Further to my post on Thursday, US stationery group Office Max overnight reported a 17% fall in sales – within one point of the fall experienced by Office Depot.
I suspect that the majors in Australia in stationery are experiencing similar falls, Officeworks, Corporate Express and others. This is where newsagents can benefit. While people will not go to Officeworks to do a $500 stationery shop, they will come to a newsagency for the incidental items and, hopefully, pick up other stationery items. Whether they do, however, is entirely up to us.
We maximise the stationery opportunity by presenting professionally, adopting an enticing pricing policy, focusing on brands and backing all this will brilliant customer service.
Right now, our stationery sales ought to be growing. I know from the recent benchmark study that they are growing in half the newsagencies. It is the other half I am concerned about.
How right you are our stationery is running some weeks around 40%up on the some weeks last year .INFLATION is running at about 12% and is helping to drive $