BusinessReport.com

Muggles, brace yourself. Only a few short days from now, the last chapter of the Harry Potter saga will descend upon hardly patient fans, and the world will finally find out whether author J.K. Rowling’s boy wizard lives or dies in his final showdown with Lord Voldemort.

Speculation about this question has been more heated than a quidditch match between Hogwarts rivals Gryffindor and Slytherin. It’s so heated that London bookmakers are taking bets on the outcome of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, which will be released shortly after midnight July 21.

Demand for the final Harry Potter book surpasses any release during the last 21 years—except, perhaps, for the first six books in the series—one local bookstore owner says. The only trouble with a book that everyone seems to want sooner rather than later is that it has forced most bookstores in the Baton Rouge area to attempt a little magic of their own to secure their share of the profits.

Discounts approaching 50%—Barnes & Noble is offering the book, with a $34.99 retail price, for $20.99 (a 40% discount) to nonmembers and $18.89 (a 46% discount) to members—are leaving some competitors wondering if there is much chance of making a profit.

In anticipation of a rush among his customers, Cottonwood Books owner Danny Plaisance says he ordered 50 copies—an unusually large amount unless he is holding a book signing. Plaisance expects to make a profit by selling Deathy Hallows at a 15% discount, but he isn’t sure whether stores selling it at a discount twice that much can turn a profit.

“It aggravates me, and I don’t know why they do it,” he says. “They might make $1 or $2 off it if they’re lucky. If they weren’t offering deep discounts, I’m sure I would sell more books.”

One local bookstore owner who asked to withhold her name as well as the name of her store for fear of upsetting chain retailers says she sees little chance of outselling larger stores, so she’s “not even trying.” She will, however, hand out bookmarks and tattoos to customers to repay them for buying the book at her store.

“For the last [Harry Potter book], I put it out at about a 30% discount and then Wal-Mart undercut me,” she says. “That seems kind of silly to me that they would worry about a little bookstore.”

The few independent bookstores around Baton Rouge seem to have little interest in holding parties to start selling the book at midnight, preferring to meet their customers the next morning. But Barnes & Noble and Books-A-Million will stay open late, something they rarely—if ever—do for other, non-Harry Potter books. Neither store would say if staying open past midnight would cut into their profits, but both see it almost as a duty to their customers.

Charles Griffon, a sales representative for Books-A-Million on South Mall Drive, says he expects to start seeing fans sporting cloaks and lightning-bolt scars at 10:30 p.m. Books-A-Million will have extra sales people on hand with drinks and refreshments at the ready to accommodate the 250 people Griffon expects to attend the midnight party.

“There’s going to be the fanatics and the hard-core fans who are going to be first in line, of course,” he says. “If we didn’t do something like this, they would just go across the street to Wal-Mart.”

Barnes & Noble CitiPlace will host a special costume party at 7 p.m. July 20, encouraging customers to come dressed as their favorite Harry Potter characters “for a night of enchanting activities, spellbinding prizes, photo opportunities, unique items for sale and even more magic.”

“We’ve done these celebrations for all the other Harry Potter books, and our customers have grown up with them,” says Denise Calcagno, district manager of Barnes & Noble. “It probably wouldn’t put us at a disadvantage if we didn’t do it, but our customers ask, and we enjoy fulfilling our customers’ needs.”

Though she admits she has only read the first three books, Calcagno says she will be sorry to see the end of the Harry Potter series.

“Harry Potter has gotten children to read with their parents. No other book has been able to do that,” she says.

But Plaisance isn’t worried. He expects something that equals or exceeds the popularity of the Harry Potter series to come along soon enough.

“That’s just the way it goes,” he says.