It seems like Times made a mistake by investing their time and effort in this company. Of course now that Times has invested all news on this company will be tilted in their favor. I have had nothing but miserable experience with this company on my purchase and a lot of lip service but no follow through. Being a US company the reviews that one can see on sites such as http://www.resellerratings.com/store/A1_Books or even sites such as http://www.epinions.com/webs-Web_Services-All-Merchants-a1Books nothing but the poorest of available ratings. In America consumers have more protection than in India and also enabling easy charge back on purchases. With all these safety in place this company looks like it is still cheating customers off their goods.

It also looks like a small company being run out of a garage based on the article below.

"Shinu and Kavita Gupta's site, called A1 Books (www.a1books.com), is a relative old-timer at three years old.

The Parsippany couple sold $300,000 worth of books last year, and expect to sell $1 million worth this year. They already sold $150,000 in this year's first three months.

Any gross profits go to Kavita Gupta's salary and improving the business, said Shinu Gupta, a former Wall Street programmer who makes his income designing Web sites.

"The business is sustaining itself," said Shinu Gupta, whose goal is annual sales of $10 million to $25 million in the next two to three years.

A1 books buys books from publishers and wholesalers at a 35 percent to 45 percent discount from retail, he said. It sells them from the Web site at 15 to 25 percent discounts, racking up average profit margins of about 20 percent, he said. So on a book it sells for $20, the couple makes about $4.

The orders come to the Guptas' computer night and day, and Kavita Gupta or their employee downloads them each morning. Kavita Gupta orders books from publishers and warehouses, who then ship the books back to her. Then she repackages the orders and ships them to customers.

Customers also pay shipping. For example, a $17.95 book will cost a customer $3.95 in shipping.

1,000 ORDERS A MONTH

Shinu Gupta said the company takes about 1,000 orders each month.

Pitney sends his orders directly to a fulfillment center, which fills and ships customers' orders, he said.

The Guptas, who started the business after Kavita Gupta had a child and wanted to work from home, are looking for a "venture angel," a capitalist with deep pockets to inject $2 million to $5 million into A1 Books."

• reply