I was surprised to see a newsagent discounting calendars by 20% a couple of weeks ago. This was in a centre without another outlet offering this range of calendars. While I have written about this before – premature calendar discounting – It surprises me when I see it.
Years ago, confronted with a Calendar Club in one centre where I had a newsagency, we discounted when they did. The next year we did not discount and it did not hurt our sales volume … but it did help the money we banked.
Discounting calendars before January 1 educated shoppers to expect to not pay full price for a premium item. I’d encourage all newsagents to not discount calendars yet. If you have a good range you’ll make more money and get better known for value rather than being cheap. This will be more valuable to you in the long term.
The only type of calendar discounting that does make sense is where shoppers purchase multiple items – say buy 2 and get your third for 30% or something like this. This offers a reward for genuine loyalty rather than what shoppers may do anyway.