We are promoting the latest issue of Quarterly Essay at the counter thanks to the considerable coverage of the David Marr essay on Kevin Rudd in the Fairfax newspapers on the weekend and on radio and TV yesterday.
Within a few minutes of making the move, we sold a copy to a customer who came in for a lottery ticket. Not bad lifting the margin for the sale from 42 cents to $5.40.
Magazines give us many chances to be opportunistic retailers. We need to be aware of these opportunities and leverage them for all they are worth. A perfect example of this was the pre-selling of the 2010 Michael Jackson calendar last year. More than $1,000 in revenue before the stock arrived is a great result. While we will not see sales of that level with this issue of Quarterly Essay, selling two or three copies on impulse will be most satisfying.
Newsagencies have opportunities like this every day. The key is to be aware, aware of what is being shown on TV, discussed on radio and written about in newspapers. We have brilliant traffic which can be worth so much more to us.
.I copied this idea and sold out. No more stock at network. I usually return more than half of what I receive!
Henry, there are opportunities like this every day in our stores. take this morning, the new issue of Royalty magazine has Princess Mary on the cover. This local connection gives us an opportunity to sell more copies of this title. We are promoting it with our newspaper stand.