There is a retail turf war breaking out to capture over the counter sales of eReaders in the US. Curiously, this is just in time for the Back to School market. Officemax is to sell the Nook eReader and Toys ‘R’ Us is to sell the Amazon Kindle.
As the devices have taken on more features, their prices have fallen and become, as headline News reported, closer to being impulse purchases. The article also points to a survey in the US indicating that 51% of families with kids at school planned on purchasing electronic devices this year.
With the move into mass market bricks and mortar retail, these items have gone from being for those who are online connected and savvy to being available everywhere like the pen and notepad.