I spent half an hour watching the behavior of people at a local Starbucks the other day. I to see if The Age newspaper was selling there or more often being browsed and returned to the rack.
I’ll declare my vested interest: I own a newsagency and am frustrated that The Age is being sold in Starbucks for half price – in competition with existing full price outlets.
In the half hour I watched, no one purchased The Age; several picked it up and put it back and two took it to their table, read and returned it to the stack.
Beyond the confusion the dual pricing in close proximity brings to a brand, there is the possible lost sale because of poor policing of the browsing and reading at the table. The price of the newspaper is the price of the newspaper. The content is no less valuable in store A compared to store B. While one cold argue that it’s an up sell financially supported by Starbucks you have to wonder why then it’s not promoted more aggressively.
I wish publishers would discuss these strategies with their distribution network prior to implementation. My experience is that all this move has done is shift sales from one location to another.