medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
As a former employee of Borders, I know a little more about this.
Full-time employees receive a 25% discount on all books and a monthly
book stipend (how much I don't know, but it's something on the order
of $50 a month). Part-time employees receive a 33% discount, but no
stipend. Twice a year, during a special sale, all employees receive
a 40% discount on all purchases. So what Borders is doing with those
coupons is essentially extending the 40% sale to customers in a
limited way. The 40% weekends were part of their system the whole
time I was there (from '99-'05), and I never heard any suggestion
that they were a financial problem for the company, so I doubt
Borders is any immediate danger of collapsing. They've always
tinkered with their discount program, so this is just a new twist on it.
Andrew E. Larsen
On Oct 8, 2009, at 1:05 PM, Christopher Crockett wrote:
> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and
> culture
>
> From: Brad Eden <[log in to unmask]>
>
>> If you join the Borders Rewards Program (which is free), they send
>> you out
> coupons on a regular basis for both store and online use to your
> email. They
> sent one out today for 40% off any one book, and Pfaff's book can
> be used for
> the discount. I just ordered my copy for $72, no shipping fees.
>
>
> that's interesting.
>
> 40% *used* to be the "standard" discount given by publishers to retail
> bookstores --for ordinary publications (not remainders, which is an
> whole
> other scam).
>
> because of its size, Borders might have negotiated a larger trade
> discount,
> but not by too much, i shouldn't think, and they can afford to
> offer 40% on
> special orders for this new title only because they are not buying
> this copy
> "on spec" (for their shelf stock), but rather have a "sure sale"
> for it and
> are really just acting as a middle man --probably having the
> publisher "drop
> ship" it directly to the customer.
>
> even so, this is a pretty slim margin, esp. considering that the
> shipping cost
> is included (about $5, or perhaps more).
>
> this is true even for a chain which is likely to go broke sometime
> in the
> (relatively) near future.
>
> c
>
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