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Barclay sees off Harry

15.07.08 Philip Stone

Linwood Barclay's No Time For Goodbye (Orion) has retained top spot for a second week with a 56,291 weekly sale, up 2,354 week-on-week. Barclay achieved the feat despite competition from the paperback release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Bloomsbury), which became the fastest selling book of all time upon its release in hardback last year.

The children's edition of J K Rowling's seventh Harry Potter instalment sold 37,644 copies through the market at an average selling price of just £1.96 - 78.2% off its £8.99 r.r.p.

The book was placed straight into money-off promotions on the high street upon its release last Thursday, but Nielsen BookScan data suggests Asda's competitive "£1. Magic Price" offer was the main sales driver. Total sales of the adult and children's paperback editions stood at 46,257 by Saturday 12th July.

Meanwhile, revenue through the market increased by 1.9% week-on-week to £30.4m, up just 0.3% year-on-year.

Retail harry potter Home Philip Stone Charts Linwood Barclay

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By imatree

I don't know what price the other supermarkets sold HP for, but assuming it was generally half price, then the Asda market share would come in somewhere around 75%, which is good for them, but pretty awful for everyone else and for Bloomsbury, with sales of less than 10,000 to go around the rest of the trade. So if Asda put their price back up overall sales will plummet.

15 Jul 08 15:40

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By Potted

Asda already have - it went up to a wildly expensive £3.86 from Monday.

15 Jul 08 15:50

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By Philip Stone - Charts Editor

imatree, you're spot on. If every other bookshop in the country sold the book at half-price, Asda's market share on the children's edition alone would come in at 72% mark. Suffice to say, 75-80% seems a robust estimate, meaning lots off book-buyers have visited Asda since its release on Thursday. But I wonder whether their sales of Wrigley's chewing gum, Cadbury's Creme Eggs and Duracell AA batteries and all the other items that constitute till-point fodder increased as well??

15 Jul 08 15:55

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