It came as a surprise to some to see the administrators called on Borders and Angus and Robertson are both part of the Redgroup retail chain. Angus & Robertson has a 125 year old history in Australia and together the two chains accounted for about a quarter of all books sold in Australia.
But, as Sven Feldman explains in today’s BTalk, the collapse was inevitable. Sven is an Associate Professor at the Melbourne Business School at the University of Melbourne. He says the company grew too quickly and underestimated the impact that eBooks would have on the frequent reader. In fact, it seems attempts by the book industry to try and prevent parallel imports of hard copies of books were a futile attempt at protectionism that was insignificant compared to the main issue.
So does that mean we are unlikely to see these chains rise again from administration? And what future is there for other, smaller, booksellers? How can other industries cope when technology shifts the market so dramatically?
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What’s Canada Got that Australia Hasn’t?
In the latest annual Country Brand Index, compiled by FutureBrand in conjunction with the BBC World News, Australia ranked second, with Canada in the lead.
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China Car tariffs reversed and a government shutdown – mixed news from the US
Markets pulled both ways on conflicting news from the US – NAB’s Rodrigo Catril talks to me about the lowering of car tariffs and the threat of a government shutdown.
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Turnaround in bonds ahead of FOMC this week
Bond yields have fallen slightly. NAB’s Tapas Strickland suggests it might be down to expectation of more moderate language from the Fed as they try and rein in the response to their recent hawkish stance.
