With convenience stores stronger than ever – they are enjoying excellent year on year sales growth in a range of categories including magazines – and with supermarkets being shopped in a convenience way more than ever, it is to be expected that confectionery sales at newsagency counters are flat or declining.
Check your year on year counter confectionery sales. Are they up or down? Are they delivering a reasonable return on the space?
In a shopping centre newsagency you would need annual confectionery sales of around $8,000 just to pay for the retail real-estate. Add a portion of labour and other business costs and you’d need to be selling closer to $20,000 a year to be making money.
So, are you making money from confectionery? If not, consider quitting and going for something completely different.
It may be that you stay in the confectionery space but sell more relevant and short term products. Like the Smurf themed Kinder Surprise. This was the most popular single product on the counter in terms of unit sales for two weeks.
I think that we have to ask these questions, to challenge ourselves. Too many newsagents resist change and this holds their businesses back.