Ariel Emery of the Northfield News wrote an excellent article today about selling books online. The article focuses on the positive aspects of selling books online for a small store like Monkey See, Monkey Read. It’s true, internet sales make up about 25% of our overall sales. We ship books around the world from our little storefront on Division St.
While talking with customers, I find many people believe everything is cheaper online. “Go to amazon, they’ve got millions of cheap books.” I’ve always believed my prices in the store are competitive with the Amazons of the world. So I thought I’d check a few titles and see how the Monkey stacks up. Here’s what I found.
Wicked by Gregory Maguire
Amazon’s price new $7.99 $11.98(with shipping)
Amazon’s price used $3.70 $7.69(with shipping)
Monkey See, Monkey Read used $4.00 $4.26(with tax)
Thunder Bay by William Kent Krueger
Amazon’s price new $7.99 $11.98(with shipping)
Amazon’s price used $2.63 $6.62(with shipping)
Monkey See, Monkey Read new $6.39 $6.81 (with tax)
Blindness by Jose Saramago
Amazon’s price new $10.20 $14.19(with shipping)
Amazon’s price used $4.00 $7.99(with shipping)
Monkey See, Monkey Read used $7.00 $7.45(with tax)
I think we stack up pretty well. We sell most used books for half the cover price. We have an excellent selection of current bestsellers in the store. These are new books we sell for 20% off the cover price.
If you’ve never been in, give us a shot. We offer an excellent selection of new and used books for children and adults at fair prices and your dollars stay local.
[...] Book Prices Monkey See, Monkey Read has always been the place to save money. We sell most of our used book inventory at 50% off the current cover price. We discount [...]
[...] At Monkey See, Monkey Read, we are hanging on and hoping for greener pastures this summer. I wrote this piece about how well we compete with amazon. I think our prices are fair. We buy back your used books [...]