Is sci fi and fantasy only for the rich and intelligent?

JakeWIlls92

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Apr 6, 2014
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I only buy books at Barnes & Noble but I couldn't help but laugh at Walmart's selection of books. Nothing but trashy romance novels, right wing books by people like Rush Limbaugh, and generic techno thriller novels. Even Fred Meyers has a great selection of sci fi and fantasy novels. I saw novels like Game of Thrones, Shannara, Lost Fleet, and even Larry Niven at Fred Meyers. Do the Walmart execs think sci fi and fantasy requires too much intellect from their clientele?
 
I think that yes, middle class teenagers seem to like fantasy more. There needs to be a feeling of privacy in your life to enjoy fantasy. Poorer people tend to be overly INVOLVED with each other. I don't think it's possible to escape into a book in some environments.

Probably why they just run away from home and turn gay instead.
 
I only buy books at Barnes & Noble but I couldn't help but laugh at Walmart's selection of books. Nothing but trashy romance novels, right wing books by people like Rush Limbaugh, and generic techno thriller novels. Even Fred Meyers has a great selection of sci fi and fantasy novels. I saw novels like Game of Thrones, Shannara, Lost Fleet, and even Larry Niven at Fred Meyers. Do the Walmart execs think sci fi and fantasy requires too much intellect from their clientele?


How old are you?

.
 
I only buy books at Barnes & Noble but I couldn't help but laugh at Walmart's selection of books. Nothing but trashy romance novels, right wing books by people like Rush Limbaugh, and generic techno thriller novels. Even Fred Meyers has a great selection of sci fi and fantasy novels. I saw novels like Game of Thrones, Shannara, Lost Fleet, and even Larry Niven at Fred Meyers. Do the Walmart execs think sci fi and fantasy requires too much intellect from their clientele?


Do you live here in the Northwest?

I didn't think there were too many Fred Meyers outside our region.
 
Interesting thread question. One caveat: be careful not to draw anecdotal conclusions about Walmart's customers based on the nature of goods Walmart offers or its apparent pricing strategy. As a mass market retailer, Walmart attracts consumers from all segments of society -- rich and poor, scholars and ignoramuses, young and old, black, white, etc. For instance, it's probably safe to say that Walmart isn't the first place that affluent customers go to buy books, but to think that affluence and broad spectrum intelligence are necessarily linked and causally so would be a mistake. (It pains me not take the political jab that so easily follows from the preceding sentence, but I will refrain, at least for now.)

I don't know what customer segmentation models Walmat use and how it applies them to anticipate its target or impulse book buying clientele's, thus to the assortment of literature offerings found in Walmarts. Additionally, it could be that Walmart measures, analyzes and thus segments the demand it sees for books differently than it does for other merchandise. There is also the very plausible and very probable chance that Walmart uses geography (even within a given "metro area") to allocate its book inventory among its stores.
It may very well be that science fiction and fantasy are genres preferred more so by individuals having greater capacities for and willingness to exercise rigorous critical thought than by dullards.
You'll have to look for studies and/or market research that attempt to find a correlation between reading preferences and demonstrated cognitive acuity. I'm not aware of any, but there must be some. The thing is that even if such a correlation is established, in the context of book selling, it's likely all but impossible for sellers to assess the intellect of their client bases, thus having such information is hardly actionable and both intrusive and costly to act upon even if it is.
 

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