Let’s get one thing out of the way before I start off this rant. I am definitely NOT a Harry Potter fan. I have never (or ever will) read a Harry Potter book. Ever. Absolutely no fucking desire to do so. I will force myself to watch Titanic, before I’ll ever consider touching a Harry Potter book. I’ve seen the movies and enjoyed the books movies, but that. is. all. Personally I think adult HP fanatics are freaks, even moreso than Trekkies.. but to each his own. But the hype over this is too annoying. It is so overrated that I am sincerely hoping that Harry Potter dies in this final installment, to end it once and for all. But that’s probably wishful thinking on my part.
Anyway, I’m here because I am COMPELLED to rant over this stupid Harry Potter price war in Malaysia.
What in the holy of all fucks were MPH and the other 3 ‘major’ retail stores that nobody gives a shat, were thinking? They’re shelving off the Harry Potter books from their outlets just because Carrefour and Tesco are selling it at a lower price of RM69.90 ????
Worse case of mogok and sour grape in Malaysian history ever. You might as well close shop and post a sign on the outside that says “pegi la beli kat tempat lagi murah tu.. haa pegi la pegi la… dont come here”. Stupid pieces of shits.
First up, the two hypermarts didn’t just started selling books recently. They’ve been selling books as long as I can remember. Secondly, it’s not as if the 4 big kahunas didn’t know from months before that the hypermarts will be selling the HP books. Where was the furor then, eh? Dumbfucks?
The reason they gave was because it’s not fair.. they’re not proper bookstore.. they will taint the integrity of the business.. wah wah wah.. fucking blah shit blah look at poor me will suffer losses. What cunts.
Please lah.. biar la diorang nak jual murah ke.. bagi free ke.. ko kisah apa. Buat je la business cam biasa.. ni macam budak kecik.. nak boycott konon.
I don’t even understand the logic behind this move.. maybe because I’m ‘not in the book business’. Come fucking on lah. I may not be in the book business, but I am a consumer. But more importantly, I am.. or make that WAS… a really loyal MPH customer. I have worked for them (briefly) and have been a patron for the past 20 years. I don’t fucking care which bookshops sell the cheapest book. I almost ALWAYS go to MPH to find my books, regardless the price. And I believe I’m not the only loyal MPH customer to do that. And now they pull this shit.
Why am I getting all riled up about this? I dont even like Harry Potter right? I know. But what if I was? What if it was a new Stephen King, Alex Garland or Ben Elton book. How the fuck can they do this to their customers. They’ve been in business since before I was born.. but has the saying “customers always comes first” been replaced by “fuck the customer.. they can go to the other place” instead? It’s not even “fuck the customer.. let them choose where they want to go”, because they didn’t give the customers (other than the ones who have prebooked) the option of buying at their place.
Seriously.. stupid mega cunts. I know it’s probaby not going to matter to you, cause I am only ONE STUPID SINGLE ex-LOYAL customer of yours, but what you pulled has guaranteed me that I will never ever buy a single item from your shop again. Good luck shitheads.
I’m not rallying other people to go against them (not that I’ll even succeed if I try), but this is just my own personal feelings on it. I know I will never ever buy anything from them ever again. I’d rather order by stuff from Amazon which would be way cheaper (postage included), dumbasses. I wouldn’t even want any of my future publications to be associated with you fuckers. I’ve spent a lot at MPH, in the regions of four figures annual-fucking-ly for the past couple of years. I don’t see any reason why I should spend an additional single Malaysian cent (which is worth shit these days) at this bookstore ever again. Eat cock la.. MPH.
I don’t care who sells the books at whatever price. As long as I get the book from my favorite bookstore, even if it costed me more… I wouldn’t mind paying. As long as I have the books in my hand at the end of the day, I’m happy. I think I have only bought one single book from Carrefour as long as I can remember. Again, I’m not pro Tesco or Carrefour. I’m just a really REALLY pissed off MPH customer. And this is over a book that I actually HATE. Imagine if I was really looking forward towards the release of this book.
I guess it all boils down to greed. Loyalty means shit these days.The only thing that you have fucking proven by doing this, MPH, is that you have absolutely ZERO FAITH in your customers. Well done.
Hatefully yours,
A writer that is not afraid to rightfully bite the hands that fed him.
~back to Away mode~
July 21st, 2007 at 2:11 pm
*LOL* You sound like the Dementors have sucked the soul & whatever joy out of you.
Try lightening up a little…reading a Harry Potter book might help.
July 21st, 2007 at 2:23 pm
What are you talking about.
I AM a Dementor.
July 21st, 2007 at 6:48 pm
[…] Further reads: Lots of Malaysians are talking about this. Sharon Bakar supports the bookstore’s strike, Raman of indie bookstore Silverfish thinks that the bookstores deserve it, Izad is mad that the bookstores are doing this and Jeffrey thinks that big bookstores shouldn’t complain about aggressive pricing since they are guilty of the same thing. […]
July 21st, 2007 at 10:51 pm
“I am definitely NOT a Harry Potter fan. I have never (or ever will) read a Harry Potter book. Ever. Absolutely no fucking desire to do so. I will force myself to watch Titanic, before I’ll ever consider touching a Harry Potter book. I’ve seen the movies and enjoyed the books, but that. is. all.”
er, i thot you say you have never/ or ever will will read a harry potter book… but later you said you’ve seen the movies and enjoyed the books? which is it? you’re just contradicting yourself and seems like you’re just getting all pissed that you couldn’t get the book after all on the day it was release since you didn’t pre-order…. go get it from Tesco or carrefour then, since you seem like the one to save moey…
it is a matter of econ’s principle, these grocery stores are selling at a lower price to force the bookstores to cut their prices and incur a loss. By refusing to sell, these bookstores are not giving the grocery stores this satisfaction. in economics, this is called price leadership. have you people actually considered looking up the price of one of these books in the international market? they cost way more than what you are paying now. like in the US, this HP7 costs 34.99USD, convert that to MYR and what do you get? 118.97MYR. We’re still getting it cheaper than people overseas.
So stop complaining already!
July 22nd, 2007 at 12:03 am
whoops.. sorry my bad. I meant to say I enjoyed the movies.. not the books. Thanks for pointing that out.
as for the rest of your comments.. you have your say, and I have my say. I’m not asking people to agree with me. But I have absolutely no desire to get any HP books from anywhere.. ever. And you probably missed out the fact that I said that money has never been so much of an issue for me when it comes to my (ex-)favorite bookstore. And it’s not as if MPH themselves have never sold books before at a price lower than their cost price, cause they have and I know that for a fact.
Using your logic, by refusing not to sell.. the big kahunas will not give satisfactions to the hypermarts. But also using your same logic, the hypermarts are already incurring losses by selling at that price.. so why do the hypermarts need to care if the big kahunas are selling or not.. at whatever price? They’re already incurring losses. Let them lah. Why must MPH make their own customer suffer because of what the hypermarts have done? I don’t care about the hypermarts. Fact of the matter is, MPH are turning away their customers. Snobbing their customers when it’s someone else’s “fault” (if you feel the need to point any fingers). Why the hell are they taking it out on their customers for crying out loud.
You have issues with the hypermarts, take it with them. As a customer.. I don’t want to know about all your politics and whatever ’smart business decisions’. As a low-life, economically unsound, run of the mill customer, I would’ve felt bloody short changed.
It’s a complete blatant disregard for what their customer wants. That’s what I’m so pissed about. I could give a fuck about the Harry Potter books. (If I had it my way, I wish all the bookstores would take the HP books off the shelf). It’s just how I feel as a consumer.. and more importantly a loyal customer, who’ve been supporting them for over 20 years.
The boycotting is completely juvenile, both on MPH’s part, and also on my part (cause I’m boycotting them over their boycott). But there’s a reason why I put those adjectives on the top left hand corner on this page.
I hope you’ll have a pleasant weekend with your book, though. Nothing personal.
July 22nd, 2007 at 12:56 am
why pay when you can pirate bay?
July 22nd, 2007 at 1:26 am
too lazy to do my own printing lah. And I’m not willing to stare at the computer screen for hours on end. If it’s not porn, it just ain’t worth it. Ha!
July 23rd, 2007 at 2:47 am
I rushed my mom to Carrefour Prai, Penang as soon as i saw that they’re selling at $69.90. i’ve been reading potter since i was primary 6, thats 2001. I stopped purchasing the books because i just couldnt afford them anymore. And thanks to Carrefour and Tesco, I have the chance to actually own the books and read it again anytime i feel like.
I do agree about that price leadership thing, but sometimes, in my humble opinion, we’ve just got to go back to the roots! It just shows how much the bookstores earn from one book, and that is why not many Malaysians read..And we cannot compare prices of the book in different countries because the book distributors are different, and to different part of the world, and the exchange rate in different country is different.
I think the bookstores should slap more sensible price tags on their books. Imagine people who earns less than 700 a month, they’d spend 14% of that on books like this one! And remember that they do have the rights to read quality books like this one.
July 23rd, 2007 at 7:32 am
Chee Teng.. total agreeance here. When I got my first experience into the ‘book business’ in 1993, I was a lot surprised when I found out the profit margin for the books sold at these bookstores. Believe me, the margin has NOT changed (for the better of the consumers) over the decades.
July 23rd, 2007 at 11:44 am
Hey man, I enjoyed your post a lot. EXACTLY HOW I FELT. MPH can go suck my small cock and smelly balls. Business is business no matter you sell books or stinking vegetables, you are still selling something. And they are still earning RM whether at RM109.90 or RM69.90.
And yeah, adult HP fans are freaks. Lol. But everyone has the freedom to choose what they like/dislike.
No more MPH for me as well.
July 23rd, 2007 at 4:16 pm
Bookstores NOT at fault. Book prices are set by distributors and publishers, not bookstores. The RM 69.90 offered by the hypermarts is BELOW cost price. This is not healthy discounting but predatory pricing which disrupts the book industry and their businesses. Genuine bookstores are being made to look like they’re greedy and profiteering in this situation, which they’re not. They are right in not selling this book. The public and consumers need to understand their stand…
They should continue going to the hypermarts to get the book at RM 69.90… IF THEY CAN FIND ANY!!
July 23rd, 2007 at 4:43 pm
You’re right. The general public and typical, non business savvy consumers (like me) may not immediately understand why they’re doing this. But whatever it is, they had the choice to whether go on selling the book or snub the hypermarts - and by doing so, directly snubbing their own loyal customers.
AGAIN, my point is I’m not upset about the price war. Whatever you do, keep the customers out of this controversy. Want to educate your consumers? Find a proper way to deal with this. This certainly, is not. This is ibarat, Gajah sama gajah bertarung, kancil yang mati tersepit. What have the CUSTOMERS done to deserve being snubbed? What?
Is MPH doing this so the customer will blame it on the hypermarts for causing this so called controversy in the first place? Pardon my French, but that’s fucking selfish and juvenile.
I’m not going back down from what I said.. MPH has just proven that they have zero confidence and faith in their own customers. Not all customers are driven by ‘low’ prices alone.. there’s a lot of reasons why loyal customers keep coming back to the store. But whatever integrity that MPH had, it all went down the drain the day that they compromised what their loyal customers want, with their selfish profit-making (or harsh consumer education, if you want to so subtly put it) needs.
To add to the zero confidence and zero faith, you ultimately have ZERO RESPECT to your customers. You’re basically saying fuck you to your customers. So fuck you back, MPH. I don’t fucking care about Harry Potter books. Fact of the matter is you couldn’t really give a flying fuck about your customers.
(Nothing personal against you Estefan. This is just my point of view.)
July 23rd, 2007 at 5:32 pm
Yeah, I’m a toy collector and I really don’t mind visiting the same shop even if it sells its toys at a slightly higher margin. I go back there coz I know I can get the toy without hassles, or worries. I go back there coz I know the boss, and he knows me, and he will reserve items for me at anytime with just a phone call.
That is customer service and customer satisfaction.
July 24th, 2007 at 7:11 am
Rasta.. yes I agree. Customer service & customer satisfaction are the key. I’m surprised that after being in the business for over 100 years, MPH decided to throw that concept under the bus.
July 25th, 2007 at 8:42 pm
I don’t have Tesco or Carrefour in my town. Of course no MPH, Kinokuniya or Borders either. The only bookshop which always has HP book here is Popular. So when I went there on 21st July to buy a copy and found out that they don’t want to sell it, I asked them why… but they just said that it’s an order from their higher management. So I went home and ordered it from Kinokuniya Online instead, along with 6 other books by Robin Hobb (which I can’t find in any bookshop here). I only found out the reason of it the next day. If they think that readers will wait for them, they’re totally wrong. I just felt sorry for those parents who went to Popular on that day, dragged by their kids to buy HP books but forced to go home empty handed.
July 26th, 2007 at 1:46 pm
Shishiza.. totally. That’s what I’ve been saying. They would rather turn their customers away empty handed, than handle it differently. Dumbest business move ever, if you ask me. But I’m glad you already got your book! Yay! Hope you’ll have fun reading it.
July 26th, 2007 at 7:17 pm
Yep XD *am reading it now*