'Harry Potter' and Amazon.com Key Sales Drivers: Borders CEO
By: Jamie Corsi
As "Harry Potter" fans await the final installment of the popular series, CNBC’s Maria Bartiromo sat down with George Jones, chief executive of Borders Group, on “Closing Bell.”
“'Harry Potter' is an important part of our business. It’s not that we make a whole lot of money on each of the books we sell, but it draws a lot of people into the stores and gives us a chance to sell other things and maybe in some cases, reintroduce them to Borders,” said Jones.
As fans await midnight Friday, when "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" goes on sale, Borders is planning a spectacular including games and contests. Thousands of fans are expected tonight at the Borders store in New York City’s Time Warner Circle.
“We took advance orders in our U.S. stores of over a million and a half books, which does not include the Internet or our international stores,” said Jones. “For us at Borders, Amazon [Amazon.com] has been handling our e-commerce business for the last six or seven years and we will be reclaiming that business [in the] first quarter next year. We think it is important to have that, and link it to our store.”
