Daunt,Waterstones and the end of 3-2

if you have been into your local Waterstones book store recently,you will have noticed that times are changing for that stalwart of the High Street.

It is all down to one man,James Daunt who has been at the helm since the summer and is driving through the changes.

Top of his list is the 3-2 offer,once crammed into the store,the former owner of Daunt Books tells the Telegraph this morning that it is based on supermarket tactics of piling things high and selling them cheap.

Once more books included in the offer are there because their publishers have paid for the privaledge which means that those excluded rarely sell.

Breaking the cycle means, of course, that Waterstone's will lose a valuable source of income. It also means that the number of books sold will fall, as people will purchase fewer of them without the promotional incentive. But Daunt believes this will only be temporary, and is prepared for the fall-out.
"Yes, sales will fall but they are not going to go down for long. What I am telling the staff is that we will have much nicer bookshops for the consumer to buy books in. They will come back more often and, ultimately, sales will go up. You just need to be patient while we wait for that to happen.