The call from the police Saturday morning was a reminder of the hidden cost of the current magazine supply model. The police had executed a search warrant at the home of a suspect and, along the way, found around $800 worth of magazines – around half from my shop going back over the last year. The frustration is that the titles were outside the top 200. Magazine distributors scale out based on return data and not over the counter sales. This means that the theft will be seen by my suppliers as sales and most likely have lead to increased supply.
Managing theft of magazines in a newsagency is challenging since electronic tagging costs between 10 and 15 cents per copy and is labour intensive to implement. We know we lose around $200 a week. It’s a cost of business. My frustration is the knock on effects.