Paperchase, the retail stationery and greeting card concept out of Borders UK is expanding according to Planet Retail. The Paperchase concept is very interesting and would present a serious competitor to newsagents if it took off here under its own banner.
Hi, Mark.
I had visited Paperchase section within Borders Chatswood 2 weeks ago.
Shopping in Borders store is a pleasant experience, reading some books and magazines, rest on chairs or floor, feeling like a library. I spent 30 minutes then brought some books.
while the Paperchase section is not attractive as other sections. It concessions in middle of shop and had a post-xmas sales at that time. It has designer’s lines on stationery, gifts, wrapping and cards.
It didn’t seem a match of your gift shops giving its current format (shop-in-a-shop under Borders brands).
At the beginning, I don’t know whether it will challenge us (newsagents). We serves most time-poor customers, and they create a destination for people enjoying spending their time and money.
Then I realized that our real challenge is not only how to upsell our existing time-poor customers, (in this case, fight for more market shares) but also how to make us destinations to welcome people spend their time, eventually their money.
Cheers,
Sunny