I’ve received emails from several newsagents angry as the volume of magazines and calendars delivered today. I thought I’d open this post for feedback from anyone who wants to identify supply they consider to be unreasonable.
I’ve received emails from several newsagents angry as the volume of magazines and calendars delivered today. I thought I’d open this post for feedback from anyone who wants to identify supply they consider to be unreasonable.
Calendars, we have a box full. They are ALL being returned and I emailed Gotch last night while downloading them to advise not to send me ANY unsolicited calendars. Magazines were not out of the ordinary.
My error, calendars were from Network and had been refused when they gave us the opportunity. I did email Network, not Gotch, last night. What a stuff up and a lot of unnecessary work and expense for us.
Magazines were normal.
Calendars from Network. There were so many, I have not finished them yet.
Network calendars well over a box full all going back but of note are the amount of full copy returns for them.
We have not finished invoicing them yet.
Crazy supply here today, have an extra staff member on and then will spend more hours early returning. Will never change I know.
All the Calendars I ordered through Network I received, all the ones they sent me without me ordering were sent back ( approx. 60 ) As for the rest of the mags, Network weren’t to bad. Gotch, heaps of new issues and stuff we wont sell. How many World War 1 and 2 mags do we need to have on the counter? Another I laughed at was the Ultimate Guide to the Samsung Galaxy S3 , This is at least 2 years old.
Today’s was the biggest mag day I have had in years
I emailed both 2 weeks ago say we did not want to receive calenders .Guess what showed up today from Network
Surely for those of us who requested no calenders and received them anyway there is the issue of unsolicited stock. I for one wont be returning physical stock, they’ll probably end up at the tip.
Houses, issue 100 received as well as issue 96 which was invoiced as a reissue…..
Same as Murray….galaxy 3? I have a Galaxy 5….
Puzz puzzles…..issue god knows what…300 and something….never had any of them before…..
Calendars…..I have a regular order for 1 title only each year…..dozens have showed up and its only early in the month yet….
Usual oversupply of nearly everything received…..
Lots of work processing them this morning…..havent even thought about returns with being so busy with Powerball jackpot…..
i could be here all day if I keep typing…..#@*% it, I`m going home for a beer….or 10….
Calendar overload (and not requested)
here. Have only just finished returns.
Calendars not recalled until Feb so double handling again.
I have four (including me) on today and I
have only just finished returns (3pm).
It drives me bonkers – especially with a much smaller shop and nowhere to go with the extra UNSOLICITED stock.
Why would we accept calendars when we
already deal with 3 calendar companies from whom we mark up 100%.
We were absolutely nailed with Mags today. Although it looks worse then it was with the boxes of new partworks (Trains and planes)
We had about 60 calendars come in that were completely unrequested by us that we do not wish to have. We have our full calendar/diary display out. We do not wish to compliment it with lower margin items.
Would also like to note only a week ago i a massive sweep of reductions through both companies websites in an attempt to reduce magazine distribution of non selling items and reduce oversupply… I feel this was punishment for my attempts at reductions.
Just for reference. We are well over a 50% return rate each month to each company. we are sent 16-20K from each company worth of mags and return upwards of 8-10K each company a month….
What a mess.
The data I see indicate that outside the top 50 to 100 titles the average sell through is below 50% and that more than 80% of these titles are cash flow negative for newsagents.
95% of the calendars being returned as I didn’t want them. Rediculous number of magazine supply increases ironically like Michael a week after spending alot of time last week resetting quantities and cancelling on their systems. Why when I sell regularly only one of a magazine would I suddenly want 7 copies of the next issues ? Where’s the ANF on all of this (I know I’m kidding as they’re too busy trying to make commercial deals for products most of us don’t want !) ?
Got calendars that were returned straight away. Selling calendars for under a min. 50 per cent mark up is bad business . A big lot of magazines. Anything that looked excessive we were very thorough and our data on previous sales for that magazine and new magazines checked for a similar for that category and early returned a heap. It took a bit of extra time but we need to have the right magazines and volume of magazines on on shelves.
Love your thinking Al
Just a question… Were the Calendars delivered today the ones that Network sent out an email about saying we can set our own supply/allocations? Did anyone change their allocation to zero an receive calendars any way?
Dean,
That would be, more fool, me.
Fancy taking them at their word.
Didn’t even cut the strapping or remove docket.
Flick pass straight into the returns bucket.
Dean, i set most of them to zero and still received well over 60. We also received the ones i did want as well
Good point Dennis. Re calenders: I only received exactly what I asked for/responded to via the two Network set your own supply offers. 45% margin Sale or return for the assorted ones received compliments my higher margin but small range calendars and lessens my risk nicely. I cant see why more of us don’t respond when given the control to do so. If network however aren’t completing our requests that us way out of line
Sorry good point Dean
I set ALL calendars and diaries to zero on The NET supply request yet still received stock. The lot is going back!
Mark Darton here from Universal Magazines. I’m concerned with the comments that have been posted here and wanted to respond. Our Calendars were delivered yesterday and the balance is due Monday.
There have been more than 10 pre-notifications regarding the supply of our range. We ran a “Set your supply” program working with Network where any Newsagent could change the proposed supply or opt out. Some comments suggest that these requests were ignored. If this is the case please email me the specific details and I will personally work to correct that as quickly as I can.
I would like to highlight the product and terms
RRP 19.95
Original content all created by our company
Value added offer of gift cards and envelopes
Win a car promotion across the range
Terms
40% commission , $7.98 per copy sold
Full Sale or Return
Supplied on consignment you do not have to pay for the stock till February 2015
Exclusive to Newsagents and some speciality stores
We will promote to drive customers to visit your stores to purchase.
Free display stand supplied on request and Merchandised where possible. (stands still available if you require more let me know)
I value your feedback and welcome suggestions how we can improve the way we supply in future.
Thank you
Mark Darton
02 98870361
retail@universalmagazines.com.au
The problem with set your own supply is that on a busy day with 80-100 emails arriving (spam and other rubbish included) it is easy to miss one. I responded to one network email re calendars but did not know of another. ALL these emails should be opt in not opt out particularly when there are much better offer available for calendars. All I want from these distributors is magazines, not the under margin, non mag products they push on us.
I still don’t understand why magazine publishers and distributors would not want their product on sale at 9am on the busiest day of the week. Why we have workers processing stock and not selling to customers is the biggest concern.
68% of my magazines, dollar value, in the first 12 months of this change arrived on a Thursday. No sales upside, and decreases in basket penetration.
Mark (Darton)
I’ll explain our perspective with calendars and why we are not interested in those supplied via the magazine distributors.
In our POS system we have more than sufficient data for us to decide on what volumes and titles we can sell. Using this information we can make informed decisions on what we need, and buy accordingly at firm sale. I am happy to take to take the risk with unsolds or discounting to sell because I have the upfront margin to do so.
I have a very good supply of calendars at $19.95 retail which I sell literally hundreds of. These I pay $3.00 for exc gst. Therefore my net margin on these is just over $15, and any leftovers are then sold at half price in January – still at a nice margin.
Smaller wall calendar titles at $9.95 also provide me with a good margin at between 65 and 70% GP, and these I sell in very large volumes.
I am not interested in delayed billing and I have all the display and merchandising material I need. I just need to make $$ to pay the hefty rent bill I get each month. We are spoilt for choice in suppliers of this product and newsagents simply do not need to source calendars via Net or GG.
My suggestion if you want to move volumes of titles is deal direct with retailers with terms that reflect those I have mentioned where we can order what we need on a firm sale basis. The commissions via the magazine distributors do not come close to cutting it in the modern retail environment.
A calendar on which I get less than 5% to 60% GP would need to be a very popular title for me to want it. I’ll easily do well above $15K in calendars and make 60%+ on each. I’ve done $2K in the last month already.
Mark darton what gives the magazine company’s the right to send us calendars ,they are a supplier of magazines no one signed up for calendars and I feel it is abuse of the system on your company’s half .stick with magazines and offer your calendars to newsagents as a supplier of calendars at the going rate .
Hi Glenn, can you share who your Calendar supplier is? Those margins are amazing!
Mark Darton
Re set your own supply
Tried to once but it would not let me set supply to LESS than suggested supply or to ZERO.
I don’t want consignment stock, it’s a space problem not a cash flow problem, and its a waste of time and money for staff to process stock we don’t want.
Maybe give us two choices for calendars – opt in or opt out.
Download your Monday files just to amuse yourself there are more calendars coming Monday
Mark Darton, you should not be forwarding calendars on an opt out basis.
NO OTHER calendar supplier does this to us. We pre order our calendars in February based on sales from the previous year.
We make in excess of 60% on all calendars (firm sale but I know we will sell these)
The calendars we choose will all sell and we sometimes get a second supply at even better margins that we generally take advantage of.
With over $20K in calendar sales yearly we know how to run calendars and will not be told what to stock.
Opt out is flawed, we actively select and order stock to suit us.
If you want to play in the calendar market then forward us an order form early in the year with margins that compare to other suppliers (who also offer SOR and still at better than 40%) and will select and order calendars of our choice, keep in mind that our current suppliers offer excellent product, range and terms and we have a strong relationship with them already.
Every calendar arriving Monday is heading back with a big cross over them. Network is either blatantly lieing to you Mark Dalton about who wanted what or they’ve yet again totally disregarded what they have been given and decided to move the extra numbers anyhow so that they get paid. I’m sorry but I really don’t want any of your calendars either. GP is too poor and there are much better options out there IMHO from a retailers point of view. I seriously hope you’re not paying for the distribution of all of these unwanted calendars as I suspect you are going to get an aweful lot back in a hurry.
We opted out of ALL the calendars Network offered – but we got them nonetheless.
I guess that’s called unsolicited stock and I can keep them right?
My understanding re unsolicited stock is that it’s then up to the company deliverying it to pick it up again. Guess Bauer is going to have to get busy.
Mark, I know previously a number of times you’ve spoken about the need for newsagents to take action regarding oversupply and had, I believe, approached the ACCC yourself on the issue. Would you be willing at some point to perhaps provide us with some information in one of your posts as a topic that would elabourate on what sort of information we would need to record and provide in a complaint and what we should be doing to maximise our chance of success from your previous experience.
Hi Gary,
All my calendars are ordered through preferred supplier arrangements via our marketing group, with the only exception being Steve Parish.
If you are in a marketing group i suggest you explore offers in there, if not i suggest you look at a marketing group 🙂
Paul I will write a post. It will cover what I proposed to the ANF at their magazine distribution summit three years ago. The ACCC does not act because few newsagents complain with appropriate evidence.
There is no doubt that being in a good marketing group you can access calendars at better prices and, more important, be provided advice which helps you sell them sooner.
as they are delayed billing they will sit in a box out the back til they are due back, sorry Mark Darton i don’t want them and will not even try to sell them as its abuse of the channel, how many did u send to coles and woolies? How about some respect for your business partners
Mark Darton, I just came across an email giving me the opportunity to adjust calendar supply. This email was sent on 2nd Sept while I attended an industry conference and was subsequently missed. Again, this is a flawed approach and must be opt in as opposed to opt out or you will continue to create angst among your customers.
Thank you for the comments here they will all be taken into account. I say again I am happy to investigate specific instances where your requests were not acted upon. I need specifics, please email me if you wish me to follow this up for you.
The response I have received so far has been mixed with an equal number of retailers ordering display stands to display our calendars.
Our intention has always been to provide you with quality value for money product that will sell with limited or no risk associated for you.
It is clear that the supply model does not suit everyone. We will look to refine it.
Regards
Mark Darton
02 98870361
retail@universalmagazines.com.au
I would like to congratulate you Mark Darton, congratulate you for engaging with us newsagents here on this blog. Whilst the supply model is severely broken at least you have responded. A lot of us blog readers have many many times in the past questioned why we get no response from publishers/distributors on many issues. I wish more would interact with us here.
I hope those affected by this issue have taken you up on your offer and not just whinged for the sake of having a whinge.
I didnt want the calendars either but I didnt actually “opt out” so I will have to deal with it as I see fit. My personal two bob`s worth would be an “opt in” rather than “opt out” choice.
As for the equal amount taking up the offer would it be fair to assume that these are the “lazy” retailers who dont work for and or source extra margin? I`m in a shopping centre and I need every margin point I can get to keep my business profitable.
Cheers
Al
I have room in my store room for these calendars. I also order calendars from other suppliers that have a higher commission. But as these are delayed billing until Feb I see no harm in keeping them just in case a customer wants something specific that is in this range or (hopefully) I sell out of the rest of my supply.
Relax people. No need to get so upset about this.
Chris some don’t have back rooms nor the processes to manage tracking the stock for a few months. If newsagents don’t want these calendars they need to have the ability to achieve that with certainty. They need to have the ability to control their costs and level of indebtedness.
Hi Alan, you seem to think that people who accept these calendars instead of sourcing their own more profitable calendars elsewhere are lazy.
While in some cases this may be true, I think such a blanket statement is unfair.
Take our situation. We had a small store (which we only owned for 18 months) and large distribution round (which we have now owned for 7 years).
While in our store we spent all of our time growing the territory. While we did grow sales and profit in the store, this was not our focus, which is why we sold.
We also did not want to take the risk of firm sale until we had a better understanding of our sales.
We also did not have the time as we concentrated on growing our territory.
During the 18 months in the store, we did manage to double cigarette sales, as well as substantially grow drink sales and Tatts commission. As it was about 5 years ago I can’t remember how we wet in other categories.
So there are legitimate reasons why some may choose to keep these calendars.
If you are a large retail outlet, or have no territory, or have sufficient time or staff, then I agree that I would probably not have taken them.
But don’t tell me I was lazy when I was working up to 12-18 hours a day weekdays and 8-12 hours a day weekends 7 days a week.
Sorry for the whinge.
Dean
Sorry if I offended anyone Dean, it was probably a “broad” question. I know newsagents work hard but some could (and some should ) work smarter..not harder. Again, please accept my apologies if I offended.
Dean, only those of us who have had both retail and distribution know how hard REAL
newsagents work.
We did the opposite to you and sold our round and kept the retail shop and I can tell you that life is one heck of a lot easier in a retail shop than in distribution.
I appreciated your reply and don’t be sorry.
We here on this blog, try very hard to support each other (and all those who read it regularly but don’t often contribute)
and when you want to vent – you go for it.
Best of luck, Dean
No problems Alan, Sometimes I get frustrated and vent, and my way of calming myself down is to type something out. Normally I press delete once I have calmed down but not always like this time.
We just bought a new territory this week, and the old owner did the round himself. We are going through the frustration of new drivers learning the round. In addition, they had POS Solutions and we have Tower, so the data doesn’t come through as cleanly as if they had Tower also. We have to audit every customer to make sure their order is right, which will take about a week.
Once the first couple of weeks is over everything goes back to normal and it is like we had owned the territory forever.
Thanks June, I know retail and distribution only newsagents both work hard, but having both is different. The potential to be at work at 3am and still there when the store closes at night which for us was 7.30pm, only to the same the next day.
Before I became a newsagent I didn’t appreciate how hard newsagents work, as well as other small business owners.
I remember the first time I ever thought about owning a newsagency was when I worked for Officeworks and they transferred me to Adelaide for a year about 15 years ago. Your newsagency was my local and I used to buy the paper most days, and I think your son worked at our store and used to tell me some stories about when he worked in the family business. Ever since then I have wanted to own a newsagency, and while I don’t regret it I wished we had of gone retail only instead of distribution only. Perhaps one day.
The discussion about delivery and retail is interesting and timely for some thinking, again, about their future. I owned a delivery and retail business from 1996 to 2006. I sold the round and was public at the time and later about why and the benefits.
While I cherish the purity of the old authorised newsagency, the world is very different now. Our success is what we make for ourselves. Tough as that can be to achieve some times.
I know Alan really well and I am sure he did not intend some of the takeaways people have. He and his wife work very hard in their business and they are achieving stunning results. he certainly knows what hard work and tough competition are.
Now more than ever newsagency businesses are different. This is something we need to embrace and to understand.
Hey Dean, I`m hearing you complety on the “type & Vent” issue……I do exactly the same everyday….publishers, suppliers, landlords, staff, blogs, etc etc…most times i type to vent and then press delete, very theraputic indeed. You sound like you have a job ahead of you with the new territory but you also sound like a very experienced operater so I am sure you will achieve your goals.
Good luck mate and keep going.
Cheers
Al
June June June….sometimes the problem with “social media” is that the “typed word” does not have the same translation as the spoken word.
Many familys have had bustups over what was “said” on Facebook, Twitter, Blogs etc etc only because of the interpretation.
Please tell me that I have “misenterpreted” your comment about “REAL” newsagents….
If I have then there is no love lost.
If I have`nt then please explain to me what a “REAL” newsagent is.
June, as you know full well I have offered, for the most part, my help and have offered my full contact details to anyone who has struggled in this industry. I have been through the most shit that anyone would hope not to ever have to endure.
I am an honest person, I use my full name here on all occassions and live by what I have typed.
Because I do this I have been subjected to recieving phone calls from most of those groups I mentioned earlier, most not happy with what I have written but at least understanding of at least I have put my name to it.
June, have I not in fact offered my contact details to you on many occasions?
Actually many people have offered you help on this blog but you just trot out the same old line everytime…..”I dont want to be in a marketing group”
You don`t have to be in a marketing group to learn how to help yourself……
just saying….
please tell me I have you all wrong.
Cheers
Al
Al, I don’t quite get the gist of your blog.
REAL newsagents are (IMHO) those guys/girls who get up 7 days a week at 1am to throw papers AS WELL AS open and run a retail shop.
The distillation of our industry into distribution and retail has resulted in a lot
of people not understanding each other.
I was just offering Dean some consolation at what he has to do every day.
I know we (as pure retailers now) work extremely hard still but it is not comparable with distribution which is hard, backbreaking work with no end in sight and very little respite.
My family did both for many years but we have been retail only for the last 7 and it has been a pleasure (well almost????).
I’m not sure where the marketing part of your blog was going but I have probably
said here, that I don’t think that a marketing brand would work for me in my
particular business.
That doesn’t mean that I don’t think the brands are not excellent and meaningful for new people coming into our industry – I certainly do – I just meant they are not for me.
I consider (perhaps wrongly) that nearly 40 years in this industry has equipped me
with the information and experience necessary to run a retail store.
I, like you, am very happy to help anybody in our industry but we don’t have a “one size fits all’ system.
I didn’t quite understand why I needed help but I can assure you Alan, that my family has been through the same “sh….”‘
as you.
We are both still getting up in the morning and still doing our work and still working hard – maybe we are just not working smart????
Anyway I appreciate you offering support.
Please put $1m into my bank account and
all my problems will be over – just kidding.
Have a good day Al.
Just an off topic curiousity. Has anyone attempted to contact Gotch lately by phone? My staff has spent half an hour now on hold with them waiting for a response. This is pathetic at best.
Journals? Really? We received a lot of these today with magazines at half of the minimum margin I would want from this type of product. Sure they are nice journals but they are going straight back. They are NOT magazines and I will not accept them from a magazine distributor at these lousy margins.
Brendan, likewise – nice product but why
would we want to prejudice our higher margin profit and why do we get this stuff from the magazine companies. Like you it did not leave the box as nice as it was.
Come on mag people offer us what we normally make on this product and we will think about it
Well done Bauer (not). Today I received a top up on Diaries. Some I haven’t even sold a copy of yet. Some where returned from a Post Office and look second hand.
The unwarranted oversupply items have just lost their space on my shelf.
I will be removing titles that are oversupplied in full. Publishers need to understand that I will no longer be tolerating such poor work practices.
Healthy Living Diary – gone, Back in the Day Diary – gone.
Let’s action this problem.