There are plenty of bulk magazine deals – where publishers put 2, 3 and even 4 current issues of weeklies together in a bag and offer these for a lower price – in London.
While I am sure that publishers engaged in the practice will disagree, retailers I have spoken with here say that they don’t notice a sales lift. One retailer said was quite frustrated because he is certain his revenue is down as a result.
Regulars here would know that I am not a fan of the deals as I think they educate shoppers to not pay full price.
I’d prefer people to purchase a title for the content rather than the discount off cover price. Okay, use price rarely to reconnect with shoppers who have stopped buying but not too often and this is what educated people.
We have not noticed any benefit to mags presented in this fashion and have had the occasional customer put back 2-3 individual mags they were about to buy in exchange for the lower priced AND lower profit bundle.
The other bug bear is bundling older issues with the current one. Purchasers don’t feel they are getting extra value if they either get the same mag again or get one they did not want when is was first issued. All this does is limit the titles we can display properly.