Our calendar sales in November were up 6% on November 2007 at our Forest Hill store. December to last night is nicely ahead as well. With no discounting I would note. This is a solid result given the excellent numbers for last year and that we had a Card and Diary outpost out the front of our shop last year pulling customers in.
Magazines generated 7.8 times the revenue of calendars and only 3.2 times the GP. Once I account for space and labour, calendars are more profitable and the best weeks are ahead of us.
I’d note, however, that the comparison with magazines is somewhat unfair in that many calendars are sold to customers who shop with us because of our range of magazines. This is the challenge with the department. The key is to build better GP departments around the magazine traffic. This is where calendars fit well.
It surprises me that many newsagents still only sell calendars from magazine distributors. Why you would do this for less than half the margin is beyond me.
Sadly, for newsagents like us who are not part of a marketing group, there is no other way of finding out about good supplier contacts. Except for contacts we make through other newsagents. We have been searching the net for all kinds of wholesale products which we might stock, however there seems to be a real issue in making contact with these wholesalers. With this being the case, we accept the mag-distrbuted calendars for lack of better resources.
I am in your boat Wen it takes a long time to source the contacts ,it would be easier to be with a group but with us in a small town i don’t think it would have enough advantages to make up the extra dollars going out for it
I agree it is a challenge. For marketing groups this information is valuable. We need to find a way to resolve this to help more newsagents.
Shaun S,
Can I ask what the population of your town is?
Wen and Shaun S
GNS actually had a pretty range of calendars for 2009 (inlcuding date blocks, scrapbooking ones etc). Keep an eye out for them for 2010. They are on a special order and seem to being going quite well.
Jarryd about 13,000
Shaun S, our Town has a population of 30,000 and is serviced by 8 newsagents. We are a part of a marketing group and I can say from our point that the $500 per month that it cost that this is more than made up for in increased sales and the decrease in wasted time and stress that the group offers.
The suppliers are falling over themselves to get our business and we stand out from the rest of the newsagents because we are getting new stock in that the others do not have.
I understand that your in a small community but look at the big picture, have a good look at all the marketing groups and pick the one that best suits you. They all cost about the same but a few have hidden catches so do some research first. It is worth the small cost for the increase in service.
Hope xmas is going well for all.
Luke Scott
Lismore
Thanks Mark and Tracey for calendar supplier contact ideas.
For small, independents like our newsagency, it is as Shaun S says, hard to source and gain the attention of the suppliers.
We appreciate whatever information we can glean from other contacts in our industry.
Shaun S,
I agree with Luke. Our town has a population of 25,000 (our location services suburbs that total approx 19,000) and being part of a marketing group is the single best decision we have made. As Luke says it sets us apart.
The resources available through a marketing group are incredibly valuable. The minimal costs are more than covered by the benefits of a marketing group. The profit we make from ink cartridges alone (a category we introduced through the HOT ink! concept from our marketing group) covers the monthly cost of being part of the group.
It really is worth trying. If it isn’t for you than its only a small loss.