Christmas Retail Survey: The festive hits

Cookery and biography stood out this Christmas, giving the supermarkets particularly strong sales. Jamie’s Italy, Sharon Osbourne’s Extreme and Rick Stein’s French Odyssey made Sainsbury’s top five. Asda’s chart varied, with Guinness World Records, Next to You and What Your Clothes Say About You supporting Jamie’s Italy at the top.
At Ottakar’s, cookery, biography and graphic novels saw increases of between 26% and 36%.
Some independents outside London were able to sell cookery and biography hardbacks despite the competition from chains. Untold Stories made the top three for both The Bookshop Chipping Norton and Books@Hoddesdon.
Joanne Townes, of Bookworm in Kirriemuir, said: "In the last two weeks before Christmas, cookery really took off. I bought in The Silver Spoon, which I was a bit dubious about at first, but it flew out. In fact, I couldn’t get more as it was in a reprint."
Independents and chains alike saw success with The World According to Clarkson. Sainsbury’s book buyer Emily Goldthorpe said: "It was a great Dad’s Christmas present which peaked at just the right time."
Amazon’s growing influence on book buyers had a clear effect on its own sales and the market as a whole. Does Anything Eat Wasps? outsold Amazon’s 2004 Christmas bestseller, Himalaya, by almost two to one. Senior books manager Kes Nielsen said: "Does Anything Eat Wasps? and Is It Just Me Or Is Everything Shit? surprised a lot of people, and we probably wouldn’t have singled them out back in August, but we saw the potential very quickly and reacted by working with press, PR and the publishers to help ensure that they were established in the media as the ’surprise Christmas bestsellers’ that everybody is looking for these days."
The publicity generated by Does Anything Eat Wasps? helped the title rate highly with independents. The book, along with Banksy’s Wall and Piece and Is It Just Me Or Is Everything Shit?, dominated the bestseller lists in independent retailers in England and Wales. Julia Carmichael of Harts Bookshop in Essex said: "People like reading about science. Maybe because of the cheap price, people thought it would be a nice stocking filler."
Borders’ number one for Christmas was Does Anything Eat Wasps?, while in London and other metropolitan areas, Wall and Piece was a runaway seller. Borders and Blackwell’s also reported success with "impulse buy" Instructions for Servicemen.
For Irish independents, and chains Eason and Hughes and Hughes, Irish books dominated the top spots and, unlike in England and Wales, fiction titles sold well. Bestsellers included If You Could See Me Now by Cecelia Ahern, How Will I Know? by Sheila O’Flanagan, and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nightdress by Ross O’Carroll Kelly. Robert Fisk’s The Great War for Civilisation was a hit with Irish buyers, while the popularity of Irish titles Us and The Pope’s Children by David McWilliams outpaced supply.
Is It Just Me Or Is Everything Shit?
Great Lies to Tell Small Kids
The World According to Clarkson
The Great War for Civilisation
A Little History of the World
Wall and Piece (London and Bristol)
The Bus We Loved (London)
Round and About Chatsworth (Derbyshire)
Scotland’s Coast: A Photographer’s Journey
Brian O’Driscoll’s A Year in the Centre (Ireland)
James Connolly: A Full Life (Ireland)