The glitch with the Hub — if that is what it is — is a worry in the run-up to another recession-hit Christmas, normally a period in which one fifth of annual books are sold. Despite repeated e-mails and phone calls, no one at Waterstone’s is prepared to discuss these issues with me.
These are, no doubt, tough times to sell books. The Books Etc chain is poised to close. In June, Waterstone’s managing director Gerry Johnson said that he faced a “subdued book market.” Sales fell nearly 3 percent and profit almost 40 percent in its last financial year.
Perhaps harder times are ahead. This, if you believe the hype, is going to be the Christmas of the e-reader. Last month saw the worldwide launch of the Kindle e-reader. What would that mean for Waterstone’s?
“A financial analyst would say, ‘We have to sell e-readers because they make money,” Spice says. “But they may destroy Waterstone’s.”
Why?
“Remember what happened to Tower Records or Zavvi? They were reduced to selling the MP3 players that were destroying their CD business. And then they closed,” he says.
Perhaps, similarly, Waterstone’s is sowing the seeds of its own destruction by selling e-readers. Last year, it became the first British bookseller to sell the Sony Reader, a rival to the Kindle.
“If e-books take off it might force Waterstone’s to go into other products more than they already do,” Spice says. “In five years, Waterstone’s may not be selling books at all. It may not even exist.”
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