I have checked with in a few newsagencies which are sub agents for newspapers to see how they fared with the excellent Herald Sun Australia Day hat offer last Saturday.
If my survey is accurate, distribution newsagents with retail businesses which compete with their sub agents are more likely to have under supplied the hats. While some of these situations could be due to supply limits, I suspect that some reflect their continued under supply to protect their own competitive position.
Despite extraordinary efforts from some newspaper publishers to ensure enough stock of some giveaways, some distribution newsagents with competing retail outlets seem to find excuses for not stocking their sub agents so that they can reach their full potential.
A most disappointing situation.
Well Mark interesting.
We were told in letter format by HWT that we would receive approx 50% of our supply in Hats.
Result- 700 papers and only 200 Hats = approx 30% of supply.
I supplied my subs approx 30% of their allocation, and that was not enough.
What do we do? HWT have been running these promos for years, yet still struggle with allocation.
You dont have to be einstein to realise that this Hat promo FOR FREE (the magic word) is a winner. So why not allocate 75% of allocation. Guaranteed to sell out, and beacause they are free, if you happen to have some left over, give them out the following week.
So many dissapointed customers, especially Home delivery ones.
I have wriiten an email to them and as yet no response.
I will grant them one thing though, after selling out within the first 2 hours, we phoned for extra and they duly arrived. Still why put customers and agents through the pain? It seems as someone is not doing there job adequately within Markerting or Circ.
We could have sold so much more papers!
Mark,there may be some validity in what you are saying. However on the other side i have a neighbouring retail only newsagent who receives his HWT stock from a distribution agent other than myself. The retail newsagent ran out of hats and i provided him with hats from my own supply for my shop at the risk of letting my retail customers down. Things do work both ways.
CRaigL
Craig I appreciate that there are different experiences. Mine, in one of my stores was most frustrating on Saturday. The supplying agent had a ton of stock.
Mark they may have had a ton of stock but as in our case have a delivery run that also needs to be serviced.
Andy, this was after deliveries were done and their sales for the day were well established. They had spare stock we could have been given. It reflects a continuing battle to get enough stock so we do not sell out.
mark iam still getting people bringing in coupons from our delivery run i can only supply the 30% if that is all we are given.this is a problem that news need to address
Hi mark,
We got about 20% to supply – all ours were gone by 8.00am.
OOur subagent is located 20 meters from us and opens 3 hours after us – I ttell them to come in when they open and I will supply with the papers. Only problem is if they are all gone – what am I to do?
This happens every ‘free’ give away and we have given up asking for more.
Cheers
Peter
In my case the Authorised agent still had stock the following day but we ran out before midday on midday Saturday and had problems with customers as a result.
The current distribution system suits the publishers as it is low cost, but does not cope with modern retailing requirements. The Authorised system need an overhaul
For goodness sake, their getting a free hat with a $1.50 newspaper purchase, of course it’s going to be first in best dressed(pardon the pun).
They’re never going to provide a 100% allocation. Honestly I bet there are those who whinged about the color and style.
I don’t get the complaining, can all you who complain about not enough stock honestly say if you were the distributing agent that you would leave yourself short for a subbie that you make 5cents from?
Brendan your agent probably has a huge home delivery run and they were keeping stock for them,they are not going to want to upset their own loyal customers.Many delivery customers won’t come in on the day of issue so keeping some is a wise move.
Distribution Agents paid for the right to be distribution agents, retail only stores have no right to complain when they have infact encroached on the distribution agents territory, now let’s see that open a can of worms..
Mary there distribution agents who have not paid for the right as you put it.
Brendan has been treated appallingly but it is what I’d expect from hist distribution agent trying to stop him growing his business.
At the core of my concern is the consumer. They walk into a newsagency and want the hat. Being unable to supply because your close by distribution agent is hoarding stock for their store while you are out of stock is bad management on their part.
Mary,
Our distributing agent refuses to give us enough supply of newspapers (let alone freebies), almost every single day of the week. We ask for increases, even providing calculations based on sales data and a 5% return rate (a generous 3% lower than the 8% publishers aim for), and while he might increase our supply for a short period of time it always reverts back to a huge under-supply. For months we have been selling out of major newspapers most days – sometimes at midday or earlier in a store which stays open till 8pm Mon to Sat and 7pm Sun. This same agent refuses to re- deliver if he makes an error and will not answer his phone in-store.
Distribution agents, whether they have paid for their territory or not, have a contractual obligation to fulfill. Many do not do this.
We were at least able to reduce sell outs for one title by producing a Newspaper Sell Outs reports from the software – proving our claim against the distributing agent. It showed hours per day without the popular title on the shelf.
As a retail only agent I will go into bat for the Dist agents, for 12.5% retail agents need to realize we cannot have it both ways, we cannot expect to avoid all the cost of delivery plus the hassle of delivery but still expect the same level of service and supply that delivery agents get.as for resupply during the day etc, if we want more stock and it is available then we get in the car and go get it not expect someone to deliver. Same goes for returns we drop them off.
We have a great relationship with our agent as we do not ask too much and understand he is making the same out of the papers as we are ie bugger all, as a result we get about an 80% rate on our free stock which the delivery agent worked bloody hard to keep everyone happy with, but why would you fight with the agent then expect good service?
We have made the choice not to deliver and surrender part of our commissions because it is easier then getting up at 2am and running around so for my 10c-20c per paper I’m not going to lose too much sleep about free bucket hats, or dvds or other crap, I enjoy my sleep so much more.
( I delivered for 20yrs before I saw the light and handed my runs back)
Luke totally agree with you .
My post is about a competitor deliberately holding back stock so that I cannot reach my sales potential, stock which they did not need in their business. Further, the agreement is for top up delivery during the day – this is what their supplier expects of them.
I have other distribution newsagents who can and do do this. They want us to grow.
I was a distribution newsagent also.
i might be a bit blind to a lot of things but i look at it like this if you hand your run in you loose all rights to have a say in what you get . you handed it back knowing your sales are now in the hands of a newsagent close by . i know i would rather those customers come to my shop instead of down the road if i controled it .I do this with Woolies , they get the bare minimun because they are beside me but coles down the road i load them up because they have no effect to my sales or foot traffic .
Shaun, for the newsagency in question I did not hand the run back. The distribution newsagent has an obligation to me and the publisher.
While there are plenty of distribution newsagents proactively supporting their sub agents, there are some who are appalling and will do anything to block a competitor. They are not worthy of being a distribution newsagent.
do you know if he treats his other subbys the same way or is it just for your store ? might be a personal thing because obviously youse do not get along .
I have 9 subbys and they all get what they want except woolies (as i said they are beside me and i will not loose foot traffic if i can help it )
this have been going on since rupert murdoch senior was a baby i guess. i hope his great great grandchild will fix this.
I’m not saying anyone is right or wrong but why not go to another agent?
When we had a run we did not get on with a sub agent that used to top papers and give them away to customers then claim the returns so we reduced supply, he complained to the papers and we both agreed that he should bugger off and get supply from another newsagent, it can be done.
If you are so hard done by and can grow sales and have the figures to back it up then I’m sure another agent would be happy to supply your business. The current agent will have a say in it but IF what you say is true then news, fairfax APN etc are happy to move you around, they only acre about sales not newsagents. In our area they even reworked the dist boundries to exclude a new shopping centre so they could direct supply a coles and cut me out of the loop, this was the last straw and now I am happy to get 12.5% for less work.
Each to there own but papers now only make up about 5% of my sales and I am looking at more profitable ways to grow my business.
Again we have a good relationship with our agent so we get good supply, if you become demanding you tend to get less then good supply, it is human nature.
I know if anyone threatens me with contracts and obligations then they only get the minimum standard possible.
Luke you make total sense.
Some retail only agents grump about treatment but I bet their distribution agent gets on here and reads what they are complaining about so hense the quantity of stock given.
Mark why don’t you just apply for a direct account thats what you get all your newsxpress stores to do, oh thats right the papaers aren’t like the magazines are they.
Mark, another issue to consider is the service stations and convenience stores. They have plannograms and dictate what stock they want with no consideration of what sells in their store. Presumably their franchise masters only get rebates on certain titles. They then hide mags and papers in back corners losing all impulse sales. I understand they do this because they obtain greater margin on other product. However this is out of the control of the didtribution agent who makes very litle return (if any)on small outlets. Interestingly the HWT recognise this and on many promotions they comment that we only need supply “Look a Likes” or direct accounts.
In summary, i understand your frustration from a newsagent retail position. However in case of the smaller subs, they need to lead by example and understand they can’t always have it both ways. You need to give to get. In cases such as yours, their needs to be a process betewen individual businesses perhaps with the involvement of the publishers (account managers)to sort out specific issues. There is sin on both sides,and such is the history of mankind.
Good point Craig, servos are a prime example of wanting it both ways, they want to sell papers and mags but do not want the hassle involved, they tell customers to go to a newsagent to get the free stuff but take the profit from the paper sales. Since we sold our runs there is now 5 shops in our street that sell papers, this doesn’t bother me at all as I know how little I make from papers and they still need to learn this.
Papers are no longer a must read daily ritual more and more they are a time filler, well that is what we are seeing here anyway. No money to be made from papers here, it is just a link to our history.
Mary, I have no idea what you;re on about or why you appear so bitter.
Craig and Luke, my post is specifically about my experience with a distribution newsagent who would prefer to have unsold stock while my stock for the item is long exhausted.
Luke,
We nice in the begining. There comes a point where contractual obligation is the only avenue for remedy.
We had raised the issue with publishers on multiple occasions (also providing them with sales data) to no avail (they’re still angry we handed back the run).
We have no other surrounding agent so unfortunately going to another agent is not an option.
And as Mark has said, top-up is part of the agreement. Were a large subagent so our supplying agent can’t claim that it isn’t profitable. They make a healthy return on our store for doing very little. They are even so arrogant as to not use the secure delivery bin provided for early-morning deliveries. They simply sit the papers beside it, waiting to be stolen or strewn around by night-dwelling deadbeats.
It’s ALL about the customers expectaion.
The customer expects a hat to be available to them with purchase of the paper.
We don’t get enough hats to do this even though the publisher has promised this extra on page one, large, bold and proud.
For what ever reason, be it a lack of supply to the authorised agent or as in my case, a failure to have available stock forwarded to me, a promise and maybe even a contract with the customer due to the way the promotion is pushed on the front of the paper, is broken.
All this achieves is poor relations and aggravation with customers, the opposite to what the promotion should achieve.
I would rather thatthese promotions were not run at all than done half heartedly like they always are.
A free hat with your purchase means EVERY customer should have thois promised filled other wise the protion is a negative thing for my business and I would think for all newsagents that are given insufficient promotional stock….for what ever reason. Again in my case stock WAS availaible….
Mary,
I am one of the sub agents that has gained direct supply from a distributor. My total magazine sales year on year for Oct to Dec grew 27%, and over 50% for the distributer I am now direct with. What does that tell you about sales potential being stifled by the traditional system!!!!!
the traditional system is costing the publishers and distributors heavily
one wonders why they continue with this archiac system and not move to a system that serves the current retail climate. Retail outlets are certainly not going to give papers and magazines full space when paying in excess of $1000s/m rent when other products give a much greater margin with less hassle
This is where you cannot have it both ways Jarryd, you told the paper companies to stick their delivery run ( this is how they see it ) but now you want them to help you out, this is not going to happen, as they will side with the people that still deliver there stock.
We too gave up our runs and get no support from the suppliers but I accept that because I get to sleep in now, move on, sell what you get or get out of papers all together, but you lost the right to control supply when you ( as I did ) gave up the runs. But the benefits are that you do not have to get up at 2am and lose money hand over fist.
If you wanted to be in control of your supply then you should have factored that in before you walked away from delivery.
Again I say that I did give up my runs and are happy to make my money on other things besides papers, we still sell papers but if we run out of free stuff we simply sell something else, it is called retail sell what you have not what you do not have.
Luke,
We gave the newspaper companies plenty of notice. We could not find delivery drivers and, as it turns out, neither could they.
Saying that we lost the right to control supply is a cop out. The distributing agent has a contractual obligation to supply subagents. Were not asking for special treatment, were simply asking for the same return rate that the publishers ask the distributors to aim for. The distributing agent is deliberately reducing supply to either reduce the number of returns they have to process and/or minimise competition (which in itself may be a legal issue).
The fact that we gave up our run is irrelevant. There are many retail newsagencies who never had a run. Are you suggesting that they should be treated more favorably than us?
I should also point out that in our old territory there was one subagent (a Caltex) who had control over their supply and received a direct drop. Were now a larger subagent – should we not get the same? Hardly asking to have it both ways.
You like to tell others that things are irrelevant Jarryd, but maybe your whinging is irrelevant, move on. I am saying that if you carry on like a spoilt brat then you will get less service then if you worked with the supplier newsagent. Things like ringing ahead and then going up to pick up more papers if they are available, dropping off returns these could all ease the situation. But you tend to be a “my way or the highway” kind of operator so I can see why the agent tends to not help out.
We have a great working relationship with our supplier, we do not always get enough stock and we sell out but at least we work together, if you see the supplier as a threat or competitor then he/she will see you the same way. No use crying about it, solve it.
Luke,
We are not the only subagent who has this problem. All his subagents that we talk to seem to be of the same opinion.
Why should we have to go and pick up papers or drop off returns? Thats what the distribution agent is getting their 12.5% for. Next you’ll be asking us to pick up our own newspapers before we open.
A I have said before, this agent will NOT answer his phone. So even if we had the staff (which we don’t, nor the insurance to cover them driving) to send across town to get extra stock we couldn’t call to even see if he had any.
If your definition of working together is you running out of stock, then I would hate to see how you define a bad supplier relationship.
The bottom line is that there is no reason he cannot supply us extra stock. He simply chooses not to.
Jarryd .Did you not say papers were dead check your ipad all on there mate better still sell subs for news ipad
Jim,
Med to long term major newspapers as we know them now are dead. Circulation decline indicates this. Overseas trends indicate this. Publishers are confirming this by shifting their operations and investment. Nonetheless, that has nothing to do with distribution agents who do not supply their subagents reasonable quantities of stock, be it newspapers or freebies.
As a distribution agent I agree with Mark and Jarryd. I supply a retail only newsagent nearby and I have told my staff to treat this business as a customer regardless of how that may affect our retail business.
Long ago I decided I had to wear a different hat when handling sub agents to what I wear when working on my retail business.
Yes this means that ran out of australia day hats when they did. I signed up for this when I took them on as a sub agent. We have a good and respectful relationship.
They may be but are the readers of newspapers going with them ,not any of mine papers up for us this year by 4.6%,have doubled trade tag thanks to the stuffed on line tradeing post
David, where are you? Can you be my supply agent..fairness is nirvana.
Jarryd, we sell out of one paper on the odd day but we get supplied 8 different titles each day so we sell what we have, If we sell out of SMH then sell Aust, if you sell out of DT sell CM I do not think it is that hard.
You seem to keep saying why it is someone else how has the problem but never you. Like I keep saying if you treat the agent as the enemy or as a competitor then they will treat you the same way, you make 12.5% on papers so a resupply during the day of 20 papers gets both sides $2.50 for a $1 paper.How is that going to cover fuel or wages from both sides.
This reminds me of why I got out of delivery, whingers that want everything their way and think I should do all the work for my 12.5% and all they have to do is put it on the shelf and take the money. Thank god I got out as it is annoying.
By the way just did my figures for Oct-Dec and we are seeing double digit growth of papers.
Good relationships see good results.
Nothing I am going to retire off but good for the time of year. ( these figures predated the floods so January figures should be just as good seeing it created huge interest)
Luke, it does not always go that way with relationships. We have tried for a co-operative relationship with the problematic distribution newsagent with a store nearby and it has taken a year to get to a point where we do not regularly sell out by 1pm or 2pm. Freebies – now that’s another story.
and Luke continues to make sence .
Luke,
We used to pick up our papers and magazines of a morning and pick up any extras we needed during the day. As the largest subby in the area I had the “cheek” to request a higher share of the commission some years back but was refused being told that a) no subbies were paid higher than the base 12.5% b) we did nothing to deserve a higher rate anyway. The result was that we stopped picking up our morning newspapers and magazines. We still picked up extras as required. Over a period of time this changed we have been forbidden from picking up extras and systems have been set up by the supplying agent to prevent us from cease our need to enter their premises. We initially had to advise them by 9am if we were going to run out of newspapers on a given day, totally unrealistic. This has been extended to midday which is still unreasonable particularly seeing as we would still collect extras if permitted. are now told not to. As you can imagine, none of this leads to a co-operative relationship.
As for your comment “This reminds me of why I got out of delivery, whingers that want everything their way and think I should do all the work for my 12.5% and all they have to do is put it on the shelf and take the money.”
We pay high end rent for the space and cover the theft any papers or magazines while the suppling agent is risk and cost free in these regards. One paper or magazine stolen at 12.5% commission takes 8 more paper/magazine sales of the same value to recoup the loss and that does not allow for the cost of staff , space etc to sell these eight items. The subbies and is not the bed of roses you think it is by any means.
We recieved more hats than papers and are still handing them out. It is now thursday and we still have hats! I am not sure which fairy godmother is watching out for us but after years of never having enough stock for these promotions the last 3 we have had way too much.
Luke,
We are selling out of at least one major paper (Daily Telegraph and Newcastle Herald) on the majority of days – often both. We find that less than half our customers will substitute the newspaper they want with another. But that is beside the point – they shouldnt have to substitue in the first place.
I will note that we have never asked for, nor expected, a top up delivery. The only exception being where we have been significantly short delivered.
I fail to see how asking for reasonable supply is treating our supplier as the enemy … ? We have provided as much information as possible to ensure the agent doesn’t have to guess our supply needs and he contines to ignore this. If you have a solution to creating a good relationship with our agent i’d love to hear it.
Jarryd how many papers are you selling daily?
Change your attitude for a start Jarryd. Not just with the papers but overall. You do not ask you demand and then cry when things do not go your way.
I wouldn’t be going out of my way to help you if I delivered to you, you need to understand that your opinion is not the only one that matters and is not always correct.
But that may be irrelevant to you as well.
Luke,
Just as I thought, you can provide no solution. The correspondence originally send to our agent was completely civil and we received no response. I have not be the sole person dealing with the issue. Both directors and our senior staff have all made attempts to no avail. I will note that 2 other subagents that he took over in our old area have also had problems, so its hardly an issue isolated to our store.
All the agent has to do is change a setting in his POS system to accomodate a 5% return rate. Asking for this is hardly unreasonable.
I make no apologies for my opinions. You seem to confuse heated ongoing debate with illogical steadfast opinions. I will continue to vigorously debate in favour of my opinions until such time someone can provide evidence or logical reasoning against them. I hope most here would do the same.
Stop making debate personal when you have no avenues of logical reasoning to turn to.
Jarryd may be it is the paper houses cutting his numbers and at 12.5% i would give a stuff
Jim,
Unfortunatly that is not the case. We know he has more than enough newspapers left over many days.
I would find it hard to belive the publishers were cutting his numbers so dramatically (especially after we have raised the issue with them) especially when we had no issues when we were a distribution agent. They aim for a certain % of returns and if they are cutting his numbers it has to be because he is returning more than this (which could only be from his store).
Andy,
We average around 300 of the two major newspapers papers weekdays/sat and around 500 of the two major Sunday newspapers.
Jim in my own case – one out of three retail only stores – the distribution newsagent always has stock and refuses to supply. On the rare occasion he will supply extras we have to go and collect the stock ourselves.
I am confident that there are many times we have sold out and he has not, returning more stock than he would have otherwise.
Nuts.
is there a problem with the system overall or is this just a personal problem with you and your supplier . i am not sure if there has been any other negatives to subagent agreements other than yourse and Jarryds ?Might be wrong but i am not going through 52 messages to find out
I have mixed feelings on some of the issues raised in this post.
It is in a distribution agent’s best interests to sell as many papers as they can, whether through their own shop or via a subagent. To refuse to supply enough papers to a sub-agent (ignoring situations where the distribution agent does not receive sufficient stock themselves) is in my mind stupid. You are only diminishing your own income, as well as the future sale price of your business. Why would you do it?
I can see a case for distribution agents keeping the stock for themselves trying to increase their own sales at the cost of their sub-agent, however I would suggest that unless the sub-agent is next door, it is more profitable in most instances to let them have the stock. Any increased sales in your store by not providing sufficient stock to a sub-agent will in most cases be more than be offset by the loss of commission by the sub-agent having lower sales.
Having said all of this, there is a cost in terms of time and money to a distribution agent to providing extra stock, whether as supply with the original delivery or as extras.
I always provide extras to my subagents if requested, as long as the request is reasonable, I have the stock, and that there are no constraints stopping me (eg I play tennis at 1pm on Saturday, don’t call me at 12.30 as I won’t go).
This is often to my detriment. A milk bar requesting 10 extras might make me an extra $1.25, however it might be a 20-30 minute round trip costing me more than this in petrol. A large shopping centre subagent who has sold at at 12pm and wants another bundle is more likely to be a profitable trip.
As for supply in the morning, this is difficult to get right. I get subagents calling me telling me that they run out every day and I have to increase their supply by 10 papers per day. Upon further investigation, they may have run out this week, but the last 5 weeks in a row when they received the same quantity, they had excessive returns. There is a fine line in giving sub-agents as much stock as they like, and having excessive returns which cost time and money to process (the bigger the distribution agent is then the more noticeable that this effect is). I will make adjustments to their supply where necessary. Having 1 good week to me is an exception not a rule.
I have never been a sub-agent, so do not fully understand the pro’s and con’s of their situation. Not having to do deliveries is a pro to me, not having control of your supply is a con (possibly a pro for magazines as you don’t get all the crap we get).
I can tell you that being a distribution agent is not all that good. You cop it from all sides – publishers, drivers, home delivery customers and sub-agents. Nothing you do is right, and no-one cares how what they do affects you or anyone else.
Mark and Jarryd and some others may have specific issues with their distribution agent deliberateley withholding supply, but I would suggest that most distribution agents that I know try their best to do the right thing by everyone. Most sub-agents just don’t get (or care) how hard it can be.
Can I ask people such as Mark who have handed back or sold their territory – weighing up all the pro’s and con’s of everything, would you prefer to continue with the situation that you have now including all the issues with supply and the relationship you have with your distribution agent. Or would you rather have your territory back with all the issues that this would entail.
I only ask because I am considering selling my business, and buying another business which does not have a distribution component.
I am distribution only, having sold my shop last year and having bought 3 rounds in the last 2 years.
Shaun,
Id say its a huge problem with the subagent system. It is a known problem in the independant supermarket industry – although most supermarkets choose not to worry too much about it because of the low margin and lack of industry contacts to deal with it.
Dean,
We would never take on distribution alongside retail again. Not having it allows us to focus on retail and removes the tug-of-war between the two competing sides of the business.
Dean, If I had my time again I would do it again. Te example I bang on about in this thread is not at the store where I handed back my run – that relationship is solid.
Retail newsagents with a distribution business wear three key hats. When they sell their run they go to one hat. In my case this was better for my business.
Thats fine Jarryd, continue to blame others and not yourself and continue to get the same results, earlier in the blog I told you to look to another agent for supply or go to suppliers but it seems you have already burnt those bridges as well.
You need to find a solution to your problem not look to others to clean up your mess, didn’t your parents teach you that before you left home or is mum still cleaning your room for you because you have had such a big day at work with all those nasty people not doing what you want?
Another solution would be for you to go to the agent and ask them what you can do for him/her to grow both your sales and get back to being civil, as has been stated here we are all in to make money.
Now that it has become frosty it will take a lot to get back to normal but YOU will need to take a few backward steps first, if that is at all possible.
On a personal note ( as you seem to say I make everything personal) you are not Spok or even Shelden Cooper, even though I know that is what you are trying so hard to be.
Stop trying so hard to sound logical and telling others things are irrelevant, the retail world does not work like that, it is give and take. Try asking a customer why they take the third paper down instead of the top one to see how much logic is in retail.
I grow tired of trying to explain things to people who will not help themselves so off you go Jarryd keep blaming others for your own shortcomings.
Luke, seeking stock to sell is all about pursuing growth for my store and their business. When the approach is constantly rejected it is clear they care less about me as a customer. Thankfully in my case, one publisher intervened and stopped our sell outs.
I have been privately contacted by plenty of newsagents this week with stories like those I have documented here – where the distribution agent with a shop nearby has, by their action, sought to starve the sub agent of newspaper sales.
On the matter of the obvious personal issues between Jarryd and yourself – it gets in the way of reasonable debate. You both have good businesses.
Mark is it the idea of sub agents was to make more sales not take away from the agent?
Andy the model is the model. Two newsagencies in a large shopping mall is most common. Especially a mall which is close to 1km long. A distribution newsagent is kidding themselves if they think that short supplying the sub agent retailer at the other end of the centre will get shoppers walking to their business to buy a paper – when they can walk past two supermarkets which do not have supply issues like this.
Luke,
I’ll choose to ignore the ridiculous personal attacks you insist on continuing with.
As I have said before we have already approach suppliers to no avail. Why you think it is my fault they wont responsed is beyond me. We handed back the run and they weren’t/aren’t happy with that.
As for other agents we have already explored that path. There are no other agents whos territory borders our area. The nearest agent is too far away to supply us and make a profit.
I would think that emailing the agent repeatedly and telling them that we are selling out regularly/early would indicate we are both loosing sales. The supplying agent doesn’t care.
I don’t understands how you perceive this as my fault. If we were the only subagent for which this was occurring then ths argument may have merrit, but as I have stated before this problem is not limited to us (just as it is not limited only to our supplying agent). Is it somehow the fault of all the subagents in our area that they are being undersupplied?
I love my i pad
In SA distribution agents are mostly just that (apart from 5 or 6 who have both retail and distribution)and we also have the frustrations mentioned with promos.
I don’t blame my distribution agent, I blame the publisher who constantly gives a supply that is either over the top too many or and undersupply.
Over Xmax/New year and on into Jan we have had the frustration of undersupply.
It is so bad that we are down with papers by 38% and it seems to me that no-one cares.
I think the paper companies have been told to cut costs and they are cutting their printing and therefore there allocations to distribution agents is chronically down.
I call it burning the hamburger stand.
Our “core” product has been relegated to a secondary item in my store because of this attitude.
My business hasn’t suffered because I am replacing the product with other product which not only pays more but is much more attractive (gifts and the like)
I don’t really believe that ANY newsagent would deliberately deprive a subbie of sales – I think it is much more complicated than that.
June,
As nice as it is to hope that all distribution agents would not deprive the subagents of sales … it does happen and far too regularly. It an unfortunate result of the broken system.
Some do it because they don’t want subagents competing with their retail store, others because the don’t want to process returns.
How many people read ths blog and how many have blogged that they have this problem , i don’t think it is as big a problem that what you are saying Jarryd .
@Shaun, not everyone that reads this blog is a newsagent, deals with newspapers or even comments out in public.
and? do you have a problem with supply ??
Shaun,
As i mentioned previously it is certainly a well known issue in the independant supermarket industry. There are far less newsagents. when compared to supermarkets, that are subagents of distribution agents.
If only 10% of distribution agents operated in this way then that would translate to hundreds or possibly thousands of subagents being cut short.
i really do not know why you think all supplying agents have a massive supply of papers every day to deal with the reality is we do get cut back . Mark when you were an agent with a run did you ever notice that your supply does get cut back ?? Now i am talking about dealing with QLD newspaers so you guys down south might work different and if so to easy i am wrong and youse are getting a bad deal but i can tell you now that on monday i will not have the same supply that i had 2 weeks ago it will be less . and just for the record i did mention earlier that i give my subbys what ever they want .
@Shaun, no, i’m just a uni student who likes reading this blog.
Shaun,
We were a distribution agent less than a year ago. At times were cut back -yes. But no where near the extent to which we are currently being undersuppled. On the whole we had few undersupply problems when we were a distribution agent. We also know that our distribution agent has plenty of extra newspapers because we’ve seen them on multiple occasions.
Jarryd do you think if you had to go to newsagent to get a paper and not anywhere else would it be a moe viable industry not going backward as you think?
Andy,
If newsagents were a protected from competition the industry might be fincially healthier as a whole. However it would likely find itself in a far worse position in the transition away from print media and in the face of any economic downturn.
Being protected is great for those in the industry while all is going well. But it makes them lazy in terms of being business savy, innovative and adaptive to change. The other departments in newsagencies have benefited, if not flourished, from not having the protection safety net of print media that existed in the past.
Youre spot on there Jarryd, as a subby we have never relied on newspapers, they a simp[ly a way of bringing customers to the shop. If I sell 200 Suns a day I earn $25.00, 3 ink cartidges will do that for me. The point of this blog is that the poor supply of newspapers and or promotional items which Mark started this blog with, leaves customers let down and we risk losing them and the sales of profitable items.
As for supply being manipulated, as I have said before going direct with one magazine distributor has turned my magazines right around. While this is partly due to me extending my range the best example is Better Homes and Gardens.
We used to sell out within a week and were told we could not get more stock, we sold 25-27 per issue if we could get that many. We now sell around 60per Month and don’t run out of stock, I am sure that we were previously being managed to limit our sales. I know this would be a stupid thing for a distributing agent to do but events prove that it happened over a number of years.
The point is that Mark has done a survey that found that on the whole,(his findings) distribution agents are short suppling – forget the blame (me this, you that etc) the newspapers HS, CM, AUS etc etc are responsible for their promotions and should be accountable for all of this – subagents versus the distributor is exactly what NEWS & FAIRFAX etc love to see. Solve the problem – which is the publishers who are so happy to keep JIM occupied on his iPAD – while their print model is now back in the basement and you guys are debating who’s fault it is? NEWS, FAIRFAX, APN etc are the only guilty party.
Ex, not sure why you are making stuff up. Mark has not done a survey. I have shared an experience from one of my four newsagencies and checked in with several (3) others.
yes, the publishers are responsible for the product they put into the supply chain. The distribution newsagent is responsible for what happens from their business down. Most handle it professionally while a small number prefer to try and starve selected sub agents.
Andy, I’d have agreed if we were discussing this ten to fifteen years ago. Unfortunately, that horse has bolted and now the newsagency channel has no unique products. Newsagents were participants in that process.
Sorry – Mark – I read you article as follows “If my survey is accurate, distribution newsagents with retail businesses which compete with their sub agents” didn’t realise it was with only seven newagencies total. But the publishers should receive paper sales data each week and hence they should be responsible for the allocation of stock to subagents. Whether it is seven or seven hundred.
Ex yes I agree to the extent of supply to the distributing newsagent. In my own experience last Saturday, the newsagent distributing to one of my four stores, deliberately held stock back to protect his store. he did not allocate to us based on the allocation he received. This is at the heart of my concern.
This is called “restriction of trade”.
becareful Michael the lads at GG and NDC might read this and use it as an excuse to oversupply us . well we don’t want top restrict there trade now do we ,is what they might say
HWT must have beeen reading this blog. They now want to survey all of our sub agents and get their view of the didtribution system.
Our sub agents responses will be interesting. we have been riding them very hard on account payments recently and some of the aren’t too happy with us.
Good timing for a venting opportunity.
KMC, i am sure if you have treated them fairly and supplied them properly you wont have too much to worry about. Given the current economic times it is reasonable to be tough about prompt payment. Whats the old saying……treat people how you would want to be treated ??????
Hey Allan – I agree with your last comment. We always try and be fair and square with them. We are very inclusive on stock and promotion activities. Just hoe they see it the same way.
Hey Allan – I agree with your last comment. We always try and be fair and square with them. We are very inclusive on stock and promotion activities. Just hope they see it the same way.