Quote:
Originally Posted by mirage
Does Walmart have exclusive rights to sell Kobo readers in the US? I'm not counting third party vendors on the Walmart website, eBay, or Amazon. Could BH Photo Video, Best Buy, independent bookstores, Target, Costco, whomever, sell them if they wanted to? Even Kobo itself doesn't seem to have a US warehouse.
|
We don't know the details of the Kobo/Walmart deal, at least that i'm aware of, however in years long gone you used to be able to find Kobo's in US Best Buys, they're still in Canadian Best Buys. I doubt Walmart has the pull to force Kobo into an exclusivity deal, since they're fighting against Amazon just as much if not more so. And there's no sense in Kobo putting exclusivity into the deal since its their product.
You also used to be able to find them in Borders, when Borders was a thing, and I believe some indie bookstores. Though that was probably on par with Walmarts support, if not less. Understandably so because with the exception of Borders those stores just wouldn't have the ability to devote that much attention to a product that'd hurt them.