Books are cheaper this holiday season, thanks to an online price war now in its second month. Walmart kicked things off in mid-October when it cut the price of 10 of the most-anticipated new hardcovers including novels from Stephen King and Dean Koontz to $10 apiece for people ordering on the retailer's website before the books were officially released. Within a few hours, Amazon had matched the offer. Walmart's response: cut the price to $9. Amazon matched that too. So Walmart went to $8.99, as did Target, which started offering the 10 books for $8.99. Naturally, Walmart went to $8.98. Book publishers were horrified, afraid that such prices would stick typically, these sorts of books sell for three times as much and eventually threaten their profitability. When Nov. 3 rolled around, the date many of the titles officially went on sale, Walmart and Target started raising their prices, but Amazon didn't, prompting Walmart to begin cutting its prices again and the American Booksellers Association to ask the Justice Department to look into whether such cut-rate pricing is predatory.
The Top 10 Everything of 2009
- Top 10 Albums
- Top 10 Animal Stories
- Top 10 Apologies
- Top 10 Art Exhibitions
- Top 10 Awkward Moments
- Top 10 Best Business Deals
- Top 10 Breakups
- Top 10 Buzzwords
- Top 10 Children's Books
- Top 10 Crime Stories
- Top 10 Editorial Cartoons
- Top 10 Facebook Stories
- Top 10 Fashion Faux Pas
- Top 10 Fashion Moments
- Top 10 Feuds
- Top 10 Fiction Books
- Top 10 Fleeting Celebrities
- Top 10 Gadgets
- Top 10 Green Ideas
- Top 10 Heroes
- Top 10 iPhone Apps
- Top 10 Late-Night Jokes
- Top 10 Magazine Covers
- Top 10 Medical Breakthroughs
- Top 10 Movie Performances
- Top 10 Movies
- Top 10 New Species
- Top 10 News Stories
- Top 10 Nonfiction Books
- Top 10 Oddball News Stories
- Top 10 Pariahs
- Top 10 Pictures of the Year
- Top 10 Plays and Musicals
- Top 10 Political Gaffes
- Top 10 Quotes
- Top 10 Religion Stories
- Top 10 Scandals
- Top 10 Scientific Discoveries
- Top 10 Songs
- Top 10 Sports Moments
- Top 10 T-Shirt-Worthy Slogans
- Top 10 TV Ads
- Top 10 TV Episodes
- Top 10 TV Series
- Top 10 Tweets
- Top 10 Underreported Stories
- Top 10 Untruths
- Top 10 Video Games
- Top 10 Viral Videos
- Top 10 Worst Biz Deals
TIME charts the highs and lows of the past year in 50 wide-ranging lists