Door Sales Of Bad Books Claimed

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30395, 20 March 1964, Page 18

Door Sales Of Bad Books Claimed

The people of New Zealand were being duped to the tune of at least £1,000,000 a year for third and fourth-rate reference books being sold throughout the country from door to door, said a Christchurch bookseller, Mr G. Tait, yesterday in an address to the annual conference of the Associated Booksellers of New Zealand at Hanmer Springs. Mr Tait was the convener of a sub-committee on door-to-door bookselling.

“Australia, as readers of overseas news items will know, has already been done over and New Zealand is now being milked by itinerant salesmen with an incredibly smooth line of patter and a technique right on the edge of the law,” he said. Encyclopaedias, so-called great books, reference books that have long since ceased to maintain the high standard they held 50 years ago. are going into homes throughout the country, and at extremely high prices. “Door-to-door bookselling—or perhaps I should say. drawing - room bookselling, because these salesmen are clever at insinuating themselves into the house—is an anachronism in this day and age because the customer is buying without comparison, without competition from similar goods, and often without even sighting the articles being sold. “If he is lucky, the purchaser may be shown a composite volume which, of course, includes only the pick of the articles and illustrations. This would not matter so much if the goods being sold were of outstanding value. But, in terms of value for money, one could scarcely make a worse purchase. “No Choice” “Any bookseller worth his salt can provide infinitely better reference books at a fraction of the cost of the articles being peddled from door to door. In a bookshop a customer can compare one reference book with another and can choose from a wide range

that is best suited to his needs: at the door there is no choice.

“In a bookshop the price is clearly marked, and because the trade has recently been subjected to the floodlight of a public inquiry, the customer can be sure the price is reasonable: at the door the price is the last thing mentioned, is confused with talk of subsidiary’ benefits, and is hidden under so-called servicing costs.

“Books being sold from door to door are those that will not stand comparison with the stock available from a bookshop. “In some cases books that have failed to make the grade in the bookshops have been withdrawn from shops and sold from door to door, but at double the price they were in the bookshops. “At the door the public is paying 100 per cent more for books that any self-respect-ing bookshop would sell at half price in a sale. “Australian Protection”

“In Australia the danger of high-pressure door-to-door book salesmen is recognised in the Book Purchasers Protection Act. In the United Kingdom, an attempt has been made to curb the menace of loquacious doorstep salesmen with the Hire Purchase Bill.

“What are we doing in New Zealand? While our politicians are obsessed with what they delight in calling ‘dirty books’, they seem entirely unconcerned about the wastage of overseas funds on indifferent reference books; yet that wastage is considerable. “While our politicians are all steamed up about our moral welfare they seem completely uninterested that we as a country are buying indifferent information, obsolete facts, and spurious status, all nicely done up in imitation leather with genuine gold lettering. And we are buying it most dearly. Inquiry Wanted

“Not only are these door-to-door hawkers damaging our economy, they are insidiously lowering the standards of reference available in our homes. Surely a fullscale public inquiry is required.” Mr Tait said that because it seemed that the booksellers could not look for help from politicians, they must do something for themselves.

“Although the politicians seemed determined to give us a ‘dirty* name, although the *wide boys’ are flooding the country with expensive junk, the New Zealand stockholding bookseller continues to give service of a standard higher than almost anywhere else in the world,” said Mr Tait