When I’m travelling, I often visit the kiosks at the airport, to see what they have of intresting magazines, specially Linux and Digital Photography magazines. I was visiting Trondheim last weekend, and on the way back, while I were waiting for my plane back to Bergen, I was looking on the shelves at Narvesen at Trondheim airport, Værnes. There were actually a quite good choice of Linux magazines, and one specially catched my eye. I had heard about the new Ubuntu User magazine at the Ubuntu UK podcast, which by the way is a pretty good podcast. But I didn’t expect to find it in a news-stand in Norway, I thought I had to order it from the UK.
So I bought it.
The magazine was priced to around £7, which would translate to about 74 norwegian kroner, or €8.20. But at when I got to the counter, I had to pay 210 NOK for it, which is about £19 or €23. In comparison, one years subscription to the magazine is €29.90 if you live in Europe outside the UK, which would include Norway. €29.90 is 269NOK or £25.5
This is a total rip-off. I understand that Narvesen needs a margin for magazines with a narrow group of readers, but this pricing is insane.
Are you kidding me?! That’s an outrage! Which again reminds me why I don’t buy magazines…
Btw, small correction, you’ve used the word “where” (hvor) several in this blogpost, where you actually meant to use “were” (var).
It is all true, and of course, you are right about were and where…
3 things … did you end up buying the magazine, and if so … WHY? Finally, if you did buy the magazine (which makes you a stupid son of a “something”) was it any good … a review is of course what I’m asking for
What the author fails to point out is the huge difference of prices in Norway and other countries..
You should at the least expect double the price if you go to buy a magazine in Norway compared to most other European countries( Mainly because the government tax the hell out of shipments coming to norway, and then secoundly because in order to make profit, it has to be increased considerably). Narvesen isn’t known to be expensive in Norway. Atleast not if you compare to other shops with the same magazines. (The water/soda is a different story but I will not go into that here).
In advance, I will appologize for any typos, since you guys seems very eager to point that out =)
(I would also like to point out that Narvesen Værnes does not set their own prices on their products, RSH is responsible for that)
The difference between norwegian and foreign prices is one thing, but the thing that’s remarkable in this case is that Ubuntu User is twice as expensive as the other magazines that Narvesen retails. And of course it’s the same price in all the Narvesen stores in Norway.