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The Great 2013 Scriptures Con!


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Having just been online ordering my new scriptures I was checking out the prices on both the LDS Bookstore UK & lds.org and was shocked to see what I discovered, and actually more than offended. Looking for a quad, genuine leather, indexed regular size the price at lds.org was £33.50

http://store.lds.org/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Product3_10704_10551_21231_-1__3074457345616917721

The price at the LDS Bookstore UK was a MASSIVE £74.20

http://ldsbookuk.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=345_782&products_id=12789

While I realise they are a business surely such a massive mark-up is inexcusable for scripture!! I thought I must be getting something wrong, but the cheapest quad on LDS Bookstore, is still more expensive the most expensive on lds.org. I can imagine & expect there to be a bit of a mark up but over double the price is extortionate IMO, so much so that if we had another bookstore in the UK I would never use LDS Bookstore again on principle, so for new scripture needs definitely head to lds.org!!

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It's impossible to know whether or not the price is exorbitant until first knowing what the LDS bookstore pays for the scriptures. I wouldn't be surprised if they pay more wholesale than the LDS distribution center does (though I certainly don't know that for sure).

You also would have to know what kind of overhead the LDS bookstore had to cover. The LDS distribution center doesn't have to cover it's overhead through material sales, but the LDS bookstore probably does so that would make difference on the money they would need to recoup to make a profit and stay in business and therefore impact the purchase price.

Plus, did you figure in shipping? If the UK LDS bookstore is selling them from the UK, then that means they've already paid to ship them over and will likely have to pass on that cost to the customer.

Edited by bluebell
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Have to say, when I once needed some quickly I contacted the LDS Bookstore and was told they don't supply scriptures and I would be best getting them from Church Distribution.

There is a difference between their online website based shop, and their actual stock items. Scriptures may be listed on their website but they probably don't supply in the real world. This is because the website is hosted by US based Hope of Zion, who probably do supply in America and have simply transposed their $ based site under the LDS Bookstore name and converted into £'s.

Edited by Alan
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The Bookstore has 2 small stores just outside both UK temples in what would be considered 'low rental' as in they're not city centre locations but towns local to temple location, neither London nor Preston Temples are in those locations but in towns close to. Lds.org has distribution centres in the UK and ships out from those, so lds.org has already shipped them over to the UK aswell. The LDS bookstore does have a wide selection of other stock, though no where near the selection that Deseret Books and other US stockists have, and the mark ups are no where near as shocking. As a rough guide just put a £ in front of the $ price, which with the rate of exchange does make them more expensive than buying in the US by about 50%. As I say I expected them to be a bit more but I think such an increase is shocking!

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Have to say, when I once needed some quickly I contacted the LDS Bookstore and was told they don't supply scriptures and I would be best getting them from Church Distribution.

There is a difference between their online website based shop, and their actual stock items. Scriptures may be listed on their website but they probably don't supply in the real world.

Which would mean they would probably order them in one at a time rather than in bulk..and if the generally don't stock scriptures the price is possibly to put people off then...?

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Start braiding your whip and put on boots to kick over tables!

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It's impossible to know whether or not the price is exorbitant until first knowing what the LDS bookstore pays for the scriptures. I wouldn't be surprised if they pay more wholesale than the LDS distribution center does (though I certainly don't know that for sure).

You also would have to know what kind of overhead the LDS bookstore had to cover. The LDS distribution center doesn't have to cover it's overhead through material sales, but the LDS bookstore probably does so that would make difference on the money they would need to recoup to make a profit and stay in business and therefore impact the purchase price.

Plus, did you figure in shipping? If the UK LDS bookstore is selling them from the UK, then that means they've already paid to ship them over and will likely have to pass on that cost to the customer.

Booksellers do not get a discount from the Church Distribution unless they pick up the materials there in SLC (not at the local CD centers) and even then it's only 10%...which covers the Church's shipping costs. This is because the Church keeps the prices so low, they are not attempting to make money off of them. Thus in order to make money off of scriptures and other CD items they have to raise the prices almost double. Usually wholesale for books in my experience is at least 60% retail and sometimes lower, so if they are adding that 40% plus overseas shipping and customs cost (if they have to pay for that which my Canadian boss did but he would save money by driving down to pick them up as he had a business in Utah as well), for them to have the scriptures on hand even without a profit but just covering their expenses it will be around twice as much as CD.

At least this is the way it was about 10 years ago when I worked for the church bookstore in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

I have to admit, I cringed when people came to buy stuff from the bookstore they could get so much cheaper from the Church and in one case recommended it due to it being obvious the family did not have much money...but I could have gotten fired for that. One paid for the convenience of dealing with a person and not having to worry about returns and being able to see what one wanted before buying it...but if anyone asked me when I was not at work, I told them to go through CD for scriptures unless it was worth it to them to handle them first.

Edited by calmoriah
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This is because the website is hosted by US based Hope of Zion, who probably do supply in America and have simply transposed their $ based site under the LDS Bookstore name and converted into £'s.

If it is the one I am thinking of, this is a standard template website that one just attached one's store name to and adjusts the prices, but I think you can choose what products are on it. Many small church bookstores (including ours at the time I worked there) used it as it was easier and much cheaper than trying to set up one for oneself.
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At least this is the way it was about 10 years ago when I worked for the church bookstore in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

To completely derail my own topic, are you from Calgary? That's where my grandparents joined the church back in the 60's!

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To completely derail my own topic, are you from Calgary? That's where my grandparents joined the church back in the 60's!

We were there for 13 years, the longest I have ever lived anywhere so far...though where we are now will likely beat it in three years...sigh...not that I dislike where we are now, I just wish we had more time up there.

I am Californian by birth, husband Utahn.

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Could be because commercial bookstores have to pay delivery? Or maybe because the quality of the ones at the UK site is a better kind of leather?

I don't believe the Church makes scriptures anywhere save in the one place. In more recent years, they have simplified production to only two types of quality and less colours so as to cut production costs so as to keep costs down. I don't see them doing things differently for the overseas market. It is easily explained by the Church not giving retailers as big of a discount, if any, as most publishers do. You would see the same kind of markup if publishers sold their own stuff at the same price as they sold to retailers.

It was frustrating for the booksellers I knew as they felt they were in a somewhat unfair competition with the Church for customers...but the Church could have refused to allow them to even carry the stuff and scriptures and church materials is a big draw for church bookstores even if they cost so much more, people like to see what they are buying or need things last minute and can't wait for them to be shipped. Even with the increased cost, it was well worth it to our bookstore to include a huge amount of shelf space to the scriptures...but perhaps now people are more used to online purchasing, they are not so much of a draw these days (my experience being ten years out of date).

Edited by calmoriah
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The Bookstore has 2 small stores just outside both UK temples in what would be considered 'low rental' as in they're not city centre locations but towns local to temple location, neither London nor Preston Temples are in those locations but in towns close to. Lds.org has distribution centres in the UK and ships out from those, so lds.org has already shipped them over to the UK aswell. The LDS bookstore does have a wide selection of other stock, though no where near the selection that Deseret Books and other US stockists have, and the mark ups are no where near as shocking. As a rough guide just put a £ in front of the $ price, which with the rate of exchange does make them more expensive than buying in the US by about 50%. As I say I expected them to be a bit more but I think such an increase is shocking!

I know the family that run the Latter-day Bookstore.

There is no intentional rip off. The cost of importing books from the USA is very high. They make very little profit and keep the prices as low as they are able. I think you've unfairly misrepresented them.

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I think you've unfairly misrepresented them.

It is understandable though if one doesn't understand the pricing and publishing practices of Church Distribution and instead thinks it operates much like other publishers where one compares the prices of books across the water and sees them as quite close.
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I know the family that run the Latter-day Bookstore.

There is no intentional rip off. The cost of importing books from the USA is very high. They make very little profit and keep the prices as low as they are able. I think you've unfairly misrepresented them.

I still maintain the honourable thing to do then would be to not sell them and direct people to lds.org for their scripture needs.

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I still maintain the honourable thing to do then would be to not sell them and direct people to lds.org for their scripture needs.

As Alan pointed out, the website is not run by the UK company. The website is actually run by a US company. And you don't have to buy it.

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