From TheStar:
Big changes at Indigo Books & Music have left Canadian publishers nervously anticipating the fall and Christmas retail season.
By now, regular customers have noticed lamps, clocks, scarves and other Indigo-brand lifestyle products displayed in priority areas where book tables once stood. But the changes don’t stop there.
Canada’s largest bricks-and-motor books retailer has shortened its minimum shelf life for books, taken control away from publishers regarding display space and introduced a marketing charge to publishers on every book sold.
“If there is a reduced space for books in the store, then the percentage of sales for books is going to be smaller,” Association of Canadian Publishers executive director Carolyn Wood said recently of the space issue alone.
“That does lead us to contemplate a downward spiral,” she said.
Indigo executives declined to be interviewed but increased book-trade competition is no secret. Costco and Wal-Mart stock bestsellers. Amazon sells books online. The e-book market is growing.
Love the implementation of a “marketing charge to publishers on every book sold.” Perhaps retailers in the U.S. should implement the same charge.
An idea whose time has come: shelf space at B&M retail is expensive and limited. (Hence expensive.)
Yet another step towards the end of the megastore chains.
B&M is going to become even *more* hit- and impulse-driven and the idea of charging publishers for access to customers is going to resonate with retailers. It’s already common practice in supermarkets and dept stores to negotiate for preferred product placement.
Hope B&N and BAM pick up on the practice. 🙂
Ahem. Make that: “Valuable and limited.”