February was interesting in our newsagencies. Many departments were up: Newspapers (9%), calendars (144%), diaries 171%), Art (8%) and gifts (77%). Magazines were down. Stationery was flat. At Forest Hill our magazine unit sales fell 14% while at Frankston the fall was 20%.
The fall in magazine sales correlates to the drop in customer count. The good news is that we are making more from each customer.
While our numbers are not what we would like, we are happy because of the growth in key good margin departments. We are operating business as usual, trying new ideas, offering deals on stock we want to quit and presenting our shops as cheerful easy-to-shop destinations.
We are pursuing new customers by distributing Hot Ink! Flyers to homes around our locations. As is always the case, we are seeing a good kick in ink sales.
Since we are in shopping centres, we are somewhat reliant on our landlord to lure new customers to the centre. I’d like to see landlords think right outside the box on this. The usual mix of kids activities, displays and feel good promotions are not having the same cut-through as they once had.
Appreciate an insight on what maybe happenning out their. You are right shopping centres need to attract people out consistantly, not just rely on the governments stimulus type incentives to get people out.
Do you think during these difficults times people are bypassing shopping centres, instead of 2 of 3 times a weeks visits they maybe just 1 visit a week?
Mark you know I am a bit off centre but how about things like:-
The world’s biggest barbecue.
Pensioner discount week.
Victorian Kariokie championships.
Australia’s biggest book sale.
Centre Managements should be doing as you say driving people to the shopping centres.
Yes, I wish centres pursued shoppers and not people coming in for entertainment. We do our bit with our shop and this is reflected in the good numbers. It is more traditional (lower margin) categories which rely on general shoppers.
We’ve been stagnate this February, I think it’s partially due to the credit card companies offering increased credit limits in December for Christmas and then everyone receiving statements late Jan early Feb. Making people tighten the purse strings. It’s should pick up though.
I do wish my landlord would do more but apparently it’s not in the contract, so we get nothing.
I wish more newsagents would talk about how trade is.
Heard a chat on the radio just now about the best way to spend the $950 that is coming. There was a suggestion that if we all buy a new TV that it would not help as all are imported, so what do we spend our money on that is local?
We should exploit this now, buy from your local newsagent we are local and a lot of our products are also local.
just imagine how many dollars are getting sent overseas anyway with people holidaying at the moment ,i am sure that they still get the money and it is just getting spent while overseas it would have to mount up to millions surely .eg Dave is back packing over in China does he still get his $950 ??
I know a few agents in my area are finding it hard to make ends meet, I’m almost one of them. I’ll be looking into part time work soon(which I don’t mind) to prop the business up.
All I can do is try hard to achieve my business goals both big and small and put balloons out the front which seems to drive customers in! I think it’s psychological?
I have noticed today, for the first time in a month that we’ve seen more fifty dollar notes, not piggy bank change.
A bit of feedback from the stallholders at the Eumundi Markets – some are down as much as 50% and a few said that over the last two weeks,they had their worst trading day in 10years.
As for newsXpress Eumundi, we are trading 6% up on Feb.
My total number of transactions are down on last year but my basket sales has increased with introduction of New Money products.
Support local community in sponsoring local rugby/cricket teams etc – it does work
The newsagency we run(myself and my brother and the silent partner-the bank:) ) is a cat A in tatts what i have noticed is that my comm is slightly up but tatts sales are down and the syndicates are struggling to sell.I’ve had to delete one of them because we caught with unsold shares for several weeks in a row. I’ve noticed lotsa quiet periods and people coming out later but you do get a “rush” period not as often as the good old days.
Intralot slowly declining but scratchies sales about the same.
for the next draw i’ve had to scale back on the number of syndicates.
the shop is in the northern suburbs.
will post percentage changes this weekend for tatts and intralot.
cheers guys
newsxpress Seymour
Books 950% up (963% up units)
Card & Wrap 37% up (23% up units)
Confectionery 10% down (26% down unit)
Drinks 10% up (10% down units)
Fax/Photocopy 241% up (451% up units)
Gifts 100% up (new catagory)
Magazines 9% down (14% down units)
newspapers 19% up (14% up units)
Phone Cards 16% up (7% up units)
Stamps 54% up (4% up units)
Stationery 85% up (23% up units)
Tobacco 24% down (23% down units)
The first figure is calculated on $ sales
The second figure is unit sales.
These figures do not include Sub Agent Sales
Overall in dollar terms we were $10,672 up for February at Retail and $12,500 up including Sub Agency Sales.
Regional areas have much more opportunity to be proactive with the local community. The community vibe at the moment seems to be to shop locally, which for me is great.
Mark is right, newsagents need to communicate this stuff more often. We are all in this together.
Mark, Vaughan,
Can I ask what calculations you use? Comparison to previous year or month? Calculated on daily average or total month sales? Calculated using entire month or 28 days?
i’m in a shopping strip just got my land tax went up
but i’m wondering about the newsagents/tatts people in shopping centers have you been affected by the increase.
i know that the landlord can’t raise the rent( in Victoria) to recoup the increased cost of land tax but westfield et al. how- let’s face it- do they get away with it(the legislation) of not passing on the increase – or is it in the famous next market review?
cheers
Jarryd, my comparisons, unless stated otherwise, are always on unit sales. My Feb results were comparing feb 09 to Feb 08, same store.
This has been the worst 2 weeks ever for us, just going by customer counts. And then News Ltd advised their system stuffed up with credits on the DK sham. Also seeing a trend with customers using EFTPOS more as ATM charges increase. How are we to stay afloat.? Does anyone have a fee to customers for using EFTPOS. We have a $10 min. Had to laugh with customer today wanting to use eftpos to buy $1 paper, and got upset when we said no. SO what is the answer.?
Chris, this is not a time for looking at fees and the like. It is a time to spring clean the business, get rid of dead stock and find new opportunities. The growth areas for us are good margin products where we have more control. For example, $3,000 in calendars in February at 70% GP. Have jo bariers between a customer and a sale. I’d have let them use eftpos and doe it cheerfully. Mark
Jaryd;
I use unit sales and $ sales. I used Feb 09 Vs Feb 08.
Hi guys,
Vaughan those are sensational numbers. Are you coming off a low base, or is there some strategy being used that I need to know about.
My sales for Feb 09 to Feb 08 are 28% down in total $ sales.
I am not sure if demograhics play a key role here or not.
Chris
Reservoir
G’Day Chris;
We have only had Seymour for 12 months; the previous owners were lethargic and did not treat the business with respect.
Definately coming off a low base; the shop was at least $50,000 down on stock holding. Having said that, we moved Cards to the front of shop, did a complete magazine relay, got rid of dead stationery and moved everything to tell a story.
Introduced alot of new product and changed to newsxpress. I also feel the most important part of the change has been empowering my staff. They really have shone over the past year, having been given areas within the shop to look after. The girls have taken alot of pride in presenting their areas to the customer. Beforehand, they were just ‘check out chicks’.
The strategy; basically we broke the business apart, highlighted dead or dying stock, dead or dying staff, and started from the beginning to rebuild. I needed to be ruthless in this process.
Finally, i involved a few of the Phoenix members and industry partners to help. Their job was to be ruthless in their comments and critisism.
Its priceless to get other ideas from those that do it so well.
Happy to discuss further when in Melbourne next.