‘Having followed up on your comments with regard to the pricing issue on Zondervan books, it has been agreed that titles will now be stickered in Grand Rapids before they leave for the UK. Here at STL Distribution we will endeavour to sticker all Zondervan titles we have in our warehouse. This is, however a large job and will take time to complete meaning some Zondervan titles may continue (in the short term) to be sent without pricing stickers. If you do receive product without pricing stickers, please contact our customer services team who will credit you for the difference.’

STLD Blog Team

09 February 2009 10:44

I note in passing that my question to STL remains unanswered:

… could you confirm, please, that STL is aware of the BA’s Code of Practice and will be training staff as necessary and making every effort to comply with it in future?

I also note that the carriage charge gremlin is still running rampant around the backorders dept…

As an independent, we usually use the various ‘promotional lists’ that we get from our reps to give our shop (and website) some decent looking offers. Last year, we updated our website to reflect the Nelson Supersavers list, and were delighted when a customer came in to look at some of the items he had found for a Sunday school prize. Imagine my horror to find the Bibles had gone up from £5.99 to £9.50- a bit of a jump!

We are still working our way through this with the customer. Who, although understanding, is not exactly pleased. So i am going to have to lose a bit of my precious margin to pour oil on the troubled waters.

And a request to suppliers who are doing ‘offers’ to please put a ‘Finish Date’ on them as per Engage or Select. At least then, we can manage the return to the ‘correct’ price. And, if, out of the goodness of their heart, the supplier decides to keep the promotion on for another month- they can let us know!

‘I think we are all grateful for that (statement). So (the GLO Bookshop) will certainly be contacting to claim the credit that has been refused over the last few weeks. On the point of principle, we have continued to put the stock out at marked price. I think I would rather lose a few quid here or there, rather than losing the goodwill of my customers.

However, the statement does raise this question. I can only recall seeing several (more like a very few) Zondervan titles with ‘permanent stickers’ attached coming through in recent weeks. To say ‘a few may be missed’ surely does’t reflect the position bookshops are seeing as they process their deliveries. If this is what Ian is being told, then I can assure him that the situation needs to be urgently reviewed. The real position is more like ‘there’s an odd one or two that have been properly done but there are an awful lot still to sort out….”

With the fluctuations of the pound against the dollar over the last eighteen months Zondervan, after consultation with STL Distribution, have decided to remove UK prices from their books. As Zondervan sell all their product at the dollar price, this enables STL Distribution to respond to the fluctuating currency exchange rate accordingly in setting the UK sterling price. All new books released from Autumn 2008 onwards have not had prices on the books and a programme is in place to ensure that all books have the UK price removed at reprint. In the meantime, Zondervan and STL Distribution are committed to stickering all books with UK prices on. In some cases, however, this may be missed, and STL Distribution have committed to crediting retailers.

Both Zondervan and STL Distribution apologise for any inconvenience caused by this, and want to assure all of our customers that this is a temporary transition.

Thanks to Ian Matthews for following this through.

Re. those messed-up CDs, Mark: my response would be to return them as substandard and request mint condition replacements, return and replacement carriage at STL’s expense.

STL’s returns policy is very clear: all shop stickers and labels must be removed prior to returns, and as far as I’m aware that rule applies just as much to Wesley Owen as to the rest of us — I’d suggest contacting Steve Mitchell (WO’s representative on the BA CBG) if this is a frequent occurrence.

This too is covered by the BA’s Code of Practice:

Books returned as ‘green box’ under the Industry Returns Initiative (IR), are expected to be fit for re-sale and therefore should be in mint condition. This also applied to other returns outside IRI. Some price stickers used by booksellers can render returned books as unsuitable for re-sale (this can also apply to prices handwritten in pencil). Care must be taken to ensure all books returned as supplied by the publisher.

Unless otherwise authorised under IRI or has been negotiated with the individual publisher, books bearing security stickers applied by the bookseller, are not usually acceptable for return and re-sale.

OK, the Code of Practice refers to books, but I think other products are included by implication.

We’re finding more and more titles are delayed coming to us until after they’ve been returned from WO.

Mark

On the ‘legal’ side, I’ve found it diffcult to find any definitive answer to this issue. The practice did seem to be specifically forbidden under the Price Code provisions of the 70′s (Google turned up a fascinating incident where Renee Short challenged government ministers with an overpriced packet of Sainbury’s bacon during in a debate in the House of Commons in 1975, the offending packet being duly passed from one side of the House to the the responsible minister on the other…..maybe we should all appear with our feebly stickered books at the next STL/Zondervan meeting in Carlisle?). However, I think this has all been replaced by the Price Marking Order 2004. But this comment is maybe relevant-

‘The Order requires that prices must be “unambiguous, easily identifiable and clearly legible” but it is not prescriptive about the way in which those requirements are met. It does, however, require that consumers should not have to ask for assistance in order to be able to see a price.’ Birmingham City Council and a number of other Trading Standards websites refers. It seems to me that £8.99 price printed on a book with a semi-transparent, peelable sticker for £10.49 plonked over the top hardly fulfils the spirit of the law!

So I’m with you, Phil. If it is commercially neccesary to reprice the stock-then it must be done with permanent ‘Proper Publisher Price’ stickers at point of distribution- not relying on the shop staff to put on these rediculous labels that the customers hugely enjoy peeling off.

Now, what’s that I hear Zondervan et al & STL saying? That’s a huge extra expense in terms of staff time in the warehouse? (But presumably it’s OK for the shop staff to have to spend time to identify from the invoices, make the phone calls, ask for the labels, put the stock to one side in the shop until such time as the labels are posted……) OK, how about this as a simple solution for the trade? Why not honour the price printed until such time as the books clear through, and save us all (warehouses & shops) the hassle?

We await your response with interest, Ian & Mark!