I am disappointed at the ever increasing number of bagged magazines from Bauer. We received two this week. Each bagged offer requires additional pocket allocation. They don’t drive incremental business and each time I have asked for data to support the publisher claim it has not been forthcoming. If I was presented evidence I might look at them differently. As it stands, these bagged magazines only serve to educate shoppers to not pay full price in my view.
at least i now know what happened to the rest of the take 5 that was cut from my supply this week, thety put them in bags 🙁 I sold out yesterday.
Little bit of topic, yesterday a lady came in with a magazine page that gave $3 off the cover price of Woman’s Day (valid July – August) at any newsagency. The N symbol was on the page and a phone number for newsagents to call for credit.
This is the first I have seen of these, not sure where it came from.
I had never seen this lady before and didn’t give the offer (as it is more time spent calling this phone no than I make on one sale),I suggested she try another newsagency showing the N brand as our shop runs under a different banner.
Don’t mind these discounts if we have previous knowledge and they make the numbers worthwhile but for the odd customer no thanks.
Jenny i remember seeing an email from network or gotch about it but thats about it no other details
Rick and my WD sold out early today
Shauns you are probably correct, somedays there are just too many emails to read.
Sorry to drag this one out this late, but just came across an massive issue with these bagged magazines.
Be very careful when supplying these bundled mags to subagents.
I did not supply an OK magazine to a subagent the other week due to us not getting enough. However, they managed to return one anyway.
Upon investigation, I found that they HAD been supplied with an OK/NW bundle.
They obviously sold the NW and then returned the “discounted” OK magazine at full price credit.
NOT HAPPY JAN!!!
Subaru,
Our policy would be to deny the credit.
You did not supply them with OK so why should you give them a credit.
They could have returned the bundle but as it is not in resaleable condition they can not have credit for that either.
We have learned to be tough with our subagents as we have 80 and they will take advantage if you if you let them.
Excellent advice Dean.
Did anyone else get their TV week cut back , mine have been cut back to less than my average sales , no wonder sales are on the decline . woolies also have sold out . What are they thinking .
I should also note that for what ever reason today my mags are up 55% for a Monday average but at the end of the day nothing accomplished because now I have nothing to sell until stock turns up Thursday .
I also would have been a very annoyed customer if I had bought both of the two crap, I mean bagged mags under the titles “Classic Outdoor Living” and, from memory, “Inspiration Homes” as each had the other in their own bag today!
It’s not unusual to have someone pick up multiple titles in a segment and had someone bought both they would have come away very disappointed. Just as well I early returned both as I simply don’t have the room for them in my reduced ranging anymore regardless of the fact that Bauer and G&G ,even after having been notified of this fact, seem to have increased the number of mags they are sending me.
We all need to send back our returns topped, this will stop the extra titles being distributed backk to us. I opened the bagged mag, placed them on the shelf and threw the other crap into the recycle bin.
Now I can fit more than 1 on the shelf.
Dean, the problem is the amount of various magazines making it impossible to check every single one.
This subby gets everything from women’s mags to home improvement mags and 4wd and fishing mags.
My point is that the magazine companies haven’t listened to our complaints either directly or through the associations, as they think they know better than us.
Customers hate bagged mags cause they can’t see what’s inside them, and newsagents hate bagged mags cause of lower margins and the potential for other problems such as display problems and what I have listed above.
But hey, what do we know?
End rant
Subaru,
We don’t catch all the subagent scams either, we just deny what we catch.
If you use Tower you can turn on an option to warn you if a subagent has returned more items than they have been supplied which helps catch some of them.
Unfortunately, there can be no warning if a normal customer buys a discounted bundle, then later returns Womans Day saying “i didn’t realise I already had this one, can I swap it for New Idea instead.
This can put sales and stock counts out, and cause issues with returns and therefore future supplies as well.
Subaru , I didn’t think of that one .
USUALLY THE MAGAZINES IN THE BUNDLE WILL HAVE NOT FOR RETAIL SALE NEXT TO THE BARCODE
DM,
Not all of them.
The latest Hot4’s magazine was bundled with last months Hot4’s magazine – (yeah I know, not real bright as a fan of the magazine would already have last months magazine, but thats a completely different story) and it’s barcode scanned.
I know this because I returned it through my system as well just for revenge.
DM , i have never seen that before ,and i just randomly opened up two different bundled mags and there is nothing beside the barcode
Shauns,
I was refering to the bundled magazines with weeklies. The ok/cosmo bundle this week, the ok magazine has not for individual sale next to barcode. Same goes for the magazines Mark has in the picture.
ok yeah i have never has the weekly combos in and i don’t really think i would want them anyway
We don’t send bundled mags to subbies and we don’t accept magazine returns