Managing director James Daunt says: ‘Sales continue to be pitiful so we are taking the display space back.’

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

The UK’s largest book retailer is removing Amazon’s Kindle ebooks from its stores nationwide and replacing them with print books due to “pitiful sales”.

Waterstones, which teamed up with Amazon in 2012 to sell the electronic reader in its stores, will use the display space for physical paperbacks and hardbacks instead.

James Daunt, the managing director of the retailer, told The Bookseller: “Sales of Kindles continue to be pitiful so we are taking the display space back in more and more shops.

“It feels very much like the life of one of those inexplicable bestsellers; one day piles and piles, selling like fury; the next you count your blessings with every sale because it brings you closer to getting it off your shelves forever to make way for something new.

“Sometimes, of course, they ‘bounce’ but no sign yet of this being the case with Kindles.”

The move comes after physical book sales at Waterstones rose 5% in December 2014 at the expense of the e-reader.

It appears this trend is not unique to Waterstones. Figures released by Nielsen Bookscan show sales of print books for the first 36 weeks of 2015 rose by 4.6% (worth £739.5m) when compared to the same period in 2014.

This is the first time the print market has seen year-on-year growth at this stage of the calendar year since 2007.

Douglas McCabe, analyst for Enders, told The Bookseller it was no surprise Waterstones was removing Kindle devices from its shops. “The e-reader may turn out to be one of the shortest-lived consumer technology categories,” he said.

A spokesperson for Amazon UK said: “We are pleased with the positive momentum and growing distribution of Kindle and Fire tablet sales – our devices are now available in over 2,500 retail locations across the UK, including Argos, Tesco, Dixons, John Lewis and recent additions like Sainsbury’s, Boots and Shop Direct. Our UK, US and worldwide Kindle book sales are growing in 2015.”



