It’s important to know how much each square metre of retail space costs you so that you have a gross profit target when assessing the performance of stock. What I propose is not conventional. However, I have found it to provide a more genuinely useful assessment for newsagents.
Here are the steps I suggest:
- Calculate your retail space. Work out how many square metres of customer accessible retail space you have. Do not include the back room or space behind the counter.
- Calculate your costs. Tote up all the fixed or semi fixed costs fo your business: rent, outgoings, labour, power, marketing, insurance etc. Do not include any inventory costs.
- Divide your costs by your space. This gives you an annual cost a cost per square metre of retail space. It’s the gross profit you need per square meter to cover your costs.
- Divide the cost by 52 for the cost per week or your trading days per year to get a daily cost. WARNING: the daily cost per square metre is not for the feint hearted.
Once you have the number, get your daily or weekly sales data for a department and work out where you stand. Find out what departments are working and what are not. next, find out what categories within each department is working or not.
While this sounds time consuming, you could just focus on one part of the business that interests you the most.
The result is data that helps you manage your business by numbers. The result will be empowering for you.
Good newsagency software can do this for you – return on floor space and return on shelf space.
Well it would be an advantage to get newspapers delivered to be able to sell them.
No Papers received today. Rang circulation department and told I wouldn’t receive any because of a printing problem. I guarantee every Metropolitan Newsagent received their complete supply. What an absolute disgrace.
Be sure to make a claim for non-receipt of papers – should recompense us ten bucks eh?
Compensation! That’ll be the day. They are quick to wave the contract in our face when they feel we may have done something wrong, but what about them not fulfilling their obligation to the contract.
Not to mention the lack of a contingency plan.
Just another example of big companies making huge profits and not caring about anyone but themselves.