(no subject)

[tinyjo]

I can buy Cloud Atlas for 3.73 on Tesco.com. That can't be making any profit, surely?

Comments

[bugpete.livejournal.com]

Ah! I know this!

Retail is £7.99. The standard discout for a new title in a promotion (like a 3 for 2 at Waterstones for example) is about 55% due to the high profile the book is guarenteed, taking the unit cost down to £3.60. Tesco's probably get a bigger discount since they buy relatively few titles in massive bulk sent to one warehouse, rather that piecemeal to lots of stores (and the publisher will just increase the print run by a few thousand so everyone wins thanks to economies of scale). Also, remember that Tescos runs a very tight profit margin on most of their stock hence the low prices, so making 10p on a paperback is probably one of their high profit items.

It's not necessarily a good thing (authors make less money on high-discount sales, for example) but that's how it happens.

And yes, this does mean those full price books you buy are sold at a massive profit, but how do you think all those books that aren't sold immediately are paid for, eh?