[GingerTez]

I went to Watersones on Saturday to buy a Sony Reader for my wife and while chatting to she sales assistant I found out these 'facts'*:

(1) Waterstones do not own the Sony Reader stock (or the accessories) - they sell it "on behalf" of Sony
(2) This meant that my wife did not get the usual 10% student discount she gets in Waterstones - the readers and accessories are specifically excluded
(2) Waterstones' employees do not get any staff discount on Sony Readers or accessories
(3) Sony staff in the UK Sony stores are supposedly able to buy Sony Readers for £100 (half price)

I wonder if the actual eBook part of the Watersones website is similarly operated on behalf of someone else and in reality it's just a Watersones 'skin' and 'search' pasted on top of a UK Sony Connect equivalent?

This worries me deeply. It means that it would be quite easy for Watersones to decide to just give up on eBooks and Sony Readers without affecting their own revenue in any significant way as they're only acting as a front for Sony.

Cheers,
Terry.

* Not sure if they are facts - they're things the sales assistant said, which I believe she believed!