All of the effort by around 2,000 newsagents and newsagent software companies counts for nought when a magazine distributor ignores the sales data and ships stock without justification. Gordon & Gotch yesterday sent us more stock of Food & Exercise Diary and Calorie FAT & Carbohydrate Counter. We still had stock from the initial allocation by Gotch. The sales data they have in their computer system for our store would tell them this yet they sent us more stock and billed us.
I bet I am not along in receiving more stock of these two titles yesterday without justification. It would be good to know how much newsagent cash was sucked out of our businesses by this decision to send us stock without taking into account sales data.
Magazine distributors need to understand that they have an obligation to supply on a fair basis. Supplying when the sales data shows supply is not necessary is a blatant cash grab. Either that or the sales data we are sending is an absolute waste of time.
Yep, it’s been a frustrating week on the magazine distribution front.
We received 14 last year and sent most of them back. Still have a couple here from then and received another 2 yesterday.
Yes, “blatant cash grab”.
i also received more yesterday, even tho still have some left on the shelf. So now i have none on the shelf as im returning the lot, luckily we are tops only up here as i have been savage in the mag dept the last month, returning heaps of mags for all distributors. Will be brutal in managing mag dept from now on.
I send mine back. Get them from GNS…
We also received more (resealed in an old box) Simpsons badges. The first round we sold around 4 badges, they were displayed for the full term and then returned. I now have another 36 supplied.
yep early return most stock last time and they send another copy yesterday
yes i will send back mine on wednesday. what a waste of everyones time and money. Perhaps G&G management would like to comment on this. If G&G is listening could you please give us an explanation of why additional stock was sent to those who send back info through exchangeIT. It may well be that you have a legitimate reason. please explain and gain some goodwill from your stockists.
We changed our standing order with Gordon and Gotch as we received far too many titles that did not sell and we kept getting behind with our payments and managing the returns was becoming a nightmare. Since then we have been inundated with hundreds and hundreds of new titles that we did not request. When I rang G&G to complain they told me that it would take 2 weeks for the standing order to take effect, that was 5 months ago. We are still being told it will take 2 weeks to go into effect and we are still being inundated with hundreds of new titles. Interestingly, they have just taken over NDD and we are having their titles ( which we previously had cancelled as they would not sell) forced upon us as well. We now have no chance of managing our account as it is now well into the thousands and G&G customer service people refuse to speak to their accounts people (and vice versa). This is the most unprofessional and dishonest company I have ever dealt with. I think the only fix would be for us all to boykott them.
Wendy, like you I have wasted hours cancelling titles with Gotch only to see other rubbish take its place or the cancelled items reappear at a later time. I now just cancel the rubbish that expects full returns leaving me to tear off the covers of the other crap I didn’t request and early return at the earliest opportunity. It still takes time, but at least freight isn’t an issue when they can be tacked on to the regular weekly returns. It’s still difficult to manage cash flow with them because of end of month supply date not matching returns cut-off date, but I’ve managed to reduce monthly variability. No wonder GG are in such poor financial health and the price of their US mags are so high.
Wendy and Chris, precisely my experience it takes two or more weeks to stop a title
and before that time has expired more new shit is found to fill the hole they seem to believe we have.
I am sure they have set quotas for each shop and work on that. They appear to take no notice or even attempt to listen and work with us. We do buy from them so we are their customer, at least in theory.
What would happen if everyone just returned all G&G titles for a month or something.
You could free up room for more xmas gifts and probably earn more on that as well.
Sorry no sympathy! as a consumer you run the most protected and gouging business in the country with no competition on prices at all. No reduction despite a 25% gain in the dollar. G & G just does to you what you ( used ) do to us . Hello Electronic magazines!
$6 US for 12 issues instead of you gouging $12.95 an ISSUE!!!
Walter, talk with a newsagent about their side of the transaction and then see if you still hold the same view. With respect, you are ignorant of the facts.
Walter , are you serious . do you really think we are making a cent more because of the aussie dollar .
What exactly did “we” used to do to you ?
seriously, go fishing someplace else Walter because you only show your stupidity by your comments.
Wally, you are exactly the kind of ignorant, selfish ‘customer’ we just love in retail.
No idea of how things work, no concept of the control re margin/pricing our core suppliers (print) exercise over our businesses, and no bloody idea in general.
Troll all you want, but clearly you’ve spent way too much time under your little bridge.
It’s not us who’s gouging and over-protected. It’s our print suppliers, who have also spent too much time under their little bridges, to even consider the impacts of the outdated methods and conditions they impose on their ‘customers’, namely newsagents.
We don’t want your sympathy – but you have mine in spades. Come and get a cuddle, my little lamby, once your eyes have adjusted to the daylight. <3
Y&G ,just love the little lamby line
We sell enough of these but have always purchased them from Waymores at a much better margin. A good example for the “lesson for magazine publishers and distributors” thread. If Waymore & GNS can distribute these titles at a more generouse margin, why can’t ACP & G&G do so?
Righty Oh then ( sleeves rolled Up ).
@ shaun S – if your mag goes from $9.95 when the ex. rate was 78c and now it’s $11.95 at 98c ( Vanity fair ) and you make 25% your cut is now 20% higher.
Motorcycle Classics $6.99 retail US $14.95 retail AUD – someone tell me that’s not gouging.Ignorant me? I run 3 business’s. One of which was retail. I bought it with a turnover of $2k a month got rid of it at $17k a month.If G & G is gouging you, organise yourselves and do something about it. Any business that sells the same item for the same price in every store in Australia is PRICE FIXING!
Got a problem with that – go Tell Nick Xenophon
You dont have to have a long neck to be a goose do you…..
Wow. A new member for the “Complete F-ing Moron” club. Perhaps Walter was dropped on his head as a child….
Really mature boys name calling and insulting someone because they dare not agree with you.
I DON’T KNOW i might just be stupid but i am pretty sure i am still only making 25 % . Walter i am very interested in what your 3 businesses are . just curious on what makes you an expert on the daily running of a newsagency . ok so you purchased a camera magazine one day and thought you new all the ins and outs on how magzine supply works .
By the way i do agree about the aussie dollar part and i have brought it up on here a few times now but no one else seems to be botherd by it , i do see it as a scamm but not by us the retailer but by the suppliers they have not shared the saving in purchasing the magazines but they were quick to put them up in price when the dollar colapsed
25% of a higher retail price = more money for you. Most ( not all ) items have gone down – mags have gone up
I have owned an art gallery dealing in Limited Edition Prints. As for buying magazines – I have bought – I do not exaggerate – cubic meters of magazines. An expert on newsagencies – no – but a business is a business. Try running a business where you can’t send back your unsold stock. My main issue is the lack of competition – all mags are the same price everywhere. Who would be making noise if the – for example – petrol retailers all charged $2.00 a litre tomorrow and kept it that way.
Walter with all due respects this blog post is about oversupply and the problems associated with such treatment from our suppliers. It sounds like you think we automatically are raking in 25% from magazine sales…..i can tell you we are not (read some of Marks posts in relation to sell through rates). You mention not being able to send back unsold stock, this thread is about us having to pay to send back stock that we did not ask for in the 1st place. You seem to think that newsagents are setting the price on overseas titles, we do not, the distributor sets this and half the time it is on magazines we dont even want. The issue of price setting is a little off the mark…..think Australia Post.I would suggest that you ask to speak to the author of this blog (Mark Fletcher) and have a chat about the real percentages us newsagents are making and then come back to us with your thoughts….as a businessman i am sure you would like to be well informed and maybe see it from our point of view before actually making ill informed comments. I will be interested to see what you think after doing this.
Cheers
Al
It might interest you to know I have made a formal complaint to the ACCC about G & G – so I am not totally unaware of what goes on. Believe me – I have spent a lot of time and money at Agents. I’ll let you know what the ACCC comes back with. FYI every motorcycle mag, every issue 1973 – 1995
Most wood working mazines same period, Juxtapoz, Vanity fair, American Playboy every issue and no discount offered from anywhere despite spending $2-$3k a year.
Walter that is all well and good but it doesnt explain what you are levelling against us newsagents…..and just for the record, if you shopped with me i give every 12th magazine to you for free (up to $9.95)….
Walter, obviously you have put some thought into the issue as a “consumer”. But look at it from a Newsagent perspective for a second. Many magazines are oversupplied to us because we don’t have control, we have to pay up front for the unwanted supply under the standard industry sale and return contract, we might sell very few of many titles (although they may have been read cover to cover in the shop by browsing “consumers”) and then we have to pay to ship back the unsold goods. How much has the Newsagent made on the unsolds? 25% of nothing, less costs!!! We are NOT protected!!!
The power of the internet allows you to associate and stop this practice. United you stand – divided you fall. I am serious – contact Nick Xenophon.
@ Allan W – my main gripe is the lack of competition on your selling price.I have also yet to encounter a NAgent who rewards me for custom, advertises a specialty, emails a newsletter to me, rewards me on my birthday, offers me old stock at a discount – in short treats ME LIKE THEIR SOURCE OF INCOME. I bought an art gallery turning over $2K a month – doing the above and saying hello to everyone who entered increased turn over to $17K a month. I also have had customers browse, damage stock, let their kids vomit I am sure you all know the scenario but —- they have all the money.
One thing you should all steel yourselves to is Zinio. Have a look on the net! I buy Popular Photography for under $10 AUD a YEAR! Not $11.95 an issue. Delivered digitally and ahead of newstand by a month. Good Luck to you all. I am a Professional Photographer – if you want to see instant catastrophic change to industries run by dinosaur management look up Polaroid, Agfa, Kodak, Bronica, Minolta, Ricoh.I even had a University lecturer tell me that Digital Cameras will not replace film. He was paid $115K a year for that sort of knowledge
Walter if we could decide what GG charges us we would , but we can only go by what they charge us and add the 25% on from that point . anything less than that and it would cost us to have the stock and there will be no profit at all .
we do run a business where we cannot send back stock ,magazines are just part of the equation . gifts, stationary, books etc all are firm sales and we offer great discounts, you will find a lot of the times a newsagent is cheaper than the bigger guys out there
With your business do you sell anything that only gives you a 25 % return i am sure that would be a no, hence the no return policy that you and your supplier have, come on tell us what markup do you work on ??
Walter , you syhould not place every one in the same basket , you assume that every newsagent treats people the same . Next time you are up in north qld drop in i am sure you will be greeted with a smile and a how ya going . we even have a few chairs in the shop just incase its a hot day and you want to sit down for awhile . have a read of a magazine while thinking about joining our magazine club or if you decide you love it so much here i could help you out with the packing side of things with a heap of old papers and magzine tpo help you out . or even better if you have kids at school i could aslo help out donating to the fetes or art classes . but please if you can help it i would prefer you not to vomit in my shop but hey if you did happen to do it i am sure i would not kick you out on the street .
@Walter; c#28
“I have also yet to encounter a NAgent who rewards me for custom, advertises a specialty, emails a newsletter to me, rewards me on my birthday, offers me old stock at a discount ”
You must be going to a dinosaur of a newsagent. Nearly all the ones around me do these things and more.
Walter, there is competition. Go to a newsXpress store. Buy any 11 magazines over 8 weeks and your 12th magazine is free up to the vlaue of $10.00. Magazines are cheaper in newsXpress stores for loyal customers.
So magazines being the same price at every newsagent is price fixing. I guess the various State lottery associations are guilty of the same as lottery tickets are the same price at all the outlets, and John Sands, Hallmark etc etc are also up to their necks in it as they also stipulate their retail price on all of their products!
Its a conspiracy!