The folks at News Magazines need to sort out their retail strategy. Using the same bag for two different titles, as they have done this month for Two Wheels and Live to Ride, will confuse consumers. Check out the photo. One challenge is finding the title – as this is blocked by the printing on the bag – both titles look the same. Another challenge is seeing (or not) the difference between the two titles.
I’d expect this common bag to hurt sales.
Do baged magazine actually increase sales? In our store we find the opposite, because people cannot browse the mag they tend to avoid them. The lure of a “free” back issue just isn’t there for our customers.
I would love to hear other newsagents sales figures for bagged magazines.
Take the last top gear mag, it was our worst issue ever but it was covered in plastic like a cheap porno.
Luke I agree. While I understand why publishers do it, I am surprised they use this device. They need to watch browsers and how they interact (or not) with this sealed product.
There was a motor bike mag last month that was packaged with an overlander magazine ,one is road bikes the other off road 4*4 the two just do not go together it is equivelent to putting a knitting magazine with the latest ralph magazine it just should not happen . If you do like to buy the packaged deals you do so because you think that you are getting 2 magazines of the same nature
We love bags they sell well,but what we do is pull them tight and tape them down at the back .Getting a lot of sell outs
Not only are sales not so good, but they also take up way too much space. They look untidy on the stand, no matter how you arrange them, and they aren’t really good value for money at all.
The titles that aren’t usually bagged tend to look like all the other bagged ones in terms of looking devalued when they get bagged. The public is not stupid.
On top of that, the publishers / distributors always want full copies of returns, so that they get to go for another round of repackaging.
Looks desperate, and given the age of some of the back issues, you have to wonder just how many times they’ve done the rounds.
Yuk and mean.
Anacdotial evidence in our store would also suggest that bags hurt sales.
With so many publications bagging magazines (especially in men’s interest categories) they become lost in fittings.
We find men’s interest magazines are one of most browsed sections of magazines. Customers that browse are less likely to purchase a bagged magazine.