A blog on issues affecting Australia's newsagents, media and small business generally. More ...

Staples in talks to buy Office Depot

The US media is full of reports that US stationery / office products giant Staples is in talks to purchase smaller rival Office Depot for a reported US$6.3B.

The merging of the two businesses, if it proceeded, would create a company of extraordinary size and might.

Staples in Australia owns what was Corporate Express. We have little understanding here of what they have they done in the US in the retail stationery space. Imagine Officeworks but better: more aggressive, more locations, more engaged with small business customers.

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Stationery

Where is good news for newsagents? Here is good news for newsagents!

crdAlmost every day there is optimism reflected in one or more posts here. While one or two think the benchmark results published today are negative, the results are actually positive because of the good news being experienced by some newsagents.

Optimism is in the eye of the beholder.

One of several items of good news in the results in the card department in my own newsagency. In a shopping centre with plenty of competition from majors as well as independents, card sales are up 16% year on year.

Others can achieve and are achieving similar success.

This is good news for the channel as it shows that independent newsagency businesses can compete – even when selling the same Hallmark cards that are in two supermarkets, two majors and several independents. Our independent newsagency competes on service and value and the result is 16% year on year growth.

This is good news as other newsagents can achieve this too. Sure it’s hard work and involved detailed business planning and running your own race sometimes against what a supplier wants. The results speak for themselves.

It’s not too late for newsagents to reinvent their businesses and to chase their own optimism.

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Greeting Cards

Tough December quarter for newsagents in the latest newsagency sales benchmark study

Australian small business Newsagents had a tough December quarter according to the latest newsagency sales benchmark study. Key performance indicators show traffic and revenue are down for many businesses in the channel.

Long-term core traffic drivers of magazines, newspapers and tobacco are challenges for newsagents. They can be lifted but it takes newsagents breaking free from the past.

Newer categories of gifts, toys and ink are growing for many.

The good news is the continuing trend – some newsagencies are growing faster than many retail businesses.

Here are the headline numbers:

  • Customer traffic. 65% of newsagents recorded an average traffic decline of 2.9%.
  • Overall newsagency sales decline. 67% reported an average revenue decline of 4.6%.
  • Basket depth. 52% reported a decrease in basket size (items in the basket) of 2.6%.
  • Basket dollar value. 18% of newsagents an average increase in basket value of 3.1%.
  • Discounting. Is increasing with 21% of respondents using a structured loyalty offer.
  • Circulation product sales. Newspaper and magazine sales continue to decline.

Now more than ever, newsagency businesses are not all the same. The gap between those in decline and those growing is greater than ever. Newsagents make choices every day that can help a business grow or hold it back.

It would be wrong to make a common statement about how they (we) are doing as there is no common situation.

Benchmark results by key departments:

  1. Magazines. 80.4% of newsagents reported an average decline (in units) of magazine sales of 6.75%. 19.6% reported average growth of 3.2%. The weeklies lead decline.
  2. Newspapers. 83.6% reported average decline of 3.4% in unit sales.
  3. Greeting cards.6% of newsagents reported average growth of 3.8%.
  4. Stationery. 72.3% of newsagents reported an average decline of 4.3%.
  5. Ink. 41% of stores report ink separately. Of these, 51% reported growth of 2%.
  6. Gifts. Surprisingly, 12.2% of newsagencies do not sell gifts. Of those with gifts, 86.2% reported average growth of 9.8% and 13.8% reported an average 6.3%.
  7. Tobacco. 38% of newsagencies in the study group do not sell tobacco products. This is a decline of 30% over a year ago. Of those with tobacco, 72% reported an average decline of 4.3% while 28% reported an average increase in sales of 3.6%.
  8. Confectionery. 62% of stores reported an average decline of 3.5%.
  9. Toys. 32% of stores reported toys separately. Of these 72% reported growth of 4.7%.

The strong are getting stronger and the weak are getting weaker. There is no geographic or demographic trend to this.

Product mix shift. The shift in product mix I have seen over the last two quarters is continuing. Within the expanding gift categories I can see some newsagents selling more expensive gifts. It is fascinating seeing these changes taking place.

I have not included my newsagency in this study. Here’s why: My numbers are outside the average and I did not want them to skew the results. I don’t mean this to sound arrogant.

My numbers all off a good base, are: Cards up 16% with Everyday Counter up 21% and it accounting for 32.02% of all sales, Diaries up 83%, Gifts up 69%, Magazines up 2%, Women’s Weeklies magazines (New Idea, Who, Woman’s Day, Famous etc) up 9%, Plush up 6% and accounting for 8.2% of overall sales and Toys up 42%. This business does not have lotteries and does not sell tobacco products.

Traffic is up 6%. Average sale value – up 8%. Average items per sale – up 3%. Overall average GP – up 14%. Each of these measurement points compounds on the other, delivering a very strong result for the business.

This growth is as a result of careful planning and pursuing what we stand for. This newsagency is in an outer suburban Westfield centre in Melbourne with around 300 stores including majors, another newsagency, two Coles supermarkets, Wild, Typo, several large independent card shops and twelve gifts shops. Competition is strong.

I include my own data here for comparison and to illustrate that I walk the walk with newsagents. When I encourage newsagents to try things it is because I do so my own business. I put my money where my mouth is.

What we do in this business any newsagent can do. Growth is achievable.

Newsagencies are good businesses to own. It would be wrong to say that the declines reported in this study reflect badly on the future of the channel. I think the results reflect badly on some operators, newsagents not chasing change.

The best type of newsagency to own is the one where you have the most control over what you sell and where you generate traffic for several product categories where average gross profit is 50% or higher.

The most important advice I have for newsagents has not changed: Run your business today as if today is your pay day. Too many newsagents continue to run their businesses as if their pay day is when they sell – this will not happen.

This year on year same-store newsagency sales benchmark study is an analysis of basket data from 167 newsagencies: city and country, shopping centre and high street, banner groups (Newspower, Nextra, newsXpress) and independent. To be included, a newsagency must have been using the industry standard Tower Systems newsagency software for both analysis periods and be compliant with industry data standards. NOTE: I have done these benchmark studies for many years, drawing on my experience with the Tower newsagent community. Around 63% of newsagents with a computer system use Tower. I have eliminated data from businesses where I knew that unique local factors impacted on the sales data.

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Newsagency benchmark

Boar It Up Ya supports newsagents!

Screen Shot 2015-02-03 at 5.41.04 pmThe publisher of Boar It Up Ya is promoting newsagents ion social media in advance of the next issue.

Local publishers who specifically support our channel ought to be applauded, supported and loved by newsagents.

The support from Boar It Up Ya deserves support from us to encourage other publishers to do this. This social media support is more valuable than points in a publisher loyalty program.

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magazines

Fewer Australian newsagents selling cigarettes

In the October – December 2014 newsagency sales benchmark study, the findings from which will be released tomorrow, the number of newsagents selling cigarettes has declined. 38% of the 169 newsagency businesses in the study do not sell cigarettes. This is up from 29% in the same study a year earlier.

Put another way, the results of the latest newsagency sales benchmark study reveal that 30% of the newsagencies have quit cigarettes over the last year. I doubt this is reflective of the whole channel as many (but not all) newsagents who participate in the benchmark study are either transforming their businesses or preparing to.

There are several factors playing into this move by newsagents: concern about public health, falling sales, tougher competition and better margin elsewhere.

A consequence of the regulation of tobacco products is that supermarkets tend to do it better. They have a big service counter at the entrance – a cigarette counter I’d call it. The size is such that it promotes it better than your average newsagency business can behind or under the counter. Cigarettes at a supermarket are more noticeable than in a newsagency.

The focus on health through retail changes, packaging changes and intensified health warnings provide for little or no upside in from a pure retail sales perspective. If there is no upside in a product and no mechanism through which a retailer can engage to drive sales then it is time to consider quitting.

I have seen newsagencies recently remove their cigarette cupboards from behind the counter and replace them with a new display space for gifts or other higher margin lines and report a better return on lease space as a result. As more newsagents share stories about such transformation more will follow.

From my benchmark study and accompanying basket analysis I have developed a couple of benchmark data points for my discussions with newsagents. Cigarettes sales of under $2,000 a week warrant careful consideration. An inefficiency rating of 50% or more – the percentage of times when cigarettes are purchased and nothing else – ought to intensify focus.

Whether to sell cigarettes or not is a personal choice newsagents get to make for themselves. My advice is to be guided by your own business performance data, layer this with a realistic assessment of competition and then consider the opportunity of the freed space. Whatever you do, you must do it competitively and in ways which financially benefits the business from a growth, return on investment and return on floorspace perspectives.

I stopped selling cigarettes in my newsagency in 1998. Our sales then were around $1,500 a week. 65% of sales were inefficient – cigarettes and nothing else and of the remaining 35%, the majority companion products were newspapers. Our stock holding was $3,500, labour cost each week around two hours and shrinkage running at 2%. The numbers were not working so we quit. It did not affect newspaper sales or any other sales. Indeed, the space we saved was put to better use which generated a better return.

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Newsagency challenges

Australians are fired up about the power of the supermarkets

I’ve received two calls in the last few days about supermarkets and the harm they are doing to small businesses like newsagencies. Each caller made contact as they wanted offer support for newsagents, they wanted to know what they could do to help and what we were doing to fight back against the market power of the supermarkets.

I get calls because of what I write here all the time – but not often from people who are not newsagents or connected with newsagency suppliers. These two callers were everyday people who only connect with newsagencies when they shop.

To the second caller, in response to their question when they asked how they could help, I said stop shopping at one of the major supermarkets. Their response was they could’t afford and didn’t have time to shop at the butcher, greengrocer, baker and the like instead of a single shop.

And therein lies the challenge.

People are emotionally connected to the idea of small and independent retail businesses but when it comes to time and money, the savings of both get them spending at the two major supermarket chains in growing numbers. This is the challenge for small business retailers – to address what matters most to people, to serve the selfishness of Australian shoppers.

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Ethics

Here’s another magazine I wish I could cut from my newsagency

mag-killFranchising is another magazine I wish I could cut. If I’m lucky I sell one copy but that is rare. This infrequent sale has not been enough to get Network Services to reduce my supply to one or even to cut it altogether in favour of a more successful title. The performance of Franchising reinforces why we need control over they titles we are sent.

Have your say on this topic if you want control over the magazines you receive.

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magazine distribution

Crossword placement change drives newsagency sales

magscrossengCrossword magazine sales are up 6% year on year for us and while this is a terrific result compared to the channel average, we continue to embrace opportunities for more growth. Over the weekend, for example, we had four pockets space next to British magazines and so placed four crossword titles there. We did this because of observations of people purchasing British magazines often purchase crossword titles in the same transaction.

Data and observations can help us make better business decisions.

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crosswords

Bauer Media trials Woman’s Day price increase and botches newsagent engagement

wwdiscBauer Media is trialling a price increase for Woman’s Day to $4.40 in Western Australia while at the same time offering it through Coles for half price and continuing to chase sales by including it in a discount pack at 33% off.

What makes the WA price increase trial worse is the poor and after the event communication by the company and their appalling handling of the trial from an operational perspective – disrupting customer service in retail and home delivery newsagencies because of a fundamental lack of understanding of how newsagents manage each of Woman’s Day through their businesses for home delivery and cutaway customers.

Bauer created a new title code for the eight week trial, disconnecting from the usual title code which is used in newsagency software systems for managing deliveries and putaways. From what I understand they did not tell newsagents until after it started.

If what I am told is true, those isresponsible for newsagent liaison for this trial ought to be reprimanded for a botched job as they have failed newsagents and their customers.

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Ethics

Newsagents: do your homework before taking on the Lyoness

I’ve heard from a newsagent this week about the Lyoness loyalty program. They wanted to know what I thought. I first wrote about the Lyoness in 2013 here. The ACCC has taken action against the operator of the scheme. The Wikipedia page on the Lyoness has more history.

The Sydney Morning Herald published an article about Lyoness earlier this month.

I’m raising it here again today to provide newsagents links to articles which may be of interest. While I have never used it, from what I read, Lyoness not for me. I’ve got other strategies that are working well to drive sales and shopped loyalty.

To Newsagents asking what they should do I say stay away at least until the ACCC action is concluded and a result known. From all I read, it looks to me like a pyramid scheme with your income dependent on those you attract, layering on layers.

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Ethics

Here is why newsagents need more control over magazine supply

magsm26Further to my post two days ago about a possible new approach to magazine distribution, the supply this week of Menace To Society by Bauer Media’s Network Services to newsagents is a good example of why we need control. This is a title serving a narrow and declining in size niche. In my own newsagency it is a niche of no interest or value to us. If I had control, I’d have said no to the title. But network does to give me the opportunity to say no.

Network demand we take on the debt yet they give us no reasonable mechanism through which to control this. It’s unethical in my view.

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Ethics

Giving Lula support

magslulaThe current issue of Lula magazine looks cool. The different covers make it especially appealing. While not a local title – it’s from the UK – it fits on our shelves as a title offering a good point of difference in the niche area serving women from the late teens through to the early thirties – this is an important demo for newsagents.

We’re supporting the current issue of Lula with extra pockets for a few days next to Frankie.

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magazines

Good days for newspapers

The win by the Asian Cup Socceroos last night, the Queensland election result and the situation of Tony Abbott’s leadership status are all good newspaper stories. Each presents us with opportunities to drive impulse purchases – opportunities to not be shopkeepers waiting for people to come to you but to be retailers pitching papers to customers.

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Newspapers

Good collateral for Disney promotion

d-magicNews Corp. has good collateral supporting the launch of the Bring Home Some Magic Disney campaign. We are promoting this with Disney product already in-store and, hopefully, achieve sales of non newspaper lines as a result of the newspaper campaign. Of the collateral provided, I especially like the floor decals – they’re more use in my view than posters.

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Newspapers

Sunday newsagency management tip: know your traffic drivers

What are the top ten products or product categories that bring people to your retail newsagency? Are sales for these categories growing, declining or static?

if you can’t answer this question, find out. It should be easy with your newsagency software.  In my own Tower Systems Newsagency Software is’s the 10×10 report – a report listing the top 10 items (or categories) and the top 10 items (or categories) selling with the top 10.

Knowing the key traffic drivers and the projection of sales for these can help with business planning. Indeed, it’s essential to business planning. Information in traffic reports will indicate the sales efficiency of these products.

Take newspapers. The daily is usually #1 or #2 at generating traffic, sales are often in decline and sales are often inefficient – with 75% and more purchases the newspaper and nothing else. While this can sound bad, knowing it is good, knowing it allows you to plan for change within your business to make newspapers more efficient, to drive sales and to find other traffic generators.

Data revealing bad news can be good news for your business.

Talk to your software provider about the report you need to see your key traffic drivers. Unlock the data and make moves based on what it reveals. This is an opportunity for growth!

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Management tip

Sunday newsagency marketing tip: be bold, drive traffic

beboldGo big or go home is is a terrific mantra to have in your head when setting up displays. Pretty is good, big is better. Big and attractive is the best.

My marketing advice today for in-store displays is go big or go home. Build a big display around a known brand in a category for which you want to be known – preferably a new category for your business.

Build a display where the display has to attract new shoppers – rather than gaining sales off of existing traffic. While it’s good when a display achieved incremental business from existing traffic, this is not adding to the long-term health of your business. New traffic is key and one way you can win new traffic is with big bold displays promoting products people are likely to return to purchase over and over.

This display is from one of my newsagencies. It stands two metres tall. It represents a known-brand, range, age diversity and engagement. Launching us into this category, the dip;ay was excellent. Tracking sales we can see more than half of the purchases were single category – most likely they cam in for this.

A big bold display is key to the marketing of your retail newsagency.

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marketing

Interesting comments on today’s newspapers

news-papertA couple of customers commented on front page newspaper coverage of the news today – that the two major dailies did not cover the situation re the Prime Minister’s grip on power.  One commented The Saturday Paper looked like the better paper for this story – and they purchased it. When the papers are stacked up as shown in the photo, it’s telling for people buying a paper for the news.

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Newspapers

Bauer and Coles offers magazines at half price

Screen Shot 2015-01-30 at 8.12.21 pmColes is offering ZOO, OK!, Woman’s Day & NW for half price with any fuel purchase. These are all Bauer Media titles. The promotion is in the Coles Express catalogue.

This is Coles and Bauer Media banding driving sales for Coles and potentially reducing traffic flow of the newsagency channel. Thanks for that Bauer.

While you could say newsagents have to do better – Bauer is not being fair, not giving us deals like this.

It’s like Bauer wants Coles to grow magazine sales. But at what cost?

Magazine publishers who rely on newsagents and who have their titles distributed through the Bauer owner Network Services ought to say/ask What the F$&k Bauer? Why are you devaluing your titles? Why are you making newsagents look expensive? Why give Coles such a good deal when we sell more of your magazines?

There is unhappy irony that this deal is being promoted while NSW newsagents have been lobbying re the possibility of Tatts selling lottery products in Coles Express outlets and supermarkets. This offer which favours Coles over newsagents has the potential to do more damage yet I am not aware of it being pursued.

I am not suggesting there should be any protection of newsagents on this – only that we are given the opportunity of equivalent deals. Otherwise, shame on Bauer for making us look bad and this supermarket giant look good.

What does it say that Bauer and Coles have to cut the cover price of magazines by 50% to sell them. Coles would say it’s about deals for customers. I think that would be a stretch.

What do others think about this?

Footnote: I am grateful to the colleague who drew this offer to my attention.

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Ethics

NSW Government / Tatts Group sign MOU – risks newsagents thinking it’s business as usual when it’s not

The NSW State Government and the Tatts Group have announced today the signing of an MOU in relation to distribution of lottery products for the next few years. As the SMH reports, the key points are between now and early 2018:

  1. No major supermarkets to sell lottery products.
  2. Fuel outlet expansion to proceed is Tatts chooses.
  3. NSW Government to help agents rebrand up to the value of $10,000.

The certainty offered by the MOU goes further than I expected newsagents to achieve. It goes considerably further than one could / should expect from in a free market economy.

Newsagents would be wrong to complain about this in my view.

My position on the April 1 sunset of current arrangements is well documented here. The sunset date has been known for five years. To any business which says they have no future if more outlets get lotteries I have said and say again: what have you done for the five years you knew the change was coming, what have you done to make you business more relevant, how different is your business today to five years ago.

While there are some newsagencies where the circumstance is that lottery traffic and GP is essential and dependance cannot easily be shifted. However, I’d say that is not the majority. Smart newsagents acting like retailers can run enjoyable and valuable newsagencies without lotteries or with less dependence on lotteries – and should have been working on this over the last five years.

The real challenge to over the counter lottery product sales in newsagencies is from online. This is the growth area. It is not part of the MOU nor should it be.

I think newsagents have focused too much on the demon supermarkets and not enough on the fundamental change in how, when and where people shop for lottery products. The only way to compete with online is to offer a compelling and memorable in-store experience for products people want. This is retail 101 in this online always-connected world.

When newsagents realise that lottery product sales have been lost to online will the complain that they should have been protected now? Following the logic of recent lobbying I expect some will.’

The future of our channel is not to be found in government protection of any form or level.

Sure the supermarkets are too big. Fight that – not by seeking protection by governments but by challenging their market share on the basis of their abuse of market power. That is a fight that more will engage with. The fight for protection because oh we’re newsagents and we’re important is misplaced and not a fight which provides for a strong future for newsagency businesses.

In the benchmark data I will release Monday I will share insights into what a newsagency not engaged in future planning looks like. It is a dying business and has been for the last five years. No amount of government protection or assistance will save such a business in the long run.

Here’s my tough love, because I do love the newsagency channel: the best thing the government and Tatts could have done is nothing, let competition play out. The newsagents remaining would be stronger and more competitive because their future would have been 100% on them. Now, some will be chasing the $10,000. Others will think they have until 2018 when in fact they have no time at all.

It is unfortunate Labor politicians engaged in the politics as they did. What they said and plenty in the media said made newsagents look weak, certain to close without protection.

If I was a politician dealing with this issue I would have said something like this:

I can’t and won’t protect you but I can and will help you and other independent and small retailers like you and primary producers and service providers to bring the major supermarkets to account, to stop them growing bigger as their market share is already too big, to make them deal fairer, to ensure their lease costs are fair compared to yours and to ensure that they’re not getting deals that you could be funding through poorer deals for the same products – as could be the case with magazines.

I don’t want to be part of a channel that says poor me I need protection to survive. There is no future in that.

I want to be part of the new newsagent channel made up of proactive retailers who are embracing change and generating net new traffic because of innovation in their shops, building GP%, attracting new customers and operating more efficiently. I want to be part of the new approach to managing magazines as I wrote yesterday – fixing bigger competition challenges than Tatts.

Now is the time to chase change in your newsagency. The opportunities are wonderful and the success stories growing. There are newsagencies in highly competitive situations growing overall GP% and growing sales. But I’ll have more to say on that next week.

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Lotteries

Newsagents: have your say about a possible fresh approach to magazine distribution

I have been talking with a senior magazine distribution executive on behalf of newsagents on a possible change to their model and write today to open the topic for discussion by newsagents. But first, here is one question for you:

If you were given the control you want over magazines you receive, would you use it, would you be more engaged in the category?

Frustration with the current magazine distribution model has been intensifying as more and more newsagents are realising the control the can have and the additional gross profit they can make from other retail categories.

Publishers are frustrated with a model where they see early returns increasing, newsagents becoming less engaged and poor service from the old model.

Newsagents want to make more money from magazines. I’ve written about it here before, noting that 40% GP would be reasonable. This post today is not about GP, it is about control of range and volume.

While some will say we need to fight for everything we want, I think our interests are served by a step by step approach. hence the question I have for you today.

A magazine distributor, it does’t matter which one, is contemplating establishing new magazine supply rules. In a recent meeting we canvassed a range of options.

After reviewing the options, the package of ideas under consideration are:

  1. That following allocation of new titles on the distributor computer system, you would have the opportunity to log in to cut those titles or adjust proposed supply volumes. You’d have three or four days to do this.
  2. Once you take a new title you’d need to display it for the on-sale of the first issue. What happens after that would be up to you.
  3. That you could cancel the title at any time in the future – and a cancellation would be a cancellation.
  4. That you could adjust supply at any time in the future.
  5. You could order new titles to try for as little as one issue.
  6. Tops only returns for all titles. Note: it is possible the result will be no returns at all.
  7. You could opt out of point 1 (new titles being allocated) and only get what you ask for.

The concern is that not enough newsagents will engage with these changes, that the distributor will lose titles and and those titles would be taken over by others who would not give newsagents this level of control. I share this concern.

While newsagents say they want more control over magazines, I worry that not enough will exercise it. That is what I want to know about today. Would you like these proposed changes to be implemented? Yes or no.

I see it that simply: yes or no. For me it is a resounding yes. The control being contemplated is something I’d embrace.

If the response is yes and the channel engages, we prove a point to all publishers and distributors and through this improve our leverage on everyone adopting this approach and opening consideration of margin.

The MPA, Bauer, Pacific, Gotch and Network are working on a code of conduct as I have written about before. I do not think the draft code of conduct is a good solution.  It has been developed with little consultation.

Of the 2,600 newsagents on XchangeIT, around 900 currently consistently pass compliance tests. This is a factor that will play into whether the package of changes I outline proceeds – particularly the question of no returns at all.

Any time there is an audit of physical returns versus what is claimed, around 25% of returns claims are not matched by reality. This makes distributors and publishers nervous. In one case I heard about recently a newsagent repaid tens of thousands of dollars for over-claimed returns.

the other factor that will play into any change to processes is rules for changes. For example, should a newsagent be allowed to cut supply of a title to below the quantity they are selling? I’d suggest they should not be able to do this – for their own good … unless they are selling only one copy an they are doing an overall space adjustment.

Back to my question – modified with more detail given the seven points in the package of ideas:

If you were given control over magazine titles you receive and the volume of each issue, would you use this control, would you be more engaged in the magazine category, would you seek out new titles and adjust supply seeking more stock to increase sales?

The distributor will watch the answers here. Please get your colleagues to engage and share their opinion. This is an opportunity to be heard.

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magazine distribution

We ignore the Chinese New Year opportunity

cny15In China, Chinese New Year is a far bigger season in retail than Christmas. Every retailer engages with the season in one way or another. Clothing shops serve the tradition of people having all new clothes for the first day of the year. Food shops have wonderful hampers for the feasts that are traditional. Card and gift shops have a vast array of red packets for money gifts.

In one store I saw more than twenty designs of Hallmark branded red packets.

The photo shows one of six displays in a supermarket I visited in Guangzhou earlier this week. Note the gifts and plush lines. On the rear of this display is the red packets.

I think we would do better with this season in Australia.

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Gifts

The scratchie greeting card

cardscratchI have seen scratchie greeting cards before. This one caught my eye because of the style and quality. It is a higher end card appealing to a more discerning shopper. I am not sure if this range is in Australia. If it was I’d like to have it as it appeals to a shopper not well catered for – where the price of the card is secondary to its uniqueness.

While there is an important place for everyday cards, there is also value in serving the fringe higher end card shopper for whom price is not as important as is innovation.

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Greeting Cards
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