A popular and successful Coles supermarket in Melbourne has moved magazines and cards to the back of the shop. Whereas previously they were at the entrance to a busy aisle, near the entrance to the self checkout area, they are now located at the quieter end of an aisle.
I am not sure if the moves reflects a store specific decision of a Coles supermarket fleet decision. It will be interesting to see. This Coles also has no representation of magazines at any checkout lane.
Where newsagents place magazines is an on-going discussion within our channel. Flat and falling sales, low cover prices and a meagre margin mean we have to take other steps to try and reach a form of viability.
I dont think Coles and Woolworths move anything in-store without a significant amount of number-crunching on things like Gross Profit per Square Metre, supplier willingness for location/placement payments etc…
Could they be testing to see if sales remain the same with a reduced focus/placement/footprint in store? If so, we could see this roll out across their entire network
That could be great for our channel if they dial down their offerings in these two categories!
It might be one of those ‘no longer our core business’ decisions?