A bookstore traditionally has been regarded as one of the world’s more civilized places of work and leisure. But with the aggressive rise of the value of our dollar against its U.S. counterpart, the Canadian bookshop has become a charged environment, perhaps even a dangerous one.
Book rage, anyone? As the Canadian dollar hit the $1.10 mark earlier this week, booksellers and publishers began to circulate stories of customers going beyond simply venting their dismay at hapless clerks and turning books into projectiles, sometimes to the point of drawing blood.
On Economics
November 12th, 2007 · 1 Comment
by Kassia Krozser
File Under: Quote of the Week
1 response so far ↓
Clive Warner // Nov 14, 2007 at 5:33 pm
I like this bit:
. . . . . “publishers and booksellers have been operating on the presumption that the consumer has long known that the exchange rate is just one factor in determining price. The shipping costs alone for a book edited in Boston, manufactured in Hong Kong, routed through customs at the U.S.-Canada border, processed in a warehouse outside Toronto, and destined for bookstores as far-flung as Yellowknife and Fredericton, will add several dollars to its suggested retail price.”
– If the above is true, doesn’t it just show the absolute stupidity of the supply chain? What message is the book trade giving out, here?
How about: “We love to cut down trees and use tons of oil shipping the paper round and round the world and then we end up having to accept most of it in return and pulp it. We’re multinational publishers, you see.”