Quote:
Originally Posted by FrustratedReader
Possibly only Argos for Kobo. Tesco stopped doing Kindle. I don't know if Currys and Harvey Norman still do as I've stopped visiting them. Ireland retail clothes, electrical, DIY and other things are dominated by UK chains. Tesco is neck and neck with local Dunnes and Musgrave owned stores, mostly mini-markets. Lidl and Aldi are about equal next biggest. Irish wholesale is dominated by UK middle men. A lot of that is historical, to before 1921 independence.
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In the UK:
Currys/PC World: in store they only have Kindles. Basic Kobos are available online.
Argos: Kindles and basic Kobos are available online. Possibly bigger stores have Kindles in stock, but generally if you want to pick one up from store you need to pre-order.
John Lewis: in store it's Kindles for most stores. For anything else, you need to go to Oxford Street. Online they have basic Kobos.
Tesco: I think they more or less dropped Kindles - they went the Hudl route (basically an Android tablet) a couple of years ago.
I went through this a couple of months ago when I was looking to buy a Forma 32GB. That's only available direct from Kobo unless an Amazon reseller has one in stock (but it's usually more expensive). Really, I wanted to try it out because of the larger form-factor, but it was too much of a hassle to take an extended lunch break and go to the Oxford Street John Lewis.
Android eInk devices are niche in the UK; you really have to do your research and hope something is in stock on eBay or Amazon. I reckon 99% of people won't bother - they'll get whatever is available from Currys/PC World or Argos or more likely just use an app on their phone. If they need something with a bit more oomph (e.g. for class work) they'll get an iPad or Android tablet.