Of Harry Potter and money

Reading time of this article: who knows?
Prerequisite: watch this.
Assumed knowledge: understanding of the price war on the last Harry Potter book.

This is not a article on harry Potter. Neither are they any spoilers in this post.

So, after looking at the mad crowds and letting the dust of the hype settle, I can finally lean back with a sigh and pen my thoughts on the price fiasco of the last Harry Potter book in Malaysia.

I have no sympathy for the "major bookshops". Selling the book at RM110 is anyway is outrageous. My question is, what is the recommended retail price (RRP) of the HP7 book in Malaysia?

Even I, with my limited business knowledge, can tell you that Tesco and Carrefour will not sell something to make a loss. They may be big international chains. They may have big profit margins. But I can tell you, they will not sell something, even if it's as internationally acclaimed as the HP7 book, at a loss. Think about it. The probability of someone buying it is 1. The probability of excess stock is 0. If I were Tesco/Carrefour, I would go along with the flow, and sell it at RM110. Why not? It's a greater profit margin.

Guess how much the HP7 book is in Australia through? The RRP price is A$ 29.90. But I got my hands on it, and so did the rest of the crowd, for $25! And I didn't queue outside Big W. I didn't camp out outside Borders/QBC/Target. I went to Angus and Robertson. And picked up one that was labeled $25. Now if a "normal" bookshop can do this, I was wondering, just imagine the profit margin of these big chains with so much lower overheads!

Even if you take the RRP of A$30, and looking at the AUD rising faster than and the RM dropping like a rock, that still only translates to RM 90. And maybe I didn't look hard enough, but I couldn't find anyone selling it for $30. And A$ 25 is only about RM75. I could buy the HP7 book, ship it to Malaysia within 3 working days, and still have change from Rm100.

Now consider these "big chains". They are buying the books BELOW selling price. They are buying in bulk, so they get an even lower price. They're shipping in bulk, so they don't get charged A$ 18 per 500g like me. Just imagine the profit they make selling at RM110!!!

In this aspect, Tesco and Carrefour are selling it at the right price of RM 70. But that's only half the story. Now, how much do you have to work just to buy one? Normally, you'd be lucky to get paid RM 2/hr working part-time back home. At RM 70, that's still 35 hrs work. Assuming you work 8 hour days, it'd take you about 4 days just to have enough dough to buy the book.

Here in Australia, the minimum wage is $10/hr. One only has to work for less than 3 hours, to earn enough money for a copy of HP7. And we wonder why Malaysians don't read.

So, no. I do not have any sympathy for anyone saying that they're being undercut.

Sometimes, we need to see things from a foreign perspective to understand our-self's.