Check out The Book People for discount books! (Book People, the)

Member Name: nixtee

Product:	Book People, the
Date:	21/10/09 (86 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Discounted books, cheap prices, good service

Disadvantages: Not as big a range as shops such as Borders or Amazon

In a nutshell, The Book People sell top quality books at discounted prices. Their aim is to make books affordable for everyone. How can they do this? Well, they purchase their stock in large quantities and sell direct to their customers (cutting out middle men etc).

We sometimes get The Book People brochures through the door in the post, but I prefer to buy online via their website - www.thebookpeople.co.uk . However, I do find their brochure useful as I can have a quick look at it and see if there's anything I like. One point to note... there is no obligation to buy... Despite Dooyoo's description of The Book People, they are not a book club. You only order what books and as many books as you want. The Book People also sell via a distributor network, where distributes drop off a number of sample books with various businesses, schools and hospitals for a week and then return to pick up the books and any orders there might be... This happens at my place of work, but obviously I order online anyway. The Book People also provide book events for lager companies (however I have not experienced this).

The Book People sell all kinds of books, from Babies & Toddlers and Children's books to Crafts & Hobbies books, from Biographies to References books, and more. While they don't have a huge range of books like Amazon, Borders and other such bookshops do, The Book People do have a nice and varied range to choose from.

Now for some examples of The Book People discounts...

My latest book from The Book People was Digital Photography Masterclass by Tom Ang. It's RRP (Recommended Retail Price) is £20 (and Amazon are selling it for £12.99), but I got it for £6.99. That's a saving of £13.01!

Popular children's book The Jolly Postman has an RRP of £12.99 (and Amazon are currently selling it for £8.43), but The Book People are selling it for £4.99. That's a saving of £8!

The Chief Inspector Wexford Mysteries Collection of 10 books has a RRP of £79.90, but The Book People are selling all 10 books for £9.99, which is about £1 each. A saving of £69.91! Beat that!

The Book People currently offer free Standard delivery when you spend over £25. Otherwise it is £1.75 for Standard delivery of a single item or £3.50 for Standard delivery of more than one item. Next Day delivery (must be ordered before midday) costs £5.95. The Book People also offer a concessionary rate on delivery for OAP's, registered disabled, registered carers, foster parents and registered childminders, this rate is £2.50.

Loyal customers to The Book People are rewarded with "Book Points". Each time you buy a book you are given a number of book points. From what I can tell, you are given a point for each whole £1 that the book costs. So, I earned 6 points for the Digital Photography Masterclass book I bought. When you have enough book points you can redeem them for a free book. For example, if I wanted to use my book points on The Jolly Postman book I would need 250 points. Obviously, you have to spend a fair bit of money with The Book People to get free books with your points, but they're still rewarding loyal customers.

My last order with The Book People contained 2 books. I placed the order on the evening of Friday 16th October (standard delivery) and received confirmation that my order had been shipped shortly before midnight on the same day. My books (wrapped in a padded envelope with The Book People logo all over it) arrived today on Wednesday 21st October, which is pretty good considering standard delivery is 5 to 7 days. I was emailed at each step of the way to inform me how my order was doing, e.g. an email to say their received my order, an order confirmation and finally an order status update email to inform me that the order had been dispatched. I could then track my order via my Book People account. The Book People sent the order out via Parcelnet and it arrived with Citylink, so no need to worry about Royal Mail strikes!

I find The Book People useful when doing my Christmas shopping, especially when it comes to buying books for kids. While they don't have a huge range like Amazon or Borders, they do have a large number of books and I often find something I'd like to read myself (I have an ever growing pile of books here which I'm slowly getting through!).

I would certainly recommend The Book People for discount books and good service!

Summary: Discount books!