Eoin Purcell's Blog

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It's that simple — and that hard. And that inescapable.

High Street trading, Fopp, HMV and Waterstones

Eoin Purcell

Doing my bit of on site research
I spent some time in Cork city today and the shopping seemed brisk. HMV are having a truly incredible sale. I picked up Recurring Dream: The Very Best of Crowded House on CD (Upgrading from Casette) for €4.99 a price second to none. I also got a nice copy of 12 Angry Men for the same money and Children of Men for €9.99. All quality prices.

But it struck me as I left that to a great degree (and with the possible exception of Children of Men) it was all back catalogue material that I could not get cheaper anywhere else and it was that the sale prices were effectively giving the stuff away that made me buy. It was a different story in Waterstone’s.

Sucker for a good Hardback
I bought nearly €50.00 worth of hardbacks and that was just two books. The Erikson/Esslemontcreation the Malazan Empire has sucked my weekly budget considerably! As it turns out I could have bought these for much less online but I just didn’t feel like it. How on earth can you rely on people like me to make money on the High Street.

The demise of Fopp
Has been getting some press and I have to say I’ll miss it. I really loved browsing their stores and also spent more money when I did than when I browsed other High Street retailers in the UK. So I hope it gets resurrected somehow.

Do you think this guy has a point?

One last thing, Snowbooks are wondering what you would do in their position, a wonderful question. If you have ideas, go post them!

Finally some sun
Eoin

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Filed under: Books, Bookselling,

3 Responses

  1. fopp-watch says:

    Here are the addresses for the directors of Fopp:

    Addresses deleted by Eoin Purcell
    8th July 2007

  2. fopp-watch says:

    Why did you delete the Directors’ addresses?

    This is publicly-available information.

    Employees and suppliers of Fopp have a right to know where to go to get back their money…

  3. eoinpurcell says:

    fopp-watch,

    I thought, quite frankly, that it was discourteous to provide the addresses without even a real name supplied by yourself.

    I don’t know if I would have left them up if you had given more personal info but I’d have considered it a bit more.

    As for it being publicly available then people will have no problem finding it elsewhere!

    Eoin

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