This week I will publish five deliberately provocative suggestions on aspects of retail newsagency management and operation. My goal is to challenge newsagents and their suppliers to break free from the past and engage in more present day retail
Suggestion #2: get rid of your newspaper stand.
For decades newspaper publishers required newsagents to place large corporate image stands at the front of the shop. Often, we were required to hand a light box above or include it as part of the stand.
With newspaper sales in decline, free fall for some, the value of the stand for a retail newsagency is less today than a few years ago – even with the recent price rises on cover prices.
While gross profit contribution from major capital city newspapers is good, traffic to the stand is declining. There is no point in giving prime front of store space to a declining category.
Get rid of the stand. Replace it with a more space efficient fixture to the rear of the shop. Use the released space at the front of the shop for anew ad more relevant product category – to attract new shoppers to the business and around which to redefine your business.
Even if you don’t have a firm plan, remove the stand from the shops you can see the new space you have to deal with. This process alone should be liberating. Indeed, the process of removal is about much more than the stand itself. The action is a metaphor for a bigger move you can make on your business.
To those who would say that moving newspapers away from the front of the store will speed decline I;d say no. I have seen such a move done in several newsagencies with no impaction sales attributable to the move.
Are you up for this revolutionary suggestion?
While I am publishing the suggestions I am not necessarily advocating them for all newsagents. I see this blog as playing a role in challenging how we look and manage our businesses and from that encourage newsagents to think carefully about decisions they make.
Since we threw out the lightbox 2 years ago and moved the papers to the back one third of the shop our papers have declined but NO MORE than the average decline across the country. The expensive lightbox at the front of the store is a joke and can only raise the profile of the publisher not sell more newspapers.
My paper sales are up since repositioning to the least valuable position in the shop which I might add is slightly awkward to get to but we couldn’t justify giving prime position.