We flipped around 30% of the titles (around 150 titles) in our main magazine aisle last week. Instead of starting the right side of the aisle with food titles and cookbooks, we moved gardening titles to the top followed by home and living and then women’s health and food. This simple change refreshes the offer not only for our customers but for those in the newsagency all the time.
We need to keep making changes like these to challenge the subconscious assumptions made those who shop regularly with us.
I am often asked why I spend time working magazines if I think they are a dead category. I don’t think magazines are dead. They have their challenges and newsagents have their challenges with them – mainly to do with poor management by magazine distributors. That said, magazines present an excellent opportunity if executed properly by distributors and newsagents. The work of constant innovation in my shops is about creating a point of difference from nearby magazine retailers.