Angus and Robertson and Borders. Well.

So, I awoke this morning to the news that Angus and Robertson and Borders have gone into voluntary administration. Wow. These are companies who are owned by the REDgroup a private equity firm worth millions and billions of dollars, so that is a little strange. But you know the not-so-little part of me that works in an Independant bookstore that is awesome and cares about books and customers (and you can click on this link here: Thesaurus Books and then follow links to our fb fanpage and like us) is not that sad or surprised at all. See, these large stores do have the space for variety and the buying power to offer big discounts but the truth is they subsidise these discounts in marking up the RRP on most books in the store.

This is more than a little bit insidious and not a very nice thing to do. Obviously. Recommended Retail Prices are important, they allow a profit margin for the seller and the author and the distributer. Marking up the price is just a sneaky way of making more money. And as we can see it does not work. People learn.

So fingers crossed for all the employees that these stores will stay open and fuctioning but more importantly head down to your local little bookstore, share the love there and let us preserve the uniqueness and integrity of our industry.