We received twelve copies of Great Destination Weddings on Monday. I can’t see how Network Services can justify such an allocation based on Network-supplied wedding title sales.
My review of our sales data suggests that an initial allocation of no more than six copies would have been fairer.
While I like the title and feel for the publisher and the investment they have made, I should not have been roped in as an investor in the title as has been the case because of what I consider to be over-supply. Network should hold stock and refill as needed – based on the sale data I send them daily. This is what a well-run supply chain would offer.
Magazine distributors want their bills paid on time. They demand this of us and cut off supply if we are late. It is unreasonable that they apply such a demand yet do not give us reasonable control over business levers to control our level of indebtedness.
Newsagents have no reciprocal right against distributors when they fail a reasonable business performance indicator – such as oversupply.
No new title should be sent to newsagents without them having the opportunity to set the supply quantity.
We are supporting Great Destination Weddings in-store. It will be a miracle if we come close to selling even half what they have supplied.
mark, your comments are dead accurate.
why not collectively tell them we will not accept this treatment from this moment on. also ask all associations to demand the same & stop the use of newsagents as cash cows. the new owners of network may listen, if we have the courage to ask.
how about the number of suduko titles from GG today, i could open a shop and fill it with those titles alone today, needless to say am sending them all back in todays returns. what we need is some kind of penalty system where we can charge them a fee for oversupply of titles that our systems can show are over and above what we can reasonably expect to sell.
If sales based replenishment were applied to ALL titles then there would be no problems like this. That seems the answer to me, why don’t they do it??? It is working for us on the titles it is applied to.
Mark, not sure if it is worse to get too many of a magazine that we can ultimately early return, or to receive 2 copies of a magazine on Witches today from IPS. Magick has a 10 week shelf life and we must stock at least 1 for the next 3 editions based on our terms. I think I’d rather send some back and move on….
Ben I have been trying to get some answers from our associations on how IPS got this business model (1.No early returns – 2.The Specialist Retailer agrees to stock and sell all publications secured onto the Integrated Publication Solutions supply chain platform for minimum of three editions.) into our channel. We have no control of magazines at all distributed by IPS. When re-designing magazines into magazine pockets today do you put ‘Witches’ into 3 pockets and pull back on an extra 3 pockets for a magazine you know that will sell for you with more exposure – NO you top ‘Witches’ and wear the cost for 10 weeks. A liability newsagents can do without.
I agree with Mark. Although we do not get our magazines direct from the distributors (because we are a kiosk and don’t sell many), we are dumped with magazine titles I have never heard of, or we start receiving them at issue number #314 (for example, which we received, it was called Coast to Coast and we’ve never stocked it, but we are sent 3 issues starting at issue number #314). I go on and tell the boss that with the amount of male orientated magazines we receive, they do not fit into their display. I’ve started having to put 5 different titles into one pouch because we can’t handle the amount of stock we receive. And the boss is afraid of sending them back straight away because he always says that once you do that, they’ll cut down your supply of popular magazines (e.g. Motor, wheels, top gear).
I have to feel sorry for the publisher on this one. It leaves a bad taste in the mouthof the newsagent when such huge levels of stock are dumped. I for one will have a negative opinion in the back of my mind each time this one is released, based soley on the reason I have been over-stocked from the start.