With trusty correspondents fanned out over the big-box landscape this October, word comes back that while bestsellers and brand names are alive and well, who controls those brands varies depending on the venue. At Sam’s Club, for instance, the publisher of record for Williams-Sonoma is Simon & Schuster (The Williams-Sonoma Collection), while at Costco, it’s Oxmoor House. The classics — and bibles — are now represented by a broad range of houses, both in-store and online. Where Parragon and DK once dominated the Target shelves — and DK and Silver Dolphin (the AMS imprint) dominated the Costco tables — now it’s a free-for-all as everyone grabs for a piece of the action.
On the juvenile front, children’s titles dominate at Target and Costco, and an informal poll of publishers shows that some, like Scholastic and S&S, have been increasingly focused on getting their licensed product sold in. Scholastic’s Michael Jacobs says that two years ago the publisher focused specifically on the market, and has “scored big” with Clifford, thanks to the TV exposure, while the license for Shrek 2 is also expected to do well. Meanwhile, S&S’s Simon Spotlight’s sales have increased in the past year as Dora, Bob the Builder, SpongeBob SquarePants, and even Blue’s Clues show strength at all big-box outlets. Children’s boxed sets and treasuries are favorites in the price clubs, and they obscure the need to offer big discounts. HarperCollins has been publishing significantly more for the marketplace as well, according to Andrea Pappenheimer, who heads children’s sales. While there have always been golden oldies on the tables — Goodnight Moon and If You Give a Mouse a Cookie (both board book only) — Harper has been making a concerted effort to get into the price clubs, and the coup was getting them to buy the latest Lemony Snicket title on its own. The licensed arena has also been heating up with My Little Pony, Berenstain Bears, and movie tie-ins such as The Incredible Hulk and Spiderman. Meg Cabot’s Princess Diaries have been a big success in both cloth and paperback. The first title sold well because of the movie tie-in, but the series has had sustained sales thereafter and is now up to five titles.
Across the board, trade paperback classics from East of Eden to To Kill a Mockingbird are featured prominently. In other categories, Wal-Mart of course sells massive quantities of romance and religion (the retailer’s online religious book offerings are prodigious, especially in the bible segment). George Bick, SVP Sales in charge of the mass market across all HarperCollins lines, confirms that Wal-Mart is going gangbusters in the inspirational field: a recent promotion with the retailer just dropped the price on The Purpose Driven Life, fueling an exponential increase in sales. Zondervan has helped it along by urging its customers to take advantage of the special discount. Bick also reports a big leap in mass market romance — the publisher added its own mass-market house sales force two years ago, having formerly distributed via Hearst — which sells across all lines into the mass merch accounts, to a much improved bottom line. Avon’s trade paper chick lit line has been a hit (market share at Target and Walmart has been bumped up by several points this year), and next year will see efforts to target Albertsons, Kroger, and the like with a number of chick lit titles; they’ll drop the price to $10.95 from $13.95 on a trial basis.
Needless to say, everyone sells the top bestsellers. Prices at the two price clubs — Sam’s and Costco — are mostly in lockstep: Blow Fly is $14.76 at Sam’s and $14.79 at Costco. The trade paperback of Seabiscuit is $9.29 at Costco and $9.22 at Sam’s. Wal-Mart is, relatively speaking, no bargain: Barbara Bush’s Reflections is $17.64, while Costco sells it for $15.49. On some titles, such as Grisham’s $19.95 Bleachers, Sam’s and Target are at $12.57. Now that B&N sells SparkNotes, Target and Wal-Mart seem intent on preaching the CliffsNotes way (see Wiley article). And everyone still wants Oprah books.
