Madam, - Further to Fergal Tobin's recent letter on the issue of book prices, it should be noted that Irish publishers were not the only ones traduced in Kitty Holland's original piece of June 23rd where Derek Jewell of the Consumers' Association made the preposterous allegation that Irish booksellers were "ripping off young people and their enthusiasm" (for Harry Potter) by wildly overcharging.
Since Kitty Holland had already acknowledged that the same booksellers were unanimously discounting from the recommended Harry Potter price, it was hard to see where Mr Jewell was coming from, until it became obvious that he was taking his cue from a local newsagent who has recently taken to selling celebrity titles at loss-leader prices in order to draw attention and footfall to his business.
Mischievously, the newsagent's spokesman was permitted to imply that comparisons between fair trade prices (charged by traditional booksellers) and rock-bottom loss-leader prices (charged by Reads and Tesco) were somehow valid, and both Ms Holland and Mr Jewell bought the dummy.
But to clarify Fergal Tobin's point about the imperatives of bookselling determining prices, it should be noted that while booksellers take the publisher's recommended price as the benchmark, deviations from that price are invariably downwards, variations between retailers then becoming a simple function of how much each feels inclined to discount particular titles.
Loss-leaders muddy the waters by forgoing profit on a handful of big titles while contributing nothing in terms of stockholding range and professional expertise.
Ultimately, the customers must choose but they should be under no illusions about the loss-leaders' motivation - and it certainly ain't philanthropy. - Yours, etc.,
BERT WRIGHT,
Books Manager,
Easons Hannas,
Dawson St,
Dublin