August appeared to be a better month for newsagents if the data I have seen from a number of stores is anything to go by. While magazines reported a decline, the decline was not as significant as in the previous six months. Greeting card sales, too, fared better as did stationery.
I expect that the average results for the month will be:
Magazines. Down 4%. Food is still the stand out reporting more double digit revenue growth. Weeklies reported an average decline of 3%. What is concerning is the data I have seen is a further decline in special interest titles – these are a key point of difference for newsagents.
Cards. Down 1%. While I am seeing some growth in everyday, lifestyle appears to have some challenges.
Stationery. Down 2%. This is not quite accurate since ink is in this number in many newsagencies. Stores strong in ink are reporting double digit growth.
Newspapers. Down 3%.
The numbers noted above are based on a same store comarison of August 2010 compared to August 2009.
In two of my stores, books are delivering excellent growth – double digit in fact. We use books on the dance floor as the basket builder. Shoppers do not come to us, usually, for books. They add books to the basket on impulse.
Mark,
Is it worth comparing 2010 August with 2007, just to see where the industry was and the amount of movemnent over the last few years?
Chris
reservoir
down from previous year but not as bad as some other months
of the subject, i would like to know what is the normal practise with cards when you have new stock arrive and there is 1 card left on shelf that is different to new stock is that normally returned to the card supplier or is that left on the shelf for sale
if you think the new onbe is better then put it out the back till the rep comes. if the old one is better, put it in front of the new one.
if you have a spare pocket, put them both up
Chris this would be a challenge to get for a group of stores. I’ll have a crack in the next week.
Thanks for putting those figures out there Mark as it makes an interesting comparison and benchmark for someone new with little else to compare to.
Personally:
Magazines down 5%
Cards up 8% (and at better margin than the previous owner)
Stationery down 11% though I’ve only just built stock back up after hand over. Hard to sell something you have little of ! Need to add ink lines as suggested next.
Newspapers down 3%
Lotto up 9%
Cigs down 28% though $ variance “only” down 16% due to better margin.
Books are definately an avenue for the future as trying a range of books for fathers day has produced some great results particularly late in the day amongst the last minute gift crowd. Sell through of 80% of the books I put in and at quite solid margins.
Switched phone recharge to AP counter due to slightly better margin which after modifying the figures provided from the wonderful Tower POS data puts me down 1.5% compared to the previous owner this time last year but with lots of glimmers of hope to improve from this base. Customer numbers down 6% (seem to be getting a decrease in customer drop off compared to previous two months) but with a 5% increase in average sale value.
Cheers,
Paul