Magazine publishers are pulling out all stops to drive sales. These gifts have a high cost on the shop floor. TV Hits, for example, is offering a pack of hair colour. This magazine used to take two pockets to hold 40 copies. Now I have to give it a flat (premium)position and at least six additional pockets. This means that for this month in my store TV Hits has a real estate cost of $35.00. That’s just for rent. Even if I sell all the stock I won’t cover real estate and labour costs. The option is to not display all the stock – however that adds to the cost of managing what is on the shop floor compared to the back room – hence the need for newsagents to display all magazine stock on hand on the shop floor.
Free gifts are well and good to drive sales. However, publishers would do well to liaise more closely with retail newsagents to develop more economically viable sales drivers.