The Melbourne Gift Fairs come to an end today. While there has not been as much in the way of new product that we wanted to see, some excellent deals have been on offer. Plenty of suppliers were prepared to negotiate on terms, making taking on new ranges more appealing from a cash-flow perspective. Suppliers who are sensitive to the cash-flow challenges of retail today are more interesting to newsagents keen to expand their floor stock – especially in the lead up to Christmas.
One frustration is a few suppliers who refused to permit their products to be places in newsagencies. While this is their right, it demonstrates an ignorance of what a newsagency can look like today.
Gift fairs always present excellent margin and range opportunities – crucial opportunities in building a healthier newsagency, crucial opportunities in pursuing change.
Went to the Melbourne gift fair and thought it was well worth the effort. Sometimes I wonder but I found the suppliers were happy to do business with us even though we had “newsagent” on our business card (I have often found in the past that the supplier’s eyes glaze over when you mention you’re a newsagent)but not this time. Might be the GFC but I thought we got a good reception
and certainly got some lovely stock to put in our shop. It was very disappointing to only see a couple of newsagents from SA which tells me that we are not embracing stock that is “new money” for our agencies and if the truth be known our core product is barely paying the rent so if newsagents do not embrace this enhancement of their stock portfolio I fear that we may become irrelevant in large centres because we won’t have the range that people are demanding. It is a good markup (much better than magazines) and it is fun to do.