Harry Potter and the Deadly “Price WAR”
The new book is out but 3 book companies (MPH, Popular Bookstore and Times ) are sulking in Malaysia. It seems that their greed got the better of them. They priced the books at RM 109.90 (CAD 36.93). They claim that they’re selling at that price because the purchase price for them was high. Tesco and Carrefour are selling the books at RM 69.90 (CAD 23.30) a book.
If you’re earning in Canadian currency. It is not expensive. But bear in mind that the percapita income of the average Canadians is: $35,200 (src: wikipedia). In contrast, the per capita income for Malaysians is: $12,700 (src: wikipedia) . Please note that both figures are in US Dollars. A quick check on amazon.com shows that those books are going for CDN$ 22.50 (src: Amazon.ca). It’s even cheaper for a Malaysian to buy the book from Canada!
So, Kudos to Tesco and Carrefour (oh btw, Carrefour is a French chain of hypermarkets while Tesco is the British equivalent). MPH and other bookstores, tough luck. As a consumer, it’s my right to buy books from where ever I deem fit to buy, hypermarket or not. God Bless Capitalism! Down with monopoly!!
oh yeah… even tho i’m not a potter fan, i was outraged at the price of the book. freaking 109.90 for a KID’S book??? wtf man! and to think that the hypermarkets can sell it for 40 bucks cheaper, imagine the profit margin of the bookstores. sheesh!
Comment by Jun — July 24, 2007 @ 1:34 pm