Most newsagencies in Australia have at least one stand provided without cost by a supplier. I am talking here about stands not funded with an initial products purchase. No, the stands on my mind are those sent by suppliers for free, stands which usually have supplier branding on them.
Too often, newsagents do not police how the stands are used. Too often the stands end up carrying products from other suppliers. This presents the wrong message to shoppers and disrespects the investment made by suppliers.
If a stand can’t be used for the purpose intended by the supplier it should be removed from the shop floor in my view.
We need to be serious and respectful about things like this – from the top of our businesses down.
We had different stands for all the different pen companies. They were different heights, different layouts and made it look uninviting as a customer would ask for a permanent marker which would ellicit the response “and here are the Artline and over there the Sharpie and next to that the Staedtler and back this way are the Pentel….”. Very frustrating for the customer to do a comparison. We removed all stands and replaced them with a wall of same size pen cups. Now the wall is split into highlighters, markers, roller balls, gel pens, ball points and then further blocked by brand. Sales have increased and the wall is much more inviting.