There is no doubt that newsagents face serious challenges. They are a key part of the news, information, advertising and gambling supply chains. In each of these marketplaces, online plays are shortening or eliminating the supply chain. While it will be some time before we feel the full impact of the changes, suppliers in the meantime are chasing incremental sales wherever they can and this means hurting the small business people who gave them life in the first place – newsagents.
Suppliers are taking products traditionally associated with newsagencies and putting them everywhere – dramatically diluting the value of the newsagent shingle.
Many newsagencies are starving because they are not sent enough magazines to satisfy consumer demand. This will reduce consumer traffic and potentially cause their businesses to die. Week after week we sell out of TOP 10 magazines barely 50% into their shelf life. That’s bad for business.
Many newsagencies are drowning because the lesser successful magazine titles are supplied in such abundance that more than 50% of what is sent is returned to be pulped. Newsagents cannot control what they are sent yet they have to pay for this stock and then claim back a credit which they get sometime long since the money left their account.
This small business retail channel is in trouble.
Is anyone listening?