MenKind is a network of more than forty gift shops catering to male shoppers and those who buy for males. Their range is a mixture of funks, tech and sports. Close to half the stock I saw is available from suppliers in Australia. While many Aussie newsagents say it’s hard to source gifts for males MenKind is a business that is doing it well and packaging it in a smart way.
I have created a six-question newsagent wellbeing survey to gather information about how you see yourself and to get newsagents thinking about their personal wellbeing. Please click here to take the survey. I’ll publish the results here some time next week. The purpose of the survey is as much about you thinking about these things as it is about sharing your thoughts.
Outside Hamleys toy shop on Regent Street in London yesterday a guy stoop on a podium making bubbles. He did this with a smile and some pizzaz for ten minutes and went back inside the shop to another location to demonstrate something else they sell in-store.
I am sure some people entered the shop because of the bubbles.
There are plenty of things newsagents sell that could be demonstrated in this way. We could bounce super balls, play with kinetic sand, squeeze goo, build jigsaws, doodle on a white board, doodle on a massive pad, sing along to sound cards, hug a bear.
If you don’t have products you could demonstrate as effectively as the bubbles, source them. Choose products specifically to enable you to play out the front of your shop. Choose products that speak to how you want people to view your newsagency.
If you do decide to demonstrate products out the front of your shop, make sure that the in-store experience will meet expectations set by what people see out the front.
I loved what I saw at Hamleys yesterday. The theatre out the front of the store was matched by plenty more inside.
Footnote: I decided last week to write about being interactive with what we sell. The Hamleys experience offered a perfect photo opportunity to illustrate my point.
What would happen in your newsagency business if you didn’t turn up for work for a day or a few days? I appreciate that for many newsagents the shop would not open as they run the business alone or almost alone. My question is for the others, the newsagents who are not rostered on as rust but who turn up each day to run the business.
What would happen if you disappeared without planning or notice for a few days? Would the business continue to function? Would it miss you?
If your business would miss you if you disappeared for a few days you have a problem. Your newsagency should have processes and policies in place that allow it to operate as you would like without you being there.
I think the newsagency channel has too many managers. I am certain we have more than our competitors. Petrol, convenience, supermarkets, department stores and other corporate retailers a lower ratio of in-store senior management cost per $100,000 in sales revenue than your average newsagency. For our higher investment in in-store management we have less to show for it.
Put in place in your business structures and processes so that the business runs well with you attuning a few hours a week. Use the free time to push the business way beyond where it is at today.
The presence of electronic cigarettes in retail in the UK is big, very big, compared to Australia. There are specialist retailers like the VIP outlet in the photo as well as placement of e-digs in existing retailers. Plus there is plenty being spent on outdoor advertising and sport sponsorships – amid controversy. Tighter restrictions on electronic cigarettes in Australia currently reduce the value of this level of investment. What has surprised me the most in the UK is the stand alone e-cog retail businesses. I wonder if that is more about education as this stage of the product’s life.
In the UK over the last couple of days I have seen several examples of exclusive pricing of magazines for supermarkets. In the photo are two examples: InStyle and Cosmopolitan – the mini version in each case. The publishers have printed on the cover EXCLUSIVE TO TESCO. This is disappointing to see as it’s a hard position from which to retreat. It also does not make sense for publishers have favourite retail channels.
Kind of related: the Tesco share price has fallen to an 11 year low on the back of poor performance. Investment sage Warren Buffet was moved to say his investment in the company was a huge mistake.
I have created a six-question newsagent wellbeing survey to gather information about how you see yourself and to get newsagents thinking about their personal wellbeing. Please click here to take the survey. I’ll publish the results here some time next week.
I know of some newsagents who feel trapped in their businesses and unable to make the right choices for their personal wellbeing. There are other newsagents, though, in similar circumstances with little time and limited resources who do take better care of themselves.
The purpose of the survey is as much about you thinking about these things as it is about sharing your thoughts.
A shopper on Friday wanted a copy of Vogue US. As we had sold our, our team member pointed the shopper to the Nextra store in the centre. Half an hour later the shopper returned, thanking our team member for the advice even though they did not have the title. She purchased Vogue Australia from us in appreciation of the assistance.
It’s terrific when a customer lets you know your help has been appreciated.
We are promoting the Better Homes and Gardens Puzzle Book with multiple locations including this placement next to Better Homes and Gardens and next to our weekly titles. Next to weeklies is an especially good location for crossword titles in any newsagency. I’d recommend newsagents check where they have the title.
There has to be a weekly magazine cover story in the James Hird / Essendon supplements story/saga. This is the kind of thing The Bulletin would have covered and we would have used it to drive incremental sales. Come on Aussie weekly magazine publishers – find an angle and use it. Even a one-shot promising never before published details. This is a topic that’s crying out to drive magazine sales in Victoria and probably elsewhere.
With more and more newsagents reducing space allocated to magazines newsagencies are no longer geared to warehouse stock sent to last through a long on-sale. Whereas in the past holding bundles of stock for three months was acceptable, today it is not.
Technology should be used to apply product based on sales through the on-sale. Publishers will say this is not viable for them.
My message to publishers is that the model of supplying to us stock to hold for three months through an on-sale is not viable for us even if all supplied product will eventually sell. Today’s efficient newsagency does not have the luxury of the space required.
I am more likely to cut off long on-sale titles supplied in this way.
In a Lincraft store in Sydney earlier this week I noticed they sell their A2 cardboard for $2.49. This is in a business which promotes itself as being a discount outlet offering good value.
I’m sure there are Lincraft shoppers who would say that the same product in a newsagency would be more expensive when, in fact, most newsagents would have exactly the same product at a lower price.
My questions today is what is your price for A2 cardboard? Anyone asking me is told $2.20 is a fair price for a quality product. depending on your location and other overheads you could go higher as I know a couple of newsagents do.
The difference between newsagency businesses and Lincraft is that we do not promote ourselves as being a discount business. If shoppers are to believe the marketing of the two types of businesses we should be more expensive. But we are not.
So, should we price to meet shopper expectations? If we did this with the cardboard and other products we’d increase our prices, make more money and probably not lose any sales.
Newsagents who price low to show they are competitive are often giving away margin unnecessarily in my view. try it out with your cardboard. Raise your prices 10% and see what happens over three months. If unit sales are the same, raise them again.
There are some items people purchase from you because of convenience. These are the items which will carry a higher price. When pricing them, think about it as subsidising other items off of which you do not make what you want.
Feast magazine continues to receive excellent support on SBS, making it a food title of interest – thanks to consistent promotion on each issue. We use it as a title to appeal to real foodies and those interested in the food journey. We make sure the full cover is on show and place the title with food magazines as well as featuring it with newspapers or at the counter. It responded to these off-location placements.
Slam Skateboarding yesterday sent this tweet to its 24,400 followers on Twitter – naming newsagents as the place to purchase the latest issue which is on sale today. If you’re on Twitter, re-tweet their tweet. On your business facebook page promote this issue with the image they have used. In your magazine rack – make this the hero title of the section. They support us – we support them.
This Saturday, October 4, is Small Business Day in Victoria. Yipee – I can hear you cheering from here. We Victorians are being hounded with TV ads telling us to shop in and support small businesses.
I am sure there are some in the current government who will point to this as support for small business. Such a claim would be disappointing and not the full story.
The best way any government helps any constituency is through policy as reflected in actions of the state legislature through to the actions of government departments as directed by their ministers.
The current Victorian government, like its predecessor, has presided over a period of almost no useful support for small business.
Take Myki, the public transport ticketing system. The current and last government saw small businesses sidelined in the sale of Myki tickets. Whereas previously newsagents were the key retail outlets offering these tickets for low but reasonable margin, since the launch of Myki 7-Eleven is the prime partner. This is small business policy in action.
Next time a Victorian politician claims they support small business, ask them how in legislation and department actions, ask them for evidence. I struggle to think of any.
Ww are promoting the New Idea BBQ Essentials title at the counter, with weeklies and with newspapers for the first week of the on-sale. It’s a good-looking title that we expect to do well in these impulse targeted locations. With BBQ season kicked off and this method of cooking so popular on radio and TV it should sell well.
Info just in from Network Servcies on a special edition for eastern seaboard states (excluding far north Queensland) of Woman’s Day out tomorrow:
There’s an additional Woman’s Day being delivered tomorrow to replace the stock that is currently on the shelf. It’s the same magazine, but with a 16 page cover wrap of George Clooney’s wedding.
It’s going out as a redistribution, so it will have the same bipad and issue code.
It was run after Monday’s XIT file release, so the files for this stock will be out in the late file batch this evening (after 6.30 PM).
Weddings are big sellers, so stores can expect almost a full supply of what they usually receive of Woman’s Day.
I can foresee complaints from customers who have already read or purchased Woman’s Day. A 16 page wraparound will not be worth a full cover price to some.
A newsagent discovered massive theft by accident this week on checking the business numbers. The theft was allowed because the business did not sell items with accuracy. For example, many items were sold through the computer system as you would on a manual cash register. This permitted negative sales by department. The employee wanting to steal only had to do a -$100.00 (negative $100) sale and they could take $100.00 from the cash draw … and that’s what they did, often.
While it is stressful and upsetting for the newsagent involved, the outcome is a direct result of their actions.
Newsagents can cut theft. It starts with good management, following best-practice theft management advice.
At his press conference on Sunday announcing the privatisation of Medicare, Finance Minister Mathias Cormann made the case for privatising the government owned and protected Australia Post retail outlets.
There is absolutely no good reason for the Federal Government to own a private health insurance business today. Medibank Private is a commercial business, operating in a well-functioning, well-regulated competitive market with 34 private health funds. There is no reason as to why the Government should be involved in that commercial, competitive market. Furthermore, by selling Medibank Private we will remove the current conflict which the Federal Government has by being both the regulator and the largest market participant.
The justification used for privatising Medicare applies 100% to the Australia Post corporate store network: these are commercial businesses operating in a well-functioning, well-regulated competitive market. The government is the regulator and the operator.
The only difference between the Medicare situation and Australia Post corporate store situation is the size of the competitors. Medicare’s competitors are big businesses whereas Australia Post’s competitors are small businesses, like newsagents.
If this government was fair dinkum about competition, government ownership of businesses and small business it would sell off Australia Post owned retail stores. Further, it would sell them to small business operators as part of a strengthening of the franchised network trading under the Australia Post name. This would end government owned retail outlets from competing with small businesses.
Further on in the press conference the Finance Minister is clear about the privatisation case:
REPORTER: What do you say to policyholders, particularly older Australians, who specifically joined Medibank Private because it was Government-owned. I spoke to one this morning and he was pretty annoyed, he did join because it was Government-owned and he was pretty upset.
MATHIAS CORMANN: The Government has made a judgement that in 2014 it was no longer appropriate for the Government to run a private health insurance business. Private health insurance is a very well functioning competitive market which is well regulated. There is no public policy reason for the Government to continue to be involved in this market. We believe that on behalf of taxpayers that the capital that is currently tied up in Medibank Private can be used better. Furthermore, I would say to the member of Medibank that you spoke to, that he or she will be able to have access to at least the same level of services into the future if not better because in our view without public ownership, without the restrictions that public ownership brings with it, Medibank Private will be able to go to another level.
Australians would be better served with locals awning and operating Australia Post shops and these being on a fairer competitive footing than the government owned outlets today.
