The extent of the size and potential impact of Cyclone Yasi which is bearing down on far North Queensland is illustrated by a graphic published by News Limited, superimposing the cyclone and its trail on a map of the USA.
My thoughts and I am sure the thoughts of others who visit this place are with colleague newsagents and suppliers in the line of Yasi tonight and tomorrow.
What a tough start to 2011 for many!
My newsagent software company, Tower Systems, increased its market share by close to 4% in 2010. This is extraordinary considering that Tower went into the year with a base of 1,700 newsagents, the largest by more than 1,000 locations.
The new customers were a mixture of of newsagencies switching from Non Tower software, greenfield (new newsagency) locations and existing newsagencies without any software.
The Tower newsagent community is the largest newsagent community outside of magazine distributors, some card companies and GNS. As consolidation among newsagency suppliers (across a range of product categories) continues I anticipate the Tower market share will grow in 2011. Newsagents will want software which continues to meet industry standards in a timely manner.
I appreciate the support of newsagents not only in 2010 but for many years.
Take 5 and the free make-up attached to the cover is a challenge to display. We can only fit one copy per pocket. To compensate we have stock at the counter and on the floor in front of the waterfall. Given that we will sell between 60% and 70% of our stock today, like many newsagents, we had to find a way to save us from having to fill the pockets every hour.
Take 5 and That’s Life continue to be the most successful magazine pairing in newsagencies. The percentage of times they are in the basket together is extraordinary. This is why it surprises me when I see newsagents who do not promote the two titles next to each other.They are missing sales.
Australia Post is currently selling Reflex copy paper for $4.99 a ream. Even if we purchased for the same price as Australia Post, newsagents could not achieve the same reward as the government owned outlets since we do not have government protection delivering foot traffic to our retail businesses for next to nothing.
Whereas we have to actively promote our businesses to attract shoppers, Australia Post is guaranteed traffic to its corporate retail network due to its government protection.
It galls me that Australia Post uses its Government protection to continue to take sales from newsagents and other retailers operating in the stationery space. While the Australian Government Competitive Neutrality Complaints Office says that Australia Post is doing nothing wrong, it is the sort of response I would expect to see from one arm of the government investigating another.
The Australia Post brand is one of the most recognised and respected brands in Australia. Taxpayers have funded this situation. the brand is protected by the government. All of this means that they land a customer for the fraction of a cost of competitors.
Personally, I am not affected by the $4.99 reflex offer as I don’t chase customers who buy copy paper on price. that said, I know plenty of newsagents who do and who work hard to scratch a few cents from the sale of a ream of copy paper. I feel for them and how they feel about the federal government owned business taking sales from them purely because of their government ownership.
I have been writing about Australia Post here for years and, yes, nothing has changed. I live in hope that one day a politician of influence will understand the damage the government business does to small businesses like newsagents.
Former newspaper executive Alan Mutter weighs in on the prospects for The Daily, the iPad newspaper being launched today (US time) in the US. Once we see the actual productwe will know more about this new thing and whether it has legs. So far, the efforts of News in the iPad app space have resulted in underwhelming apps.
We are promoting the $1.95 offer for Zoo this week in each of my stores. We are preferring this in-location display as it has been working well for Zoo and these price-based deals. I like the collateral provided – it serves its purpose well.
I know that the publisher is following the UK model of structured discounting and that they have what they think is a sound plan. Some customers, however, see it differently. One wag had a laugh saying he’d buy it this week for $1.95 and then wait a few months for the next $1.95 issue and just browse it in between times.
As the retailer I am glad that more titles do not follow this pricing model as I suspect it educates customers on what to expect.
The terrific sports bag which is packaged with the latest issue of GQ magazine does not fit into traditional newsagency magazine fixturing. Only in a store with extra deep pockets will this fit. We have placed the over-sized item next to our newspapers – it is the only reasonable space available to us. While the publisher will like this location, it is frustrating as we have had to bump other product.
Size and display challenges aside, the sports bag is a good gift. It fits with GQ. While I may regret saying this, I would have preferred a significantly higher allocation and a purpose built cardboard unit for properly displaying the offer.
The last Wednesday of the month is usually the heavy supply day as magazine publishers and distributors make the most grabbing newsagent cash. Yesterday, the last Monday of the month, was extraordinary. In a couple of my stores, the supply load was close to double a usual Monday.
While distributors and publishers will have their excuses, newsagents will not believe them. As the ones having our cash sucked dry, it is reasonable that we challenge some of the more cynical supply decisions which we see at the end of the month.
Yesterday, we received two UK crossword titles with Christmas themed covers. It is five weeks since Christmas. The last thing a professional retailer wants right now is stock reflecting Christmas. If the importer thinks there is a market for these titles here they ought to ensure that they get here in time to tap into any seasonal promotion. I have early returned these two titles as I saw little prospect for them selling. It is a pity they were supplied on the last trading day of the month.
We have placed the large A1 size poster promoting the latest issue of Good Food magazine on the floor in the middle of the aisle. It has been placed in front of the column of Good Food magazine stock. There is no missing this poster – hopefully is delivers a good kick in sales in this first week.
FYI we do not stick any magazine posters on windows in any of my newsagencies – I doubt their impact in that situation. I’d prefer passers by to be able to look into the store.
Someone (computer or real person) decided we deserved a 100% increase in supply for the latest Puzzler Sudoku One-A-Day title this morning. Rather than making newsagencies the warehouse and banker for Puzzler, why can’t sales based replenishment be used to transact more fairly with us? More than half the stock supplied is sitting in a drawer.
When we moved to our temporary location a few months ago, we had no choice but to shoe-horn magazines into fixtures which were designed for greeting cards.
One side of the new magazine aisle was made up of sections, such as the one shown in the photo. This made us look differently at title adjacencies and while we were left with some challenges due to space, the result was tighter sections targeting common interests.
While I like the idea of the segmented areas, I know that tenancy and other costs make this less efficient allocation of space unrealistic for newsagencies of the future.
That said, the smaller sections have made it easier to watch shopper interaction and title performance with a narrower focus.
The segmented experience, the tighter space and going from 1,250 titles to 750 titles has reinforced for me the importance of ensuring that newsagency shop fits are flexible so that configurations can change with need and that floor space allocation can change to reflect margin dollars return.
Installing a purpose built magazine fixture which cannot be easily changed without construction of any sort is nuts.
The other reminder is that of change in the magazine department. Even over the last five months, we have moved sections in pursuit of better sales. This must be an on-going process in any newsagency. It is certainly a way of demonstrating a point of difference over our planogram-centric competitors,.
In the move to our temporary location in August last year, from 330 Sq M down to 97 sq m, we had to pare back on a ton of stock. Our range of Australian note cards were not put into the smaller store. No customers asked for them. While sales were good in the bigger store, that they were not asked for suggested in our new location they were mainly purchased on impulse.
We realised the truth of this in the past week when we put the note cards back into a high traffic location. They started selling right away – usually at least two packs at a time.
Making changes,even small changes, in our newsagencies every day can help us uncover opportunities which we may have thought passed us by.
We are promoting the latest issue of Girlfriend magazine with this simple aisle end display facing shoppers as they leave our women’s / girl’s magazine area. In addition to acting as a billboard for the title, shoppers can browse and purchase off the display – important for any display. We change these displays weekly – essential given the frequency of shopper visits to a newsagency.
Since the shrill attacks on the flood levy by sections of the media, donations into our Flood Appeal collection tins have slowed to a trickle. This is unfortunate as the need for these funds has not diminished. Further, the funds are being used for purposes outside those funds allocated and to be allocated by state and federal governments.
While we will take our collection tins down tomorrow, we will continue to support the efforts of the Flood Appeals in other ways – such as engaging with community fund raising activities. However, even these appear to have slowed.
With Valentine’s Day on a Monday this year, we may miss the opportunity of the crazy Saturday or Sunday last minute shop. We are trying to counter this by moving the display to the front of the store and facing it into the mall.
The display in this photo is our display from January 18 moved to a new and higher traffic location.
We do this with all major seasons, move the displays through the course of the seasonal on-sale. Its is vital to combat store blindness and to build the skills of the team in telling a story.
Newsagencies in shopping centres especially need to invest considerable time refreshing their visual pitch on a daily basis. With so many other retailers offering what we sell, we need to demonstrate a difference which is appealing and taps into the sentiment of the season.
Valentine’s Day sales are ticking along nicely. I am quietly confident for this first major season of 2011.
Further to my somewhat controversial post a few days ago about the Australia Day hat promotion, here is what the creative team did in one of my stores yesterday to promote the Herald Sun Trivial Pursuit promotion which commences this morning. This is at the end of the counter facing into the mall. They tool the collateral provided and added the sign indicating that the promotion starts tomorrow.
We embrace the newspaper opportunity whenever possible and do more than just put the stock out and expect the products to sell themselves. These promotions are run for a reason after all.
I was talking with someone looking to buy a newsagency this afternoon and they asked if I knew of anyone selling cup cakes in their newsagency? I said I would ask here. I am aware of cup cake shops next to or near several capital city newsagencies but not inside the store.
I like the idea of cup cakes in a newsagency as they are one of the essential foods for survival.
It is Chinese New Year this coming Wednesday and we have had a range of cards and red packets (for giving money) available for some weeks. Our Asian customers appreciate the service. It taps in well with lottery sales too. Chinese New Year is a good seasonal opportunity for retailers, newsagents especially, since it is all about luck and hope. In past years, when we have had more space, we have dressed the store with traditional Chinese lanterns and other items. The customer engagement demonstrated the value of retail theatre. This year, with limited space we have cards, red packets and some news and coverage in our customer newsletter … and a greeting for this Year of the Rabbit.
The Biggest Loser Calorie Counter which is free with today’ Herald Sun is an excellent promotion and is set to drive sales – based on comments made yesterday by customers. We hope that we have the quantities right, thanks to help from the publisher, in each of our stores so that our customers and home delivery customers can collect the freebie from us.
We are promoting the latest issue of the MasterChef magazine with our newspapers this weekend as well with a half waterfall in our food section and two pockets in with weeklies. It is the weeklies pocket which is working best for us so far with this issue. With weekend sales strong for this title, the additional placement with newspapers should work a treat. For major monthlies, like MasterChef, I think it’s important that newsagents do not take a set and forget approach. Customers become store blind – just as we do. Moving titles around and co-locating can drive valuable incremental business, especially with magazines.
Our team at Watergardens does a wonderful job promoting value in magazines, especially kids magazines. Click on the image to see a better version of a photo of a display near the counter at the front of the store, facing into the mall, which is promoting the latest issue of K-Zone magazine and the freebies which come with this. The display not only shows the value of the title but also promotes to the target audience at their height. As well as driving sales of the title, the display also shows our business off as having products aimed at kids.
I am disappointed with the cover of today’s Herald Sun newspaper. It is not reporting the news as a newspaper should.
This cover seeks to tell readers what to think on the issue of the flood levy announced by the federal government yesterday. They have carefully selected a photo, doctored it and surrounded it with text designed to get people angry.
It is newspaper covers like this which are making the flood levy one of the most unpopular levies in recent memory.
The Herald Sun cover is the shrill I expect to see or hear from the ultra conservative FOX ‘News’ network. I say ‘News’ because FOX is less of a news network and more a lobby arm of ultra conservative forces in the US. Both the Herald Sun and FOX News are published by the same business – News Corp.
I prefer newspapers to report news in a balanced and professional way and not seek to blatantly drive the political agenda of their owners.
Any concerns about the levy and the track record of the federal government could have been addressed in a far more professional way. That they focus on the PM is odd given that the spending decisions will be made in Queensland by the Bligh government.
Sorry for being so far off topic in this blog post. Seeing the cover of today’s Herald Sun go across the counter is frustrating.
A few months ago we signed an agreement for the sale of our newsXpress Forest Hill business. This came at the same time we had been temporarily relocated by the landlord due to construction impacting our level 2 location. The construction dragged on as did the negotiations for a new lease. The timing is such that we have to be out of our temporary location on Saturday February 12. The couple purchasing the business will not be ready to trade from the new location until early April as they can only get access at the end of this month and have a full shop-fit to undertake.
Given that we have been at Forest Hill for fifteen years, we wanted to give our customers fair notice of the changes. Yesterday, we started handing out a letter explaining the moves. I publish it here to show our approach to sharing the news with our customers, to demonstrate our transparency and to publish the facts to our gossip loving channel.
We have a busy two weeks at this store while also keeping the finger on the pulse of our three other newsagencies.
News Corp. has confirmed that it will launch The Daily, an 99 cent a week iPad only newspaper on Feb. 2. I’m looking forward to see this.