Costco, a giant in warehouse retailing in the US and rapidly growing in the UK reportedly plans five stores (according to a report in The Age) for its first year in Australia. It will be interesting to see if their Aussie stores include magazines – they are a small selection of top selling magazine titles in the UK and already sell them in the US stores.
With more majors playing in the magazine space, the trend I’d expect to see in newsagencies is a decline in weeklies and high volume monthlies and growth in special interest and other titles not carried by the majors. If I am right, more than ever it will be crucial for newsagents to achieve equitable terms on these titles.