The closure of Hughes & Hughes is a genuinely sad moment for book lovers in Ireland, not to mention their over 200 staff. In recent years they have invested heavily in their stock and their shops, making the customer experience very enjoyable.
Unlike most independent booksellers, they carried a massive stock of titles across a wide range of interest areas. In particular, their childrens section was very good and a big hit with a play area full with plastic horses and arches built into book shelves.
In the analysis of the failure of the business in the media today there is mention of high rents, and the move by consumers online as the main reasons for the closure of the chain. The truth behind the collapse is a little more simple. Their books were just far too expensive, with many titles being more than twice the price they are on Amazon. It may be the prices were a direct result of the high running costs, but there is no way they could have survived by continuing to overcharge customers.
Just before Christmas we wanted to buy 60 copies to the wonderful “Tribes” by US marketing Guru Seth Godin to send to customers as a thank you present. I phoned around and the price in Hughes & Hughes was €16 per copy. We ended up getting the books on Amazon.co.uk for just €7.50 per copy. The price was the same on Amazon whether we were was getting one copy or 70.
Do you see now why Hughes & Hughes has gone out of business?
I agree and disagree with you on this. On the one hand H&H had a real challenge on Price in that Amazon and other internet retailers have a very impressive price advantage. But that can be easily explained.
* Amazon get a much higher % discount from publishers than even a chain like H&H did. That is one reason for the price differential.
* Secondly H&H sell much fewer books and unlike Amazon couldn’t make up for cheaper prices by relying on volume sales, especially in a small market like Ireland (Amazon buys and sells internationally).
* Thirdly and perhaps most importantly, H&H had bricks and mortar stores which Amazon does not. When you add in the distribution network that a Bricks and Mortar chain imposes and the redundant stock it very quickly becomes obvious that the kind of expenses imposed by real world bookselling is what made up for most of the price differential. It was unavoidable.
BUT, and this is important, many independents simply refuse to compete on prices and are doing pretty well. They tap customer need in their locality and provide services that a chain or Amazon simply can’t. So Price along is not the reason why H&H closed. It didn’t help, of that I am sure, but given the thriving stores that sell at the same price or higher, I think it’s the wrong focus.
All the best,
Eoin
[...] at MediaConact there’s a blog post that puts the blame squarely on high prices for Hughes & [...]
Great comments and I don’t disagree with all of your points. In the end all of the points you raise mean that Hughes & Hughes had to charge higher prices which had a major part to play in their downfall.
Amazon have great advantages, but charging more than twice the online price on any title is a recipe for disaster
[...] also show that Ulster Bank has a number of charges registered against Hughes & Hughes. Mediacontact writes: Just before Christmas we wanted to buy 60 copies to the wonderful “Tribes” by US marketing [...]
Here’s another view: As a small indie publisher, I use POD for my books. I give Amazon 50% discount and I gave H + H 33% discount. I get paid from Amazon every month and the reader gets a good price. But I always had problems dealing with H+H. Each branch seemed to have a certain amount of autonomy…they ordered books from me but getting paid was a heartache. The goalposts were always changing…where to send invoices, who to contact…it was a runaround I could do without. Now they’re gone and I guess I’ll never get paid.
A year ago I decided only to deal with Amazon and indie bookstores, who order small, but always pay on receipt of orders. To me, the local indie bookshops seem more interested in books than making a fortune…and they’re always happy to see me, arrange readings etc. There will always be a place for the indie bookshop, especially the ones that sell both new and secondhand books.
For what it’s worth, H+H had branches in Galway and Ennis, but my books sold more in the indie shops like Charlie Byrnes and Scéal Eile, though they were selling for the same cover price as H+H. And I got paid.
The comment that H&H were overcharging for books is both simplistic and erroneous. The reality is that they were being undercut by competitors. That state of affairs is the result of the pressures of competitive behaviour which led to toxic outcome itself inevitable in a profit and growth driven economy where the demands of shareholders have primacy over the common good. The person who wrote the above post should really find something else to do which does not include economic analysis. He or she clearly hasn’t a clue beyond a barroom view if how markets work.
Agree with Eoin on this – it’s impossible for the bookshops to compete on price, and H&H were actually a bit cheaper than surrounding bookshops, in Dublin anyway. They ran pretty good promotions, and had a lot of decent offers. Dundrum was a disaster because of the location in the carpark, and their range in the stores was not always great. The move to centralised buying as a factor in this, taking the power away from the booksellers might be worth looking at in this. The problem of price is unlikely to go away, with online always going to be cheaper, but the problem is going to become one of how you find new books. Without the filter of the booksellers, do you rely on reviews, which are incredibly capricious or what’s being promoted on Amazon? It’s a very sad day – hopefully at least some of the stores are bought out, and not just the airport outlets.
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