In researching magazine supply patterns in several newsagencies I am seeing deliveries on the last Wednesday of the month which are between 10% and 50% above average for a Wednesday in dollar value. Timing of supply is part of the cash-flow challenge newsagents face. Unless distributors take more care in supply cycles they will kill the retail network which is so good to them.
Not just last Wednesdays, but end of every month, every quarter, and end of six month periods. Bascially every accounting period. Supply suddenly spikes. Happens in NZ as well. We have known it for ages and now plan for it. Obviously doesn’t help cash flow though.
Wait till Christmas. Last deliveries in December will be huge. But I am sure you already know this.
Mark,
It is irresponsible of the distributors to have such a huge spike on the last Wednesday of every month. There is NO reason for it. They DO NOT need to do it! For a title like Horse Deals, which is the size of an encyclopedia now, has no direct competition in the magazine market. Why it is released the same day as Aus Woman’s Weekly is beyond me. Aus Woman’s Weekly could also be changed to the Monday of the same week. We only get bulks on a Monday so it would not make a huge difference to how we operate on that day. Thursdays was taken out of the distribution model for obvious cost reasons, so now Friday seems to be the dumping day for ‘crap’ titles. I think the whole distribution cycle needs to be reviewed to spread the load a bit, but i doubt we will see any change soon, as the publishers determine what happens when.
Hi,
What can be done about this ? They are cooking the golden goose and neither NANA or the ANF does anything ? Can we complain to the ACCC ?
I just can afford to pay for all these magazines which I didn’t order, can’t/won’t sell and have already returned to them. Frasnkly, this is extortion on a grand scale…….
Cheers,
Phil
Phil
I am a micro small Newsagency, Bookstall & Kiosk. I made the decision this year to terminate my account with NDD because of this exact situation, small & large newsagents suffer the same except the larger Newsagents loose large amounts of cash for months. I dont get the trading post, ozbike, lovatts and a few other good titles now, this is the sacrifice I had to make to help my small business be cash flow positive. Of course this is not for everyone but unnecessary quantity allocations & unsellable titles can slowly drown you.
Gordon & Gotch sends me 2 or 3 supplementry sheets a week & I assume that they are “cool” with me sending back titles back I cannot stock or cannot sell, mainly due to real estate space.
Network (netonline) have a facility that you can kill titles if you adjust the base allocation to zero if that is any help.
Not an ideal way to run a business, grow a business but that is how stay in business.