Christmas book retail ‘slightly better’ for most

Christmas trading figures were flat, and for retail about one per cent down, according to Statistics NZ figures released this week. However, bookstores fall in the consumables and durable section of retail which did see a small rise, according to the report.

Nielsen Bookscan reported that sales for the last four weeks of 2011 were  2.3% down on sales for the last four weeks of 2010 (excluding Whitcoulls).

And that "up and down" scene was pretty much the picture book that retailers painted when  The Read  did the “How was your Christmas?” phone around.

From Invercargill “We had a very solid Christmas, and we are pleased with it,” said Lee-Ann McGinnis

Timaru’s Jeff Grigor of Chapters and Verses had “An average Christmas, not disastrous, not wonderful. Unusually there weren’t any titles that were particularly huge sellers, nothing really stood out.”

In Dunedin, the book side of Marbecks (pictured below) bounced back with a buoyant final three months trading. Bruce Caddy said that December held up reasonably well, but he was intrigued that there was not one major bestseller. “We sold books for Christmas across the board including backlist – no stand outs, but no major post-Christmas dogs either!”

Christchurch’s Scorpio books (now in Riccarton) had good Christmas trading “apart from the December 23 earthquake,” Jo Hewitson noted.

David Cameron said that earthquake did chop a bit off sales, “But we were up a bit overall compared to last Christmas in our town store.” Earthquake books and The Hare with Amber Eyes were standouts from the usual spread of titles.

Nelson had floods to cope with in December, but Page and Blackmore’s Peter Rigg said their Christmas “Was better than 2010, but not as good as 2009. We are generally pleased. It started early, took off the first week in December and just didn’t stop.” And in this tourist town “January is tracking along nicely.”

The stand-out
Wellington’s Unity Books had “A good Christmas, which is what you hope for when you have recently expanded and refitted the store,” says Tilly Lloyd.

In fact, Tilly wrote a press release picked up by local media headed: Unity Broke All Sales Records for December. In it she noted that the selection of titles available for the season suited Unity’s clientele – top of the store’s bestseller list was Julian Barnes’ The Sense of an Ending, and most titles were for sophisticated audiences - with the possible exception of the picture book Poo Bum. (To check out Unity Wellington’s top 20, click here.)

John McIntyre of the Children's Bookshop, Kilbirnie, also advised that Christmas 2011 was a stand out  - "best ever".

For Napier’s Beattie and Forbes, Megan Landon says their Christmas was “Good. A lovely Christmas and steady, which is always nice. People were happy to spend reasonable amounts and Christmas was way better than the previous year. We are having a good January too.”

Across in New Plymouth, Julia Phillips of Benny’s Books said the store’s Christmas was good trading, but pretty much on par with the previous year. “People left it late. But I’ll tell you, kids and teens are reading!” Julia was helped by a feature about her recommendations for Christmas in the Taranaki Daily News in the run up to Christmas

In Rotorua, David Thorp at McLeods Booksellers said their Christmas was “pretty good in the end,” with David commenting that sales were over a wide range rather than just a few titles.

Hamilton’s Penny’s Book Store in Chartwell Mall was another to have a late-firing Christmas. “Very late, but in the end it went well,” says book buyer Linda Lee. For this coming December the store is thinking of putting a notice in their window advising that not all titles are warehoused here in New Zealand, so leaving it late may mean shoppers don’t get the titles they want.

Books a Plenty’s Warren Baskett in Tauranga says the store had an odd Christmas. “It came, it went, and it came again. It ended up well ahead of last year so we’re quite pleased in all honesty, especially as it was after a difficult year.”

Christmas for the Groups
Whitcoulls would not comment on their Christmas trading for this summary, but marketplace intelligence suggests they started slowly but picked up momentum through December with targeted buying and good stock management.

Jenni Keestra, Category Manager Paper Plus, commented that Christmas sales were extremely late. “I know that retailers say Christmas seems to be later every year but in this case, looking at sales patterns, it was very much the case for 2011.

I suspect the RWC and the election were a big distraction away from Christmas shopping.

“A particular factor for PaperPlus was that we scheduled our brand re-launch for the day after the election and held back all our advertising accordingly, so we had little market presence until then.

“Sales this year were across a wide range titles – there were some heroes, of course, but there wasn’t a superlead on the scale of Annabel Langbein’s Free Range Cook in 2010.

“As a group, Paper Plus experienced good sales growth in all our book categories.

“Sales in the Canterbury region were particularly strong. They have been robust ever since the February earthquake (once stores re-opened) and there was no change to this pattern in the lead up to Christmas, despite having yet another significant quake on December 22.”

Superlead or not, Free Range in the City topped the 10 best for PaperPlus, followed by:

- The Affair Lee Child
- Inheritance #4 Christopher Paolini
- There’s a Hole in My Bucket, Topp Twins
- Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever, Jeff Kinney
- Daughters of Erebus, Paul Holmes
- Top to Bottom, Marc Ellis
- Stoked, Al Brown
- Old MacDonald’s Farm, Donovan Bixley, and
- Italia by Jo Seagar.

Jenni was surprised there was only one fiction title, commenting that Paper Plus stores tended to be stronger in children’s and non-fiction categories. She believes there has been a decline in fiction sales. It was notable that four titles are for child/teen market.

Very welcome news, Jenni says, is that seven of the 10 top titles are by New Zealand authors or illustrators.

For the Poppies chain of nine boutique bookstores, franchise owner Tony Moores reported “A variable Christmas. Some stores did great business, others not so good.

We had a good solid November and December and ended up ahead of expectations. Christmas sales started in November for Poppies stores, and while there were challenges, all around I’d sum it up as not a bad Christmas.”

So there you have it: one standout, small increases for most or same level trading as the previous year for others. After a tough year all round, even a small rise was enough to make a bookseller smile.