Just went into the newsagency and yelled at the girl. She had all the dolly mags in plastic, so i couldn’t see what btc poster was in there
This was posted on Twitter on Saturday. I found the comment when searching tweets this morning with the word magazine in them. It was timely finding this because of my post earlier this morning about our own Dolly display.
Dolly isn’t the only magazine which is bagged at present. There are plenty including its direct competitor – Girlfriend magazine.
The tweet is good evidence for publishers that there are shoppers out there who do not like bagged magazines … and some of these shoppers will take it out on newsagents and their employees.
Just went into the newsagency and yelled at the girl. She had all the dolly mags in plastic, so i couldn’t see what btc poster was in there
yelled at the girl … this happens regularly to newsagency employees for things completely outside their control, like bagged magazines.
I understand why publishers bag magazines – in the case of the current issues of Dolly and Girlfriend it is to keep in a presentable package their premium offer. Personally, I am not against this bagging. However, it dies get in the way of the consumer experience. This is what must be considered, especially given today’s retail climate.
Retailers want and need experiences which are unique to the physical retail situation. This is why browsing is vitally important. Bagged magazines are not browser friendly.
As for the Twitter user who posted the Tweet, I didn’t comment to them and I don’t intend to out them. I suspect that criticism would get nowhere.
Mark,
Maybe the Publisher could send a sample copy that we Newsagents could use for display purposes. In the scheme of things it would not cost much and would be a great goodwill tool for the customer.
Allan –
Good Idea. Why not just unbag one of our own copies , label it not for resale, and send it back with returns. No skin off anyones nose.
I don’t know whether you notice it or not but whenever one of our staff gets unreasonably blasted for something thats out of their control it takes them a while to settle and disturbs the warmth of the shop.
For this alone its worthwhile doing something different
Whats with all these reissue of partworks (bugs, knitting)?
We sell heaps of the cheap first issue then bugger all once the price goes up.
I was yelled at last week because we took a magazine out of its bag (the free DVD was still given to the customer). This particular title didn’t fit in the magazine fixturing!
… I love my customers …
in my newsagency no customers dare to yell at me
Just a quick one… How many put out the Herald sun Poster today saying.. Free Herald Sun IPAD App? Did they really think anyone would put this out?? Seriously… Get real!
I’m with you Eric. I have a natural trait to respond to people in the manner they treat me so aggressive customers tend to get it back. I know most think this reaction improper and sometimes I do regret it but these customers also put off godd customers so I would rather they went some where else to rant and rave and not upset the other 99.9 percent of people in my store.
As for bagged magazines, if a gimmick has to be added to the maganize to sell it, how bad is it in the first place???
Some real shennanigans today. We had our Womans Day cut by 15%, despite low returns in recent weeks.
Guess what was in the bagged bundle.
We sold out of bundles and WDAs by midday and can’t get anymore.
Obviously we upsold – but we pissed a few regulars off in the process.
Allan love the idea.
i will not tollerate myself or any of my staff being yelled at or miss treated by anyone. NOBODY goes to work for that. we have barred 3 people now (women) in the 3 years we have owned this newsagency in a small country town.
the first one was on the very first day we had taken over. she called me an a-hole for running out of SMH…. word got around town and a few other shop keepers came to congratulate me for doing something they wished they had done for years.
i think the mcdonalds policy “the customer is always right” is bad, simply because they are not always. if there is a problem, then lets try and find it, and fix it.
this current mcCafe ad where the actor looks down on the barista because the cup handle isnt facing the right way is bad education.
Brendan some of the best selling magazines have “gimmicks” attached.The customer has changed and many expect a “gimmick”.They like something for nothing(in most cases)
It helps drive sales (in most cases) and you should be pushing the titles with “gimmicks”.They work.
We always open a bag and display the freebie and the title so people can browse if need be.
Borders(not the best example) always had an open magazine for every bagged title it helped browsers but also stopped damage.
Mary I see the sense in what you say but with most of us struggling to display the range of magazines available, who has the room to do this for the ever increasing number of magazines that now include bulky bribes to buy them (and make them attractive for theives).
Part series are usually bulky and take up enough space but I do not begrudge these as they win over regular customers. Normal magazines with good content should sell on their own merits. Maybe these extras can be kept behind the counter and sold at a) a fair market price without the magazine or B) at a small extra cost if purchased with the magazine. It works with newspapers and would keep the magazine displays full of magazines only.