishers sink even lower than supermarkets - only interested in pumping out trash...and what happened to proofreaders? In a recent book I read for research purposes the population of Ipswich was 130,000, 140,000 or 160,000...( circa 2006 ) all this within 60 pages...how does anyone let this go through?...the standards are at an all time low...speed is the word on the street...and where is Dover Court?

11 Jul 08 19:23

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