We have passed sales of 50% of our initial supply of the launch issue of Feast magazine and there is no indication that sales will end. I think that sales of this magazine will occur right through the on-sale – that is certainly what we are seeing with the launch issue. This is another reason for not early returning, especially with the launch issue.
On the numbers we have done, Feast is in our top food titles this month – well done Pacific Magazines and SBS..
Unfortunately I haven’t sold more than one copy yet. We gave it top placement on the counter for over a week, followed by co-locating it in the weekly women’s mags as well as the cooking mag section. Its just not working for us.
Sales as a whole are on a downward trend here though, not just mags. We’re doing ok, just, but several other local businesses are actually either shutting their doors and walking out, or reducing the hours they are open.
Our locals (we’re a small country town) are still shopping with us, but tourist numbers are reduced by about 60% last financial year (according to our visitor centre, and general consensus) Online shopping is killing some of the other businesses. We’re well aware of this due to the number of inward parcels we process in the Post Office side of our business.
As to what action to take? We’re working on reducing our costs and trying to maintain an upbeat, ‘can do’ attitude to our customers. We need to keep our locals shopping with us as much as possible. I’m open to suggestions on how to improve things or other actions we can take…
Feast is a good looking mag and I hope it does well in a crouded market place. Cookbooks are still selling but we have seen titles like Masterchef fall off the cliff this year so perhaps the market is becoming saturated. Free to air Tv is still a major contributor to magazine sales and we have seen Better Home and Garden go from strength to strength. The interest in SBS is minimal but Feast may turn out to be a title that grows after issue rather than starting with a bang and heading downhill from there.