The most high profile area where the two companies have done battle is in online book sales. Amazon’s Kindle e-book reader may have started the conflict by offering the most popular books in e-book format for just $9.99. Though many publishers have since balked at allowing their books to be sold in the e-book format for that price, the battle has raged on in traditional formats. Several high-profile book releases, such as Stephen King’s newest novel, Under the Dome, illustrated just how low both companies are willing to go. Walmart lowered its price for the novel to just $10, claiming that it wasn’t in response to the $9.99 e-book price. Amazon matched that price shortly thereafter. In response, Walmart dropped the price to $9.00 a few days later. The book’s retail cover price is $35 dollars, and its wholesale price is about $17. This means that
both retailers are losing at least $7 on every copy of Under the Dome that they sell at that price.