Now that all of England is in lockdown only essential shops will be open, which means that bookshops will sadly have to close for the duration. That's scheduled to last a month, but frankly if we have any chance of cutting the spread of infection down then lockdown really needs to last a lot longer than that.
I'm sure you all have more important things to concern yourselves with right now than comics but if you were thinking of buying any annuals for Christmas presents then your best bet currently is to order them online. Yes, supermarkets will be open and normally have them, but it doesn't look like my local Sainsburys is stocking them this year, so I don't know if that's the same across the country. (My branch has also cut down its comics stock to a few pre-school titles only. It hasn't had the Beano weekly all summer.)
If you want the annuals by Christmas then ordering them from the D.C. Thomson shop is a good bet. You can get The Dandy Annual and The Beano Annual individually, as a double pack, or as a triple pack with the Beano Christmas Special. You'll find all the DC Thomson books at this link:
https://www.dcthomsonshop.co.uk/books/annuals
(While you're at it, I'd recommend a Beano subscription too, considering that shops will be shut.)
To illustrate this blog post I've used a couple of bits I did for The Dandy Annual 2021. You'll see the full works in the book itself!
These are very difficult and unstable times for all of us so I wish you all good health and peace of mind.
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3 comments:
I grabbed my annuals a couple of days ago. Home Bargains has The Beano Annual for only £2.99, and WHSmith had an offer on all annuals, 2 for £10 - including the £14.99 Classic Beano and Dandy, which I picked up along with the Dandy Annual. At those prices, they must be loss leaders. I'd be surprised if they make a profit at those discounts once the publisher and distributor have had their share.
Hope things get better for you all south of the border soon, stick with it guys. Surely things can only get better.
It's going to take a long time yet I think, Paul. Personally I think lockdown should last into next year. I know many of us won't survive that financially, and living alone I know how the solitude damages mental health, but if it's for the greater good then that's what we need to do.
I bought a couple from Smiths (which IS still open at present) at £10 for two, James. I've given up trying to work out how publishers can profit from the sort of knockdown prices in Home Bargains. I presume they buy the books on firm sale, but what they pay for them I don't know.
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