I am told that UK publisher DeAgostini has agreed to a trial in Woolworths outlets for the Cake Decorating partwork which has launched in Australia. While only a trial in 30 Woolworths stores, this is a move set to hurt newsagents, long term supporters of partworks and the only retailers capable of handling the customer service queries and requirements around partworks.
Shame on DeAgostini and Network Services for this.
i am finding today that the same customers that are buying the dora partwork are buying this one as well . For me this has been perfect timing coming out on a friday because for what ever reason this seems to be the day the Dora partworks seem to be getting picked up .
We have seen this before did not work ,a bloody mess but i did pick up orders K Mart it was
WE DO SHOP AT WOOLIES WILLHAVE FUN OPENING THEM UP
What would happen if newsagents said jam his part work?
Greg I wouldn’t do that. However, I would protest here as this publishers and others read this place. You could also consider complaining on Facebook about this at: http://www.facebook.com/MyCakeDecorating
The supermarkets DON’T value magazines. The one in our center struggles to get them on the shelves on the day of release most of the time )which suits us) so WHY do some publishers disrespect us in this manner.
Note, the ones that support the channel are acknowledged and promoted to the best of our ability.
Brendan we need to remind DeAgostini of this. Facebook – their page.
Mark what you are doing is good, if we not happy tell them and start to take a stand
We’ll still buy ours from the newsagency. Unless it ends up being cheaper some how. Maybe Woolworths will end up opening up their own agencies soon?
Oh come on, Supermarkets won’t respect the product. And they probably would not accept an additional delivery of 60 on top of the original 100 when only 30 odd have sold to date….. What use is SBR if the suppliers don’t refer to it? I bet there are others out there that would have loved those 60! Oh Well…..
ha ha ha they won’t have room on their loading docks !! Our original 30 copies with a back-up qty of 10 has been dwarfed by an overnight delivery of another 80 copies of Part 1 ! What are Network thinking !!! Sold 9 !!
h, same here another 30 turned up today , i have no file for them there is no arrival for them (could be an error on my end) so i had no idea they where turning up and i still have some left on the shelf from the last order
Another 50 here today, have sold 15 of the 40 sent last week. I wish i could post a photo of the condition of the boxes they are in. Can anyone remind me how much frieght for returns are again?
Can’t imagine ANY supermarket doing physical returns of these. I won’t be spending money on freight, i will be phoning NANA and the ANF to help me negotiate a prepaid return docket. This is more ammunition for the ACCC – oops, forgot, they’re busy doing real work for real people……..
for me $about $18 a box so 10 x 1.99 =20.00 so for $2 i might as well get decorating i suppose
Allan, we have been advised by distributors in the past that they do not want DAMAGED stock returned so that it is not re-issued in error, so make sure that you claim any damaged stock in those damaged boxes as such and don’t pay to return damaged stock. Hope this helps.
From our point of view we sold out of our initial supply of 30 yesterday and received 50 more today. If enough customers stick this will be a good part works for us and we are promoting it with enthusiasm.
Received 40 first delivery. Have sold 5.
Received another 50 today. We are a small shop where we don’t sell many partsworks.Network have this data. Why send so many??
A huge cost for me to handle,store,return and then send back at $12 a box.
Has any one else had a problem with barcodes for the 2nd issue of HYBW part works? Mine appears to have downloaded the same and incorrect barcode being 9772040081004. Is this a Network issue or have I had a problem at my end?
I tried phoning Network but could not get through.
Received 130 in 4 lots of 10 and 50 on the 7/9, 20 on the 10/9 and 50 today 14/9. To date I have sold 5.
I am lucky in that it will only cost me 8.80 a box to return with 2 boxes strapped together to make 1 so say I will return 4 to 5 double boxes a cost of $35.2 or $44. I reckon I will sell 30 to 50. I can also see returns cost per box for some are dearer than me. The frustrating thing with returns is that they are all back loading and should go at a much better rate not what we are charged. The whole thing sort of kills ones interest in part works. Also when one considers the difficulty I will have in adjusting supply to meet put away orders latter to meet my need when all network will do is cut me.
ours is working fine, you can always change the barcode by selecting it’s invoice from invoice arrivals, clicking on the stock and right click.
Thanks Gary, good to know I need to fix it here.
The condition of ALL stock needs rectification. I am averaging at least
$200-300 per week of damaged stock from both companies NOT IPS THEY ARE
PACKED PERFECTLY EVERY TIME.
Agostino would be livid if they could see
the condition of the cake part series arriving into newsagencies.
It is deplorable and I have written about it
many times but it just continues.
Mediocrity is the name of our game, unfortunately.
I ask this question of Net and GG every month WHY?
Why do I have to return there bad management?
My understanding is that TVC for this is yet to peak. The key is to go out front of store and hard.
I don’t think anyone has a problem with trying to sell them ,it is just the way the mag companys go about sending out huge orders of these things that are to big to send back . For me i would like the oportunity of a firm sale on the first issue . let me make at least a $1 off something that takes up way more space than my mags . at the moment we are making very little out of a $1.99 product and by chance if you had to send any back there goes any profit at all … It just dosn’t work out
We have sold 28 of these today. They are easy to sell and at a full price of only $6.99 just as easy to get customers to commit to put aways. A winner in my books and the 50 extra received today now likes like a short supply rather than an over supply.
We are happy with the sales. 30 so far and will sell out early sat am. No need to send any back. I am harassing the buyers with stories of back to school packs and discount ink cartridges. may as well get some mileage out of it. certainly not very much GP in just selling the product.
This is another short-sighted decision by magazine publisher’s.
Has the push to get magazine’s in Supermarket’s and petrol stations really worked? Yearly Magazine sales Audit’s would suggest it has not. It as merely pushed sales from one market to another.
In fact it is clear that the only thing it has done is converted magazine’s from a regular routine purchase by the consumer to an impulse buy. The result of this is that mainstream magazines (the top 100) are not magazine’s which create traffic into stores. They are now an impulse magazine. Consumer’s no longer see a magazine advertised and associated getting this magazine with the need to go to their local newsagency. Instead, the thinking of the consumer when they make the decision to want to buy that magazine is, “I will grab that when I am out today”. So it will be picked up at the first point of call they deem convenient to their plans for the day.
The exceptions to this rule are those specialist magazine’s which are not stocked by the major’s and Partworks. For these magazine’s the consumer MUST visit the newsagent to purchase these item’s. It becomes ROUTINE or habbit. This is fundamentally why newsagents continue to stock a wide range of magazine’s, although this too is changing rapidly.
We CURRENTLY push ALL Partworks. This title we have sold over 100. Marvel comics we have over 40 putaways each week after issue 6! DC Chess we sold 60. Dora part 1 we sold almost 140. We have a highly successfull putaway system.
Currently i work to make Partworks successful and they are an integral part of our MAGAZINE business. Should Woolworths become a seller of this product, the quantities I sell would be diminished, and the value of this product to our business would then be diminished also.
Five years ago, Fairfax Media decided to put our local newspaper into Woolworths, Coles and Woolworths Plus when previously they only sold The Daily Telegraph. The result was simple. We previously sold 600 of that newspaper on a Saturday, Our sales dropped to 450 rapidly, and today they are at approx 250. The TOTAL sales through all outlets hovers around 580-615 each saturday. How do i know? They are subagents!
So the result of this is simple.:
* NO extra sales have been achieved, it has ONLY given consumers more places to purchase the product.
* The value of this product to our business has diminished tremendously. It is now insignificant and we have moved newspapers to underneath confectionery at our counter!
If the Woolowrths stores in my area were to stoch DeAgostini products, then as the biggest seller of these types of products in our region, and one of the biggest in this state, I would have no hesitation in removing ALL DeAgostini products from sale.
That is not a threat, simply a realistic business decision that would need to be made.
Well said Amanda. What your comments crystalise in my mind is that every customer we lose due to a sale in a supermarket or such cost us the opportunity of selling them a specialised magazine that the other outlets will not put in front of them so for the good of magazines as a whole DeAgostino and co should be making us the go to place for their product or risk weakening their own industry.
Nicely put Amanda, you should post your comments to tha Cake Decorating Face Book page.
Nice Amanda
+ 100 Amanda, excellently written and although your outlet is many times larger than mine, the very same sales picture has occurred here in my country city location.
Newspapers were / are in decline, what’s to say that the sales wouldn’t have declined in your Newsagency over 5 years? The ranging in other retailers slows the decline by clawing back sales from people who no longer go to newsagents.
If you look at magazine sales data over the last ten years you will see they that the push into petrol, convenience, supermarkets and majors has not achieved what publishers said such moves would achieve.
If I was a magazine publisher I would pull out of all outlets except newsagents. I’d work harder at making products people want for the content and not because of a price deal. I’d run advertising promoting newsagents as the go to outlets as they’d be the only outlets. Oh, I would also have a new contract with newsagents offering margin based on engagement. I don’t think the poor operators should be the same margin as those who seriously get behind the category.
I am confident sales would be up, efficiency would be up and newsagents would respect magazines more.
Magazines, range of magazines, is the only point of difference for many newsagents.
We’ve sold out of this title and can’t get enough of part 1. WHY PLACE IT IN SUPERMARKETS WHEN NEWSAGENTS SELL THEM SO WELL?????
Plaved this and post #6 on their facebook page today
Amanda – thank you for taking the time to post your thoughts. PartWorks customers are valuable. Your comment reinforces this.
Mark – if I was a magazine publisher, I too would pull out of other outlets and let newsagents like Amanda’s be the specialists. Unfortunately, the magazine publisher will read this and, being newsagents, think we are biased. I assume that they are giving Woolworths a go (that I don’t believe will succeed) partly because they are disappointed at how their product is marketed (or not) by some of us. I think if they gave us more of a go, they would see returns from it.
The numerous challenges present day newsagents face require us to be jacks of all trades, and no longer masters of magazines which the publishers have disincentivised. Maybe the new Nexus and relaunched Connections are giving the strong guys another crack.
Mentioned here is the problem with allocations of later issues (I am regularly disappointed at being cut back after selling 100% of an PartWorks for a period of time and having to decide which customer and / or sub-agents miss out).
Not mentioned yet is us being the launching pad for subscriptions – like Golden Casket have paid agents commission for online purchases their customers made, I would like to see newsagents rewarded if they are the reason the person took up a subscription (which for many different reasons I understand why customers do).
As a newsagent of 36 years i have seen the push into supermarkets and with it my sales but also the one shots of the main mag e g thats life with all its one shots ,they have not gone to the supermarkets as i do not see them in there what a lot of lost sales. The 7-11 getting a drop at what cost 1auto action 3 tv week 5 new idea 6 thats life 1 here 1 there, how can this cost be carried, a loss if ever i there was and now as the supermarkets down grade their display and shell put most on the back wall,i would think the likes of B P 7-11 will in time look at the prime space and will say why there when can put other gear there and make so real money ,this will happen.The drop in sales of the main sellers at this time can be put down to the down grades and not most newsagents ,one would hope the new people at A C P will have a clean out and instead of going for short term look at longer view for if some of our main sellers are to be here that is what has to happen .You do not see Mc Donalds in the frozen dept of the supermarket, to buy it you must go to their store then you all so buy the add ons,they drive the numbers into their stores and add on to that sale