Retailers merry about Harry
NOVI, Mich. – Harry Potter entered the wizard shopping district known as Diagon Alley and was amazed by what he saw.
“Harry wished he had eight more eyes,” J.K. Rowling wrote in “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,” her first book about the boy wizard and his adventures at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. For Harry, Diagon Alley offered a cornucopia of robes, eels’ eyes, spell books, quills, potion bottles and magic wands.
If Harry jumped out of the book and entered any Borders or Barnes & Noble store these days, he might be equally overwhelmed.
A stepped-up sales blitz of Potter-themed merchandise is under way thanks to the perfect storm of the release this Saturday of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” – the seventh and final book in the series – and the fifth movie, “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,” which came out Wednesday.
The strategy is an about-face from 2005, when book No. 6, “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” hit shelves. Booksellers then scaled back on Potter paraphernalia, which didn’t sell as well during the lead-up to the fifth novel, 2003’s “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.”
But Ann Arbor-based Borders Group Inc. is upping the ante this time around by offering everything from calendars and journals to wall scrolls, wands and lunch boxes.
“There is much more product available this time because of the timing of the movie and book releases,” said Diane Mangan, director of children’s merchandise for Borders.
A Borders location in the Detroit suburb of Novi gives consumers the chance to spend their hard-earned money on all kinds of Potter stuff.
Sticker books and action figures populate two tables devoted solely to Potter merchandise.
Sweet-toothed Potter-philes can leave the Novi store with their own version of the candy cart from the Hogwarts Express train.
Two stands offer Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans, and Chocolate Frogs and Blood Pops can be found elsewhere in the store.
Not to be outdone, rival superstore chain Barnes & Noble Inc. also has jumped back into the Potter merchandising game, offering T-shirts, baseball caps, chess sets, calendars, bookmarks, journals, wands and games.
“We will be offering a larger assortment of gifts or non-book products this year,” said Kim Brown, vice president of merchandising at New York-based Barnes & Noble.
“We’ve never had a moment when the book and the movie are very close, so I think that will help sales. But I think they’re going to be strong no matter what.”
JP Morgan analyst Nancy Hoch said it makes sense for big book retailers to offer Potter goodies.
“Given the convergence of the film and book releases and the overall excitement around the seventh and final book, I would expect Harry Potter-themed merchandise sales to be up this year,” Hoch said.
While the national chains are pushing more Potter merchandise, they are quick to point out that their main focus still is on the book, which will wrap up Rowling’s epic fantasy series.
Worldwide sales of the first six books already top 325 million copies, and the first U.S. printing for “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” is 12 million.
“We’re a bookstore, so our prominent feature is the book,” said Brown of Barnes & Noble.
“The gift items are just an enhancement to the display.”