Waterstones to stop selling Kindles in-store

Submitted by: The Two Sides Team October 6, 2015

Waterstones is removing Amazon’s Kindle devices from many of it stores as sales “continue to be pitiful”.

Speaking to The Bookseller, Waterstones' Managing Director, James Daunt, said the UK's largests book retailer will be “taking the display space back” to use for physical books instead. 

He told The Bookseller: “Sales of Kindles continue to be pitiful so we are taking the display space back in more and more shops. It feels very much like the life of one of those inexplicable bestsellers; one day piles and piles, selling like fury; the next you count your blessings with every sale because it brings you closer to getting it off your shelves forever to make way for something new. Sometimes, of course, they ‘bounce’ but no sign yet of this being the case with Kindles.”

In response, an Amazon spokesperson said the company was “pleased with the positive momentum and growing distribution of Kindle and Fire tablet sales" and added that kindle book sales in the UK were also growing.

In January of this year, the Telegraph reported that Waterstones admitted that sales of Amazon's Kindle e-book reader had "disappeared" after seeing higher demand for physical books.

Booksellers have suggested a range of reasons for the recovery, naming the economic bounce, publishers “upping their game”, booksellers sharpening their offer and, chief among them, the belief that the e-book “threat” is “vanishing".

Read more at The Bookseller

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