Happy Boxing Day! (What’s that?)

Posted by admin on 12.26.2010 at 1:00 am

-By Jozette Kauffman, BWB US Customer

For those of you living on my side of the pond, Boxing Day is a holiday neither well understood nor widely celebrated. What do we Americans know of this elusive post-Christmas holiday? Before conducting a little Internet research of my own, it was my misinformed belief that Boxing Day involved some sort of pugilistic competition between two sweaty British men dressed in spandex. Or that, by December 26, people’s holiday spirit has worn off and the true irritation of spending days of uninterrupted “quality time” with members of your family leads to post-Trivial Pursuit fisticuffs.

In reality Boxing Day is primarily known as a shopping holiday for those living in the UK and other commonwealth nations like Canada and Australia. It’s the equivalent of our American Black Friday, except that Boxing Day is a statutory holiday, where Black Friday is not (get with the program, America!) Stores offer post-holiday sales and eager consumers start lining up before the stores even open (except  in Britain they ‘queue’).

The origins of Boxing Day are quite unknown although several theories attempt to explain how this holiday came to be. One such theory accounts that churches had boxes for seasonal donations where parishioners could give money. The alms boxes were then opened the day after Christmas and the donations were distributed among the poor. Several other theories exist along the same theme – gifts were given to workers or those less fortunate, always the day after Christmas, putting their pounds (pence? shillings? farthings?) to great use.

And did you know that when you buy from Better World Books, a portion of that money is also put to great use? Every sale contributes to literacy initiatives around the world. So if you are going to spend your dollars (or pounds!) in a post-holiday consumeristic frenzy, why not spend it with a company who will donate a portion of that money to help someone else? It’s the Boxing Day way.

So in celebration of Boxing Day, and the launch of the Better World Books UK website, BWB is having a sale: 15% off of two (2) or more books. Just use the code BOXING4BOOKS at checkout. (You’re welcome.)

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Free Shipping Worldwide

Posted by Xavier on 12.23.2010 at 4:44 pm

Dear global customers,

From the beginning, we have had a goal to make Better World Books the world’s best online bookstore. A critical part of this has been affordable global shipping. As we have grown, we realized it became possible for us to offer our worldwide customers the same thing our USA customers enjoy: free shipping!

In order to achieve this, we have begun to take the weight of the books into account when we price them. This means that you will generally see paperback books being very affordable, hardcovers slightly more expensive, and some heavy textbooks significantly more expensive. Overall, you will still save an average of over 50% off the original prices on our used books.

We also have taken the opportunity to upgrade EVERY order to international priority shipping. In general, this will mean even faster and more reliable international shipping, although we were already upgrading some of you behind the scenes.

This is a big step, but it is just the beginning. We have plans for support for more currencies, more payment methods and even better delivery service for certain markets. Keep an eye on the site in this coming year.

Please write and let us know how we are doing. We love to hear from you!

Sincerely,
Xavier and Kreece
Co-founders of Better World Books

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Now Boarding: BWB’s New TransAtlantic Sites!

Posted by admin on 12.09.2010 at 6:09 pm

-by Rachel England, BWB UK Contributor

When I get excited, I make puns! Book fiends on the UK side of the pond can now get free postage and packaging when satisfying their literary lust. See, as 2010 draws to a close, and everyone’s winding down for the holidays, Better World Books has been super busy giving their US website a shiny overhaul and creating a brand spanking new website for their lovely UK customers! Brilliant!

Books always make great gifts, and my nearest and dearest always expect them from me at Christmas. Stuck for a bit of inspiration this year I checked out BetterWorldBook’s  book club picks. On the US site, Barbara Kingsolver’s compelling examination of art and modern identities in gripping tale, The Lacuna, looks like a fab one for my Mum. Over on the UK site, Man Booker Prize winner, Wolf Hall, by Hilary Mantel will make a great gift to, er… myself! (What? That’s totally allowed). The Tudor reign, romance, murder and intrigue – sounds like my perfect read.

As I’m scouting around the new UK site, it’s really encouraging to see the ‘Your purchase in action’ bar at the top of the page. Already BetterWorldBooks in the UK has raised over £130,000 for literacy projects and saved three quarters of a million books from landfill. As nearly nine million dollars (!) has been raised in the States, these figures are bound to go up and up.

Happy reading!

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