Dear Tesco,

I do like you. Really. Your products are invariably cheaper than I can find at most other places. I am a methodical, crazy gadget freak, and I find your gadget pricing impressive. I don’t always find what I want, but you often have the items I finally pick as the best value for money, and at very low prices.

But.

Your books are expensive.

Of Amazon’s bestsellers, just 2 out of the 100 books are cheaper on your site. And this is apart from the fact that I’d get free delivery from Amazon on 37 of those books (over £5), while you’d give me free delivery on 5 (over £15).

On average, that book list costs £5.66 on Amazon. With you, it’s £7.20. I don’t fancy paying 27% more. (36% if I include delivery.)

I’m not making this up. You can check: the books in red are cheaper at Amazon. (as of 6pm on a cold, rainy Tuesday the end of March.)

Book Amazon Tesco
⚪ The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest 3.86 3.86
🔴 The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo 3.48 3.86
🔴 The Girl Who Played with Fire 3.79 3.86
⚪ Wolf Hall 3.86 3.86
⚪ 61 Hours 9.49 9.49
🔴 Solar 8.90 13.00
🔴 One Day 3.79 3.86
🔴 Mums Know Best: The Hairy Bikers’ Family Cookbook 8.98 13.00
⚪ The Lovely Bones 2.98 2.98
🔴 Breaking Dawn (Twilight Saga) 7.49 14.99
🔴 Eclipse (Twilight Saga) 3.99 6.99
🔴 New Atkins for a New You: The Ultimate Diet for Shedding Weight and Feeling Great 3.99 5.99
🔴 The Return: Nightfall (The Vampire Diaries) 3.49 6.99
🔴 New Moon (Twilight Saga) 2.98 6.99
🔴 Twilight (Twilight Saga) 3.44 6.99
🔴 The Struggle: Bks. 1 & 2 (The Vampire Diaries) 3.48 6.99
⚪ Brooklyn 3.86 3.86
🔴 Vampire Diaries: Bks. 3 & 4 (The Vampire Diaries) 3.49 5.99
⚪ Hamlyn All Colour 200 Slow Cooker Recipes (Hamlyn All Colour Cookbooks) 2.48 2.48
🟢 Shutter Island 3.98 3.59
⚪ 101 One-pot Dishes: Tried-and-tested Recipes (Good Food 101) 1.97 1.97
🔴 The Secret Ingredient: Delicious, Easy Recipes Which Might Just Save Your Life 5.97 5.98
🔴 Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters 3.48 6.99
🔴 Percy Jackson and the Last Olympian 3.99 6.99
⚪ The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society 3.49 3.49
🔴 The Double Comfort Safari Club (No 1 Ladies Detective Agency) 7.99 12.00
⚪ The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook 8.49 8.49
🔴 The Gruffalo 2.96 5.99
⚪ Percy Jackson and the Titan’s Curse 3.99
⚪ Percy Jackson and the Battle of the Labyrinth 3.48
🔴 The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine 12.50 17.50
⚪ The Secret 4.55 4.55
🔴 The Time Traveler’s Wife 3.82 3.86
🔴 Miss Dahl’s Voluptuous Delights 11.50 13.00
⚪ Ching’s Chinese Food in Minutes 9.98 9.98
⚪ The Little Stranger 3.86 3.86
🔴 ReWork: Change the Way You Work Forever 5.50 7.69
🔴 Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief 3.48 6.99
⚪ The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest 9.49 9.49
⚪ Dead and Gone: A True Blood Novel (Sookie Stackhouse Vampire 9) 5.20 5.20
⚪ The Forgotten Highlander: My Incredible Story of Survival During the War in the Far East 9.48 9.48
🔴 Room on the Broom 2.98 5.99
⚪ Lord Sunday (The Keys to the Kingdom) 3.49 3.49
⚪ The Official Highway Code 1.65 1.65
🔴 The Gruffalo’s Child 2.94 5.99
🔴 The Return: Shadow Souls (The Vampire Diaries) 3.50 5.24
⚪ Three Cups of Tea 4.98 4.98
⚪ The End of the Party 12.50 12.50
🔴 The Very Hungry Caterpillar [Board Book] 2.97 5.99
⚪ Annabel Karmel’s New Complete Baby and Toddler Meal Planner 8.69 8.69
⚪ Bad Science 3.57 3.57
🔴 The Snail and the Whale 2.96 5.99
⚪ True Blood Boxed Set (Sookie Stackhouse Vampire) 19.95 19.95
⚪ Gone Tomorrow 3.86 3.86
⚪ The Italian Diet 6.98 6.98
🔴 The Snowman 6.48 9.09
⚪ Wedlock: How Georgian Britain’s Worst Husband Met His Match 3.86 3.86
🔴 Little Darlings 4.89 8.00
⚪ Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything 3.98 3.98
⚪ 101 Meals for Two: Tried-and-tested Recipes (Good Food 101) 1.97 1.97
🔴 The Immortals: Blue Moon 3.48 6.99
⚪ The Host 3.82 3.82
⚪ The Catcher in the Rye 4.48 4.48
🔴 The Final Fantasy XIII Complete Official Guide 11.24 14.24
⚪ The Book Thief 3.95 3.95
⚪ Mexican Food Made Simple 9.99 9.99
⚪ Tea Time for the Traditionally Built: The No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency: The No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, Book 10 (No 1 Ladies Detective Agency10) 3.86 3.86
🔴 The Oxford Companion to Food (Oxford Companions) 20.00 28.00
⚪ Sacred Hearts 3.86 3.86
🔴 A Squash and a Squeeze 3.00 5.99
⚪ Pokemon HeartGold/ SoulSilver Official Guide 9.74
⚪ Cutting for Stone 3.86 3.86
⚪ Trespass 8.98 8.98
🔴 Wheels on the Bus (Pre School Songs) 2.44 4.76
⚪ Alone in Berlin (Penguin Modern Classics) 4.98 4.98
🔴 The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ (Myths) 7.50 10.00
🔴 Twenties Girl 3.85 3.86
🔴 The Last Straw (Diary of a Wimpy Kid) 3.48 6.99
🔴 Rodrick Rules: Diary of a Wimpy Kid (Book 2) 3.48 6.99
🔴 The Natural Navigator 7.48 10.49
🔴 The White Queen 3.99 6.39
⚪ The Shack 3.95 3.95
🔴 Good Food, 101 Cakes and Bakes 1.97 3.45
🔴 Faces (Baby’s Very First Book) 2.48 4.99
⚪ Lustrum 6.38 6.38
⚪ Blacklands 3.86 3.86
🔴 The Lost Symbol 8.78 9.00
🔴 A Touch of Dead (Sookie Stackhouse Vampire Myst) 5.20 9.09
⚪ The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better 4.96 4.96
⚪ Jamie’s Ministry of Food: Anyone Can Learn to Cook in 24 Hours 15.00 15.00
🔴 Ottolenghi: The Cookbook 12.50 16.25
🔴 The Ice Cream Girls 5.89 9.00
🔴 The Best of Times 3.79 3.86
⚪ Whoops!: Why Everyone Owes Everyone and No One Can Pay 11.50 11.50
⚪ The Children’s Book 3.86 3.86
🔴 Twilight: v. 1: The Graphic Novel (Twilight the Graphic Novel 1) 6.49 12.99
🔴 Too Big to Fail: Inside the Battle to Save Wall Street 7.48 7.49
🔴 Dark Days (Skulduggery Pleasant - book 4) 5.84 12.99
🟢 It’s Only a Movie: Reel Life Adventures of a Film Obsessive 6.00 5.98
🔴 The Smartest Giant in Town 3.00 5.99

I do like you. Really. (Despite trying to stop me scraping via user agent detection.) I don’t mind that you don’t have every book. I trust you to pick what I’d most likely want. You’re good at that.

Please make your books less expensive?