"Nielsen BookScan advises its subscribing clients and participating retailers that Whitcoulls will stop contributing sales data to the NZ BookScan panel from week 37.
Therefore this week’s chart, week 36 issued Thursday 15th September, is the final chart with Whitcoulls’ participation.
The chart from week 37, updated Thursday 22nd September will not include Whitcoulls’ sales data.
The NZ panel will include the following retailers:
Dymocks
K Mart
LS Travel Retail
Paper Plus
The Warehouse
Independent – general, specialist and Internet retailers"
Footnote:
This is a very sad day for the NZ book trade and The Bookman suggests that Whitcoulls are being hugely irresponsible by withdrawing their participation in the Nielsen BookScan programme. Shame on you Ian Draper.
I for one shall register my dismay and disappointment by never buying a book at Whitcoulls again. If enough book buyers also take this action then the absence of their sales figures would become irrelevant.
Postscript:
PANZ has just released the following statement:
Postscript:
PANZ has just released the following statement:
Whitcoulls withdraws from BookScan
Ian Draper, chief executive of Whitcoulls confirmed to Ka Meechan, Nielsen Book Services Managing Director Asia Pacific that Whitcoulls is to pull out of the BookScan pool effective this week.
Nielsen is in the process of contacting all BookScan subscribers and participating retailers on the panel to advise of Whitcoulls’ withdrawal.
Publishers will remember that Whitcoulls did not participate in the initial Bookscan panel; however Borders were members and when Borders was bought by REDgroup, it became necessary for either Borders to pull out of the panel or for Whitcoulls to join, as it was unfair that Whitcoulls could then be able to access market information without contributing. After much discussion, Whitcoulls joined the panel in December 2008 and have been contributing data since then.
Whitcoulls data will remain part of the Nielsen BookScan figures released on September 15. The update released on September 22 will not include Whitcoulls data.
Most markets supporting BookScan have full retailer representative participation, with the exception of the equivalent US service which is not supported by Wal-Mart. The BookScan US service is estimated to cover 75 percent of the US market and has been in operation for the past 10 years.
PANZ President Kevin Chapman said that this was very bad news for the industry.
“We have made great progress as an industry in the last couple of years in working together and developing the sort of information that we require in order to plan and to communicate with other parties such as government and supporters of our initiatives. I have told Ian that I consider it no less than industry vandalism. It doesn’t take us back to the Dark Ages, but it certainly gives us less light to see our way ahead.”
Tony Fisk, managing director of HarperCollins NZ says “It is a real shame Whitcoulls feel unable to continue participating on the panel. The information provided through BookScan is an important tool to many of us as well as giving the industry as a whole valuable information about the state of the retail book market in this country.
“This is vital information to have particularly when we are talking to government and others about the book market.
“We live in hope that the management at Whitcoulls will change their mind at some point in the future and rejoin the panel,” Tony concluded.
AUP’s Sam Elworthy says “The ability to have full retail sales data was good for publishers and booksellers. Whitcoull’s lack of participation in BookScan is very disappointing for the whole book industry really.”
Whitcoulls have not responded to messages left by PANZ News asking for comment.
12 comments:
Agree with you 100% Graham. This is not only bad news for the book trade but also for literature and culture generally. For years now literature policy and strategies have suffered because of insufficient data about the market. Just when we are in a position to get meaningful information Whitcoulls pull the plug out of narrow minded commercial interest.
Over the last few years Whitcoulls has badly let down the literary industry, their suppliers (at great cost), their staff and their customers. They have sorely tested the patience of all concerned. My local store (Botany) has improved little from its pathetic, degenerated state and offering of the last few years. I would recommend customers in the eastern isthmus to check out Howick Paper Plus.
I would find it hard to buy a book at Whitcoulls anyway: despite the lessons of the very recent past they still stock very few titles I would actually want to read.
Have they said why they are doing this? I've not seen a reason cited. Just trying to keep their market info confidential? A hugely backward step for the industry.
Just to clarify Graham - won't this make the weekly bestseller lists a bit of a joke, when the sales from such a big market player aren't included in the data? So that kind of undercuts all the bestseller data and kudos to publishers/authors etc?
The reason that Whitcoulls have been a law unto themselves for many years is the market dominance they had.However since the sale of their airport shops and Bennetts [educational shops],the closure of other shops due to earthquakes and their recent financial woes they now occupy a far smaller segment of New Zealand retail bookselling.
In the past they have demanded huge discounts from the publishers and refused to buy if they did not get their way. This sort of blackmail has unfortunately been paticuarly successful against the smaller NZ publishers and distributors.
Now because of their own narrow minded commercial interest they are depriving the Booktrade of accurate data [which is particuarly important for publishers in deciding on print runs and reprints].
Perhaps it is time for the publishing industry to bite back at them by only offering them standard terms on what they buy.
If they don't buy would it make such a great difference.
For years they have bought the wrong books and lately of course they haven't paid for them.
To a certain extent I was disappointed when Whitcoulls was purchased [and supposedly saved]. Yes, I hoped they would be able to pay off the debts to publishers[but did they?] and I am glad people have still got jobs - and in some locations they might be the only supplier and are at least fulfilling a useful role BUT they have never been good bookstores for book lovers and constant readers. Their current prices seem to be pushed to the absolute maximum [I did a comparison recently between one and a nearby Paper Plus with PP coming out lower, and my local Take Note a little lower still.] I only ever buy heavily discounted stock from them. Bookbrainz
Yes, it will render the ‘best seller’ list, a bit tepid without one of the bigger retailers participating.
What a shame.
The comments about the weekly bestsellers data are interesting, but I wonder if Ian Draper has realised that by withdrawing Whitcoulls data from Neilsen, by comparing the sales data from one week to the next without their data is going to give the whole trade an exact percentage of their market share!
Peter
Good on you Graham. Market heavyweights have some responsibility to the sector.
I suspect that WhitGhouls is probably worried about owning up to its erosion of market share. It used to have about half. Recently that's been about a third and with the very recent liberation of the Bennetts and airport stores and the inability to stock the remaining shops with fresh material, it must have have shrunk further.
On second thoughts, though, maybe it's not such a loss. Courier vans whizzing up and down my quiet suburban street with parcels from the Book Depository, Amazon and others suggest that the local stats may no longer accurately reflect non-NZ-published book buying preferences. And then there's the whole e-book question....
Can't say I agree with your push for a boycott Graham. Nobody is more disappointed than me, and that shows in my statement. I have been working ever since I returned to NZ in 98 on getting good industry data, and this is a real blow, but I don't agree with boycotting bookshops. When somebody chooses not to enter one bookshop, they often end up not buying a book at all, and the entire sector, from authors on through, loses out. There are enough challenges to this industry (which is why we need good data)without pushing people away from our retailers.
Entre nous,
You can still work out Whitcoulls sales from Bookscan if you know your stuff,just as you can spot Paper Plus specials and promotional titles.
Personally I look for the new titles rising up the list, a quick check of the heavily discounted titles and the top twenty good indie books that info helps me plan my buying or restocking.
It is a shame they have withdrawn but perhaps it has something to to do with their embarassment of continuing low sales or they are planning a new strategy of moving stock into Stevens and Farmers now that they are under the same distribution umbrella.
They will be playing their game plan close to their chest , Ian has been in UK buying W H Smith stationery and Joan has had a trip for book buying
Funny thing is they had more to gain by having access to the statistics than we will lose from them not being part of the process
best
Doris
Doris Mousdale
Arcadia Bookshop
26 Osborne Street
Newmarket
Auckland
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