How Walmart Is Taking Advantage of Amazon-Hachette Book Feud

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Super retailer Walmart (WMT) is using the book feud between Amazon (AMZN) and book publisher Hachette in order to increase its own book sales.

WalmartWhile Amazon deals with an digital book price dispute on sales of Hachette’s library of publications, Walmart and other retailers are swooping in to fill the void.

Walmart is offering some 400 Hachette titles for 40% off, and delivery dates begin this week. The sale is now atop the Walmart.com home page.

Walmart’s book sales were up  70% just last week.

Via CNN Money:

The CEO of Hachette Book Group, Michael Pietsch, wrote to the company’s authors that the dispute with Amazon presents a “challenging period” but said the signs from other retailers are “extremely encouraging.”

Amazon has been through this before — and lost. In 2010, it gave in to publisher Macmillan, which wanted to raise by $2 to $14.99 the e-book price of best-sellers.

Hachette publishes books by authors such as James Patterson and JK Rowling.

Rowling’s The Silkworm is currently unavailable for pre-order on Amazon.

Walmart meanwhile has pushed its book selections to customers who can’t get Hachette books on Amazon.

“We’re committed to making it easy for our customers to have access to a broad assortment of the products they want, at the low prices they want — including copies of their favorite books that they might not be able to get elsewhere,” Wal-Mart said in a statement.

WMT stock is down 2% year to date.

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Article printed from InvestorPlace Media, https://investorplace.com/2014/06/walmart-wmt-stock-amazon-hachette-book-feud-amzn/.

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