Cardboard is a staple stationery item for any newsagency. Everyone sells it and if you don’t you’re missing out on good sales every week. We sell the high end cardboard, it’s coloured to the pulp. This means the colour holds better and the board will not curl. Our price is currently $1.10 a sheet. I know of newsagents selling lesser quality cardboard for close to $2.00 a sheet and others selling the higher end product we sell for 95 cents a sheet.
This vast price difference surprises me. In an opportunistic sense, newsagents can charge more because we are almost the only source of a good range of such cardboard. From a business perspective, given the stock turn of some of the colour, the lower end price point, and I’d include our $1.10 price in that, is too low.
As for our $1.10, we’ll move that up over the next few weeks.
Pricing in the stationary category is abhorrently inconsistant accross the channel – and even accross marketing groups. It is an area that is challenging for the industry in a number of ways, be it determining target GP% or portraying an image of consistancy to consumers.
Marketing groups would do well to look at standardising pricing (to an extent) accorss its stores.
Jarryd I agree. Marketing groups are a good place to start. Given the history in the newsagency channel it will be a long process.