My Two Cents on HP7 Price War

I feel bad when I first saw the news that Tesco and Carrefour are selling the book at RM69-90. Afterall, I pre-order the book from Kinokuniya at RM109-90 and after discount RM76-93.

Now I dont feel so bad anymore. Especially after I read that those hypermarket are actually selling the books at a loss. In fact, I feel ANGRY at those hypermarkets for stealling the bookshops thunder.

Those bookstore have been working very hard promoting Harry Potter & The Deathy Hallows for more than a year. They have invested a lot of monies on the advertisement and others stuffs. Then out of the blue, hypermarkets declare that they are selling at a lower price. Hypermarket don't even have to fork-out much for advertising as it has been done by the booksstores from them months earlier.

If by selling HP7 at RM69-90 is at a loss. Then I don't think the bookstores are earning much profit as I got mine for RM76-93. The most they earn is less than RM7-03 per book.

How can consumers expect bookstore whose core business is selling books to sell HP7 at loss to compete with the hypemarket price? What's the motive for hypermarket to sell it at a loss? Is it really so "kind hearted" as in to give the cheapest price to consumer in order to encourage more people to read? Or is it so that more people will visit the hypermarket and end up buying a lot of other ordinary priced stuffs while they are at the hyper market?

Some consumers complain that at Britain, HP7 goes as low as RM35. But bear in mind, the books are printed there. There are no high shipping cost, holding cost and etc involved as exporting the books to Malaysia.

Some people may think that I am stupid for defending the bookstores. Why buy at a higher price while you can get at a lower price? I think it's ethically wrong to under cut like that.