Waterstones

[steeljam]

Waterstones, the UK's leading bookshop chain, is on the defensive after going incognito at some of its newer stores.
The firm has opened three shops that do not feature its distinctive branding, prompting accusations of deception.
They are Southwold Books in Suffolk, The Rye Bookshop in East Sussex and Harpenden Books in Hertfordshire.

What do you think?

[Grace Speaker]

Funnily enough, I commented BTL on this one earlier. Personally, I couldn't give a monkey's whatsits what they call themselves - and to be fair, they do put a notice in the window saying it's Waterstones owned. A bookshop is a thing to treasure and far too many of them have been lost, along with local libraries - and it's this latter that I reserve my indignation for.

I would much rather see a bookshop than a boarded up empty shell or another ruddy estate agents. I get the argument about it being a bit deceitful - but compared to the tax avoidance behaviour of major corporations like Starbucks, Google, etc., etc, etc., I couldn't give two hoots. The world needs more bookshops and what's wrong with Waterstones anyway? I've enjoyed many a happy hour browsing the shelves of Waterstones and these new shops are sited in areas where there aren't any independent book shops, so I don't really understand what the fuss is about.

Show me a council that's trying to shut down a local library on the other hand . . .

[Whos Wee Dug]

Is there any difference in the prices of the books sold

[Joolz]

Interesting article rebutting the "Waterstones opens unbranded/secret/undercover/replace-with-your-preferred-adjectival-synonym-for-deceptive bookshops" at https://www.marketingsociety.com/the-li ... -good-news. The sentence "Until recently, Rye, Harpenden and Southwold had no book shop." was the clincher for me.

In addition, I heard James Daunt, the MD of Waterstones, also the founder of the independent book retailer Daunt Books, interviewed on Radio 5 Live on Monday about this and he gave a cast-iron, no ifs, no buts assurance that Waterstones would never ever open a local brand bookshop (i.e. not branded over the door as Waterstones but as something like Southwold Books or The Rye Bookshop) in a location where there is already an independent bookseller.

The interview I heard is at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08g473j for about five minutes at 2:21:40 into the programme for the next 26 days. He was also on Radio 4's Today programme and that interview is at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08g4h89 for about five minutes at 2:39:05 into the programme for the next 25 days. I think both interviews are worth a listen if you're interested in this topic.