Kobo only $79 at Borders

[RolandD]

Stopped by the Springfield, MO, Borders store today. Their eReaders are on sale. The Kobo was $79 and the Sony (not familiar with the model) was $139.

The store looked as though it had been hit by a tornado.

[Shack70]

Was it going out of Business? Some borders stores are closing

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by Shack70

Was it going out of Business? Some borders stores are closing

That store is on the hit list.

[Hellmark]

Hmm, the Mid Rivers Mall location in St Peters, Mo didn't really have anything that special. The signs said 20-40% off, but I only ever saw stuff with 20% off. Ebook readers had no markdowns at all.

[RolandD]

Yeah, the signs said 20-40% off, and all the books were only 20% of that I saw, but it was a mess. I'd say it was less than half stocked and looked as though Vikings had raided the place.

[jhempel24]

Yep, one of the stores around me had the same thing, it was a going out of business thing....that's 2 in the past 3 years that have closed down around me.

only three left now.

[Hellmark]

In St Louis, the 3 western most ones are closing. None will be left west of 270, leaving St Charles Count and Western St Louis County without any stores (which covers a very large populated area).

[altworld]

I am going to say if Border introduced the Kobo at that price, which would be inline with its no frills eReader motto, they might not be having all the troubles they are having now.
Arigato,
Nick Davis

[Hellmark]

It wasn't Borders who introduced it though. They're simply a reseller. Kobo is a separate company.

Plus, when they were first introduced, they would have been selling at a loss. You have to keep in mind that the display alone costs in the neighborhood of $60.

[queentess]

Originally Posted by altworld

I am going to say if Border introduced the Kobo at that price, which would be inline with its no frills eReader motto, they might not be having all the troubles they are having now.
Arigato,
Nick Davis

Originally Posted by Hellmark

It wasn't Borders who introduced it though. They're simply a reseller. Kobo is a separate company.

Plus, when they were first introduced, they would have been selling at a loss. You have to keep in mind that the display alone costs in the neighborhood of $60.

What Hellmark said, plus I think Borders was too far gone for ebooks to revive them, especially with the still-small market penetration of ebooks. Ebooks are popular on this forum, but they still have a lot of ground to gain with the general reading public.

[Hellmark]

I really don't understand the misconception that Borders is the one behind the Kobo reader, when they're not the only place to buy them. I've seen them at Best Buy, Walmart, etc.

[LaurieGator]

I went to the local Borders (going out of business) yesterday. They were also selling the Kobo readers for $79.

The only thing that was not 20% off were romance novels and bookmarks. They were both 30% off. I picked up a homebrewing book that I had my eye on. Our local Borders also looked like it had been hit by a tornado...

[altworld]

Originally Posted by Hellmark

It wasn't Borders who introduced it though. They're simply a reseller. Kobo is a separate company.

Plus, when they were first introduced, they would have been selling at a loss. You have to keep in mind that the display alone costs in the neighborhood of $60.

Okay, let me rephrase this.

There are times you have to to try a loss leader to garner interest in a product. In this case selling the Kobo at $79 which at a guess is still $10 per unit profit, would help increase Borders sale in ebooks.

Now, you also have to remember that there was a Border in virtually ever mall, giving them a huge advantage of putting eBook Kiosks in each store and push that as well. They really could of been on the cutting edge here, instead they choose to ignore it, and then at the end decided there model would be to charge authors a large upfront fee to publish in their store.

It is all might of beens, the balls been dropped now.
Arigato,
Nick Davis

[Hellmark]

Originally Posted by altworld

Okay, let me rephrase this.

There are times you have to to try a loss leader to garner interest in a product. In this case selling the Kobo at $79 which at a guess is still $10 per unit profit, would help increase Borders sale in ebooks.

Now, you also have to remember that there was a Border in virtually ever mall, giving them a huge advantage of putting eBook Kiosks in each store and push that as well. They really could of been on the cutting edge here, instead they choose to ignore it, and then at the end decided there model would be to charge authors a large upfront fee to publish in their store.

It is all might of beens, the balls been dropped now.

How would it be $10 profit? Like I said, display alone is $60. Are you saying that the rest of the reader only cost $10 to develop, make, package and ship to the retailer? Also, loss leaders are generally done by larger companies that can afford it. Kobo isn't a big company, and as we all know even if Borders decided to take the loss on their end, they couldn't afford it either. Borders especially had no interest in doing that since Borders doesn't run the eBook store with their name on it (never have, Kobo runs it for them now, and Sonye ran it before Kobo).

Borders could have done things better, like running their own eBook store so they get a larger cut, and pushing things more to compete against the Kindle and Nook. Even if they couldn't afford to fund development and production of their own reader, they could have still done more to entice people to buy books from them. With 6 main publishers now on the agency model, profits are slim and differing on pricing is removed as a way to compete against their rivals. That leaves marketing and customer service, which is where they could have picked up the ball and ran with it.

As far as Kobo goes, considering the size of their company, they've done a great job on their reader, and have pushed it out to an impressive amount of stores. Usually, companies of that size are unable to do things on that scale, especially when you consider that they were simply retailers before hand.

[altworld]

Originally Posted by Hellmark

How would it be $10 profit? Like I said, display alone is $60. Are you saying that the rest of the reader only cost $10 to develop, make, package and ship to the retailer? Also, loss leaders are generally done by larger companies that can afford it. Kobo isn't a big company, and as we all know even if Borders decided to take the loss on their end, they couldn't afford it either. Borders especially had no interest in doing that since Borders doesn't run the eBook store with their name on it (never have, Kobo runs it for them now, and Sonye ran it before Kobo).

Borders could have done things better, like running their own eBook store so they get a larger cut, and pushing things more to compete against the Kindle and Nook. Even if they couldn't afford to fund development and production of their own reader, they could have still done more to entice people to buy books from them. With 6 main publishers now on the agency model, profits are slim and differing on pricing is removed as a way to compete against their rivals. That leaves marketing and customer service, which is where they could have picked up the ball and ran with it.

As far as Kobo goes, considering the size of their company, they've done a great job on their reader, and have pushed it out to an impressive amount of stores. Usually, companies of that size are unable to do things on that scale, especially when you consider that they were simply retailers before hand.

Okay, your getting me wrong here.

The Kobo is a great eReader device, and today I posted in my book thread how happy I was to see my latest novel Accept One finally appear in the Kobo bookstore. I am very aware of it and the companies success with it.

My thoughts were how Borders had a huge advantage in being able to set up instore ebook kiosks with their huge network of store and how they screwed it up. Yes, the hit would have to be made by Borders, by buying and selling almost at wholesale price, but at worst it would of been an even exchange.

In the end its a moot point, Borders are crash diving and that is sad to see.
Arigato,
Nick Davis