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Ebooks shunned as Waterstones reclaims Kindle space after ‘pitiful’ sales

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By John McCarthy, Opinion Editor

October 7, 2015 | 2 min read

Waterstones is to purge Amazon’s ebook reader from stores after it recorded a period of "pitiful" sales.

The Kindle, once heralded as the final deathblow to printed media, is to be removed from sale at Waterstones to take “the display space back” for books.

Waterstones managing director James Daunt 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 from the retailer may not come as a surprise after Daunt in January said Kindle sales had dried up, especially over the Christmas 2014 period.

Amazon has shrugged off the development stating that Kindle sales continue to grow in the UK, available at over 2,500 outlets.

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