Plenty of reports in the UK over the weekend about the bleak future for small retailers like newsagents as a result of tough competition from supermarkets. See: Mirror, Times, Guardian and our own Sydney Morning Herald. In fact a Google search reveals 45 articles related to this story.
The situation is not much different here in Australia. Coles and Woolworths have a voracious appetite and are pursuing product categories which small business channels like newsagents need to survive. They move in, take the cream business and leave newsagents with some action but at a much higher cost. Take stationery for example. Supermarkets and their associated retail outlets now own stationery yet their customer service is appalling., Range is poor and prices are high despite the consumer perception that they are lower. a cheaper pen, for example, is not always cheaper once you consider how long it lasts and whether it is the right pen for the job.
The challenge for newsagents is to get a consistent superior quality and service message out to consumers. Another challenge, too, is whether politicians are prepared to legislate to protect small business against the appetite big business has for their customers. And by protecting small business, like newsagents, I mean protecting them from clone businesses as well as the supermarkets.
Newsagents are important culturally to Australia and losing them from towns and high streets would be a big blow to the community let alone the loss of an entrepreneurial breeding ground.