Like many newsagents, we received the marie claire travel edition this week. While we are giving this ‘new’ product a shot (next to newspapers), I don’t think this size will appeal to our customers. I can see it working better in a transit or nearby location. My scepticism aside, we are giving it a go in a high traffic location as I noted. I chose the newspaper location because I see this version of the magazine as appealing to those not currently purchasing marie claire from us.
I don’t see the travel edition of marie claire as a cash grab. The cost of producing and distributing this edition is too great to be that. What I would like is the opportunity to opt in or out with opportunities like this. While that may see too many newsagents say no and miss out on something which works, there is the issue of cost of real-estate, labour, returns freight and theft. These are considerable costs newsagents have to bear.
Had this been another time of year I would have trialled the travel sized Marie Claire at the counter. However its Xmas and thesre simply isn’t any space to put it. I have a line up of stock waiting to get on the counter before Dec 25, all of which I ordered many months ago and on which we make 50% or more margin.
we sell a5 size of women’s mags better due to closeness to beaches.