Whitcoulls and Borders in Financial Trouble - Cash your vouchers in

[ahmad]

Receivership warning - Whitcoulls have called in someone to try to "administrate" the business out of trouble and AVOID receivership.

That's a sure sign you should cash in any remaining gift vouchers IMMEDIATELY though to avoid losing your credits.

I'm starting to feel sorry for NZ retailers. Things are much cheaper for us to import so those of us who can wait, and are savvy enough, do.

I used to blame NZ retailers for high prices. I'm more sympathetic now. A lot of these high prices are due to "regional pricing variation" (especially when enforced by companies - I'm looking at you Nintendo).

Add to that minimum wages which constantly rise, and higher GST. These business need to turn a profit or else they wouldn't be viable. It's not an easy job even if you are the large incumbent like Whitcoulls.

Coming back to the bookseller situation, apparently Barnes and Noble in the States have had the advantage over Borders (which is in dire straits in the US) because it developed its own eReader in competition to online bookseller Amazon (the Nook).

Whitcoulls decided to go with the terribly ill-conceived Kobo. It could have been so much better.

[Vivasanti]

Sad day, hope they sort it out, probably not though.

[FaceAche]

Yeah saw that on Breakfast this morning. Not good news.

[ahmad]

I wonder how Paper Plus is doing out of all of this? They seem to have been freshly rejuvenated recently with a rebrand including using Kerre Woodham to be the face of the company.

[Tusock]

Maybe it's time for the small independant stores to rise again.

[ahmad]

How can they be competitive? Mighty Ape struggles as it is (well I am guessing here since I don't have access to their financial statements).

The funny thing is that huge chains like EB "overcharge" and people queue at their stores to buy latest releases.

But with books people are becoming more savvy.

I wonder what the EB situation is going to be like in 5 years.

[FaceAche]

I know what i hope the EB situation is going to be in five years!

[ahmad]

Originally Posted by FaceAche

I know what i hope the EB situation is going to be in five years!

LOL 1-day takes over major gaming retailer?

[FaceAche]

Hahahaha, no, more that EB management pull their heads out of their arses and actually price things competitively.

I'm not paying $115 for a second hand game, when a brand new one is $120, and when i can also get a brand new copy delivered by OzGameShop/Zavvi/ShopTo/Play-Asia for $60.00.

[ahmad]

Originally Posted by FaceAche

Hahahaha, no, more that EB management pull their heads out of their arses and actually price things competitively.

I'm not paying $115 for a second hand game, when a brand new one is $120, and when i can also get a brand new copy delivered by OzGameShop/Zavvi/ShopTo/Play-Asia for $60.00.

Dude, if I was managing EB I wouldn't change a thing.

At least not until more than about 0.0000001% of New Zealanders import their games instead of buying from EB.

[ahmad]

Oh crap, they have now decided that you can only redeem $x vouchers if you spend $2x or more.

Got a $100 gift voucher? Welcome to spend it as long as purchase is $200 or more.

Ouch!

Gift vouchers are the most awful stupid gifts.

[FaceAche]

Like they are now with books, in five years time i'd hope that the general shopper was a bit more savvy than they are now about videogames

Originally Posted by ahmad

Oh crap, they have now decided that you can only redeem $x vouchers if you spend $2x or more. Got a $100 gift voucher? Welcome to spend it as long as purchase is $200 or more. Ouch! Gift vouchers are the most awful stupid gifts.

Right, so if i have a $10 voucher, i have to spend $20 to redeem it. Nice. Glad i don't then!

[HK 47]

Originally Posted by ahmad

Gift vouchers are the most awful stupid gifts.

Very much disagree with you on this point, despite having Whitcoulls vouchers. For the most part they make great gifts

[ahmad]

Problem with vouchers is that they can be used at another store if you prefer to, have an expiry unlike cash, and if the company has financial trouble your voucher is worthless.

I hate vouchers because inevitably I never have them handy when I happen to be at the store. Just annoying to be honest.

[WaxerNZ]

Regional pricing sucks. Exclusive wholesale agreements also suck.
New Zealand prices are unfortunately high for a reason and the cost really does add up fast. Shipping is always blamed but is actually only a small percentage of the cost.
Having said that in the case of non exclusive wholesale, we are selling some product on our website at retail for almost the same cost as the New Zealand wholesaler.