A blog on issues affecting Australia's newsagents, media and small business generally. More ...

Retail tenancy

Micro retail tenancies a retail trend for the newsagency?

tinyshopRetail is changing in many ways and quickly. With  space costing more, landlords and retailers are looking for new models to through which to drive value. We are seeing more smaller shops open than ever before.

Years ago there was a trend for large newsagencies – 300, 400, 500 square metres with coffee shops and other stores within the store.  Now the trend in shopping malls is for newsagencies to be close to 100 square metres.

On Tuesday I saw one of the smallest shops ever, a ‘cafe’ in Auckland. Click on the photo to see how big / small the My Kitchen business is. It’s as wide as a doorway.  They serve meals from a space that is smaller than a kitchen.

My Kitchen is one of many similar-sized stores I saw in Auckland, reflecting a trend I’ve not yet seen on this scale in Australian capital cities and shopping malls.  It’s similar to some malls I have seen in China but there retail is quite different. What I saw in Auckland was these tiny shops mixed in with larger businesses – where a larger size space has been slices into a number of these micro spaces.

These trends are interesting but we need to be cautious as retail rends are like fashion – they take on quickly and fade even faster. The key for being a trend retailer is getting out ahead of the fall.  That said, this apparent trend to micro tenancies could be here for a while if it means landlords can improve their return per square metre.

I’m not sure I can see a newsagency in a space of three square metres (or less) but I could see part of a newsagency.

5 likes
newsagency of the future

Westfield mistakes ruin marketing promotion and blocks foot traffic – and offers no assistance

I loved the idea of Super Saturday pitched by Westfield to tenants at Westfield Knox City. We completed the form indicating we would offer 25% off all gifts except plush and Christmas. We did this to be an active participant in a whole of centre sale that they would promote through a catalogue and other mediums.

Whereas AMP, the former landlord, would share with us the marketing material well in advance, Westfield kept it to themselves until the morning of.

westfieldfail1Saturday morning we discovered Westfield didn’t follow our request, they were promoting us offering 25% off everything in-store – not just gifts as we indicated. The poster, catalogue and other materials were all wrong. Someone from centre management visited after we contacted them but he offered no solution or compensation for the mistake by Westfield.

westfieldfail2Also on Saturday, Westfield setup a series of outposts and signs out the front of my shop in such a way that they blocked the usual and natural flow of foot traffic from the car park across to the newsagency. The photo does not show how bad the Westfield layout was. Not only did it block traffic, the door outpost was dangerous with people (myself included) tripping on the base of one of the stands. Again, the person from centre management offered no solution.

One outpost was a kids activity area. The centre management guy said it’s bringing people to centre. I doubt that. It was blocking access to my shop. I need access to make sales and pay the rent. That argument appeared to be lost on this guy.

I asked for the centre manager to contact me, they have not yet done this.

I was angry Saturday when I saw the marketing screw up and the traffic diversion because this was to be Super Saturday, the landlord had let us down and upon showing them this they offered no assistance. This same landlord takes a zero tolerance approach to stepping over the lease line and other matters yet they do not hold themselves to the same standard.

What I would have liked is a free spruiker at the shop to attract people walking past because of their barriers and someone pitching the actual offer we had and not the mistake on their posters and in their catalogue.

If they read this blog post they will most likely complain to me and step up ‘compliance’ visits to the store. It’s happened with landlords before. You screw up and they attack, you complain about their screw up and they attack. This is life in a shopping centre.

I decided to not blog about this Saturday or Sunday as I was too angry. The post I wrote in my head was full of venom. While am still angry this morning, the passing of time has dulled the anger somewhat.

Saturday was okay for us, not what we expected, but okay. It would have been much better had Westfield not screwed up.

Westfield needs to look carefully at what it does in its centres at busy times like Christmas.  While they run feel good promotions, they often don’t result in shoppers visiting shops. They fill mall areas with outposts from short term tenants often not represented in the centre and who pull focus from their long term tenants who pay the bulk of the rent. They make mistakes on promotions and don’t fix them. They rarely work with you on programs that will work for your business.

12 likes
retail leases

Retail should close all Anzac Day

Anzac Day is like Australia Day. Aussies like to be home, at the pub or enjoying outdoors at a BBQ. Most of them don’t want to be shopping. Those of us in a major shopping centre don’t have the luxury of choosing to not open. It’s expensive and usually loss-making.  Politicians supporting families would declare these two days non-retail days … we’d all benefit.

9 likes
retail

Beware offers of lease negotiation help

A range of people and organisations offer to help newsagents with lease negotiation. I urge newsagents to do their research before signing on with any party making such an offer.

Ask for recent references and do your own research.

One newsagent recently found that the party they were paying to represent them was negotiating for another party to take their lease and business.

It is one thing to face a competition head on and another entirely when your own ‘family’ is stabbing you in the back.

Bottom line: when it comes to lease help, do due diligence and ensure that claims being made are truthful.

3 likes
Ethics

A change from some shopping centre landlords

I have noticed a change in lease terms being offered to newsagents in shopping centres by some landlords. A couple of landlords who were being inflexible on rent are now offering at a more competitive rate. Their approach suggests to me that they better understand the typical newsagency operation and have now factored this into their lease pricing model for our type of business.

This change, if it is more than a one or two off, would be a good news indicator for newsagents and would-be newsagents.

The other change I have noticed is that landlords are more interested than ever in what a tenant will bring to the centre in terms of retail offer and new traffic. They are listening to and considering this. They are starting to discern a difference between the various newsagency banner groups as well as the difference between a newsagency unbranded and one being part of a group.

0 likes
retail leases

Negotiating with your retail tenancy landlord

I am often asked by newsagents for assistance with landlord negotiations.  While I am not a lease negotiator, I have negotiated my own leases as well as revised leases to reflect changed market conditions.

I’m happy to share my thoughts with newsagents on why I have done and the goals I pursue so they can consider these in their own situation.

There are some awful leases signed by newsagents out there. Some are leases negotiated by so-called leasing experts. Some are poor leases newsagents paid others a fee to negotiate on their behalf.

The biggest challenge is educating landlords about the value a good newsagency brings to a centre that is often beyond the value of just rent being paid on time. This plus the traditional GP achieved by a newsagency need to be presented to the landlord in a way that they understand and can consider in terms of the total economic benefit to a centre.

A good newsagency is a service in the centre. A bit like a local council office or a government owned Australia Post outlet or the centre management office. Each of these is costed by the landlord on a different basis than traditional retail.

A good newsagency provides some low margin services that are vital to the overall appeal of a centre. On top of that we sell a range of products at margins that are not usual in retail.

A good newsagency also markets the business, and the centre, extensively outside the centre.

These are all factors that need to be presented to the landlord in a commercially appropriate way and with supporting material.  Some landlords listen and respond with an improved rent offer.

Sometimes, newsagents do not get the rent offer they want because they have not made their case fully, professionally or both. Usually, these newsagents don’t want to be told this.

Negotiating a lease or revised lease terms is something to take seriously. You need accurate business data and a sound business case presented professionally and without emotion.

Just because you want a better rent deal is not reason enough for a landlord to give it to you.

0 likes
Newsagency management

Another newsagency walks from shopping centre tenancy

Following the refusal by the landlord to renegotiate on rent, another newsagent has walked from their major shopping centre tenancy.  They left behind a shop-fit which was just three years old.  The landlord, following a tradition which emerged in 2011, then negotiated new terms with another party to operate a newsagency in the tenancy.

While some landlords have shown a preparedness to renegotiate terms for newsagents tenants who are doing it tough, many refuse.

When your occupancy costs pass 15% in a shopping centre and continue to rise you are living on borrowed time. The math is simple. With an average gross profit of between 30% and 35%, a labour cost of 12%, rent of 15%, theft of 3% and overheads of 5% there is nothing left to fund business borrowings let alone provide a return to the owner.

Smart landlords understand that much of what is sold in a newsagency is on a fixed margin, at the low end of margins achieved in the shopping centre tenancy mix.  They can see that the prices of many products are not even keeping up with CPI (newspapers, magazines, cards).  They understand the important role newsagencies play in the tenancy mix and the service they provide. These smart landlords are the ones likely to agree to either a rent reduction or to not applying the usual annual 4% to 6% rent increase.

We need more smart landlords.  Otherwise, we will see fewer shopping centres in Australia with newsagencies.

0 likes
Newsagency challenges

A good shopping centre landlord story

Kudos to AMP for their promotion of a couple of products from one of my newsagencies in their Christmas catalogue for Knox City Shopping Centre.  It’s good to be promoted in this way along with other retailers, including majors.  Besides the sales bump the marketing will bring is the benefit of raising awareness of our newsagency brand to those who read the catalogue.  This nicely supplements our own marketing in the lead up to Christmas.

0 likes
newsagency marketing

Another newsagent walks away from a shopping centre

Another newsagent in  Melbourne walked away from their shopping centre tenancy last week.  He dropped the keys off at Centre Management and left the building mid lease.  The shop was relatively full of stock.

While there is no doubt that newsagents in shopping centres face extraordinary challenges, walking away is not an answer.  There are avenues of mediation, especially in Victoria.

Landlords are less concerned about the need for a newsagency today from what I hear.  This has been brought on in part by the behaviour of some shopping centre newsagents.

0 likes
retail leases

Maybe we should consider petitions to help with landlord challenges

Reading the story about the rent challenges facing independent book retailer St Mark’s Bookshop in New York made we wonder whether we should try their approach of having customers sign a petition of support.

While major landlords the world over have shown a reluctance to listen to anything, a petition may help in our situation should the rent dispute get to a tribunal or some other independent arbitrator.

Key to St Mark’s getting signatures is their well established tradition.  This comes down to the value their shoppers see in the business remaining.  I have shopped at St Mark’s.  It’s certainly a different, more personal and more enlightening experience than shopping for books at one of the big-barn corporate bookshops.

We need to ask is whether our customers would feel strongly enough about our newsagency businesses to sign a petition of support for us. If not then we need to think about what we can do to make our businesses that valuable in the eyes of our customers that they would sign a petition for us.

0 likes
Customer Service

Another newsagent walks from a shopping centre

This is becoming an almost weekly occurrence:  Another newsagent has decided to walk from their retail business in a relatively major shopping centre rather than pay a 10% increase in rent and fund the landlord required shop fit.

Some landlords are happy to accept this, and see families lose the businesses they have built up, often over many years, because there are those ready to take on a newsagency at the higher rent.  I have heard of cases where leeches are in the ears of landlord representatives long before a lease is up, as if encouraging the landlord to not offer the existing tenant a deal.

Other landlords accept a long term newsagent walking because they are ignorant of the newsagency economic model.

Newsagents in shopping centres owned by major landlords – AMP, Centro, QIC, Colonial First State, Westfield etc – need support from magazine and newspaper publishers, lottery businesses and the like to achieve more equitable rents. Otherwise we will see more shopping centres without newsagency businesses.

We need to stop families feeling so helpless that they walk away from their family business.

It takes a lot of guts to walk away from your business at the end of a lease.  This act alone speaks to the unfairness of lease terms and the competitive forces marshalled against the incumbent newsagent – sometimes including competitive forces of people closely aligned with the newsagency channel.

To read more about the cost of running a newsagency in a shopping centre, read Finding $17,500 extra gross profit this year, my blog post from August 17 about the cost of annual rent increases in shopping centres.

Newsagents facing a tough situation with their rent may have more options than they currently know.  For example, in Victoria there is the office of the Small Business Commissioner and VCAT which can be used to resolve tenancy disputes.  The Small Business Commissioner is specifically charged with helping resolve tenancy issues so that small business owners do not lose their businesses.  I have used this route with success.

0 likes
Newsagency management

Keeping your landlord in the loop

If you are tenant, in a shopping centre or not, it is vital that you keep your landlord appraised on what you re doing as a retailer which adds value to their centre.

Shopping Centre landlords are especially selfish and only care about the value of their property. This is why it is essential that you share every good story you have.  Here are some suggestions for landlord communication, there are items newsagents ought to send to Centre Management:

  • Newsletters. Each time you send a newsletter to your customers, include Centre management in your mailing.
  • Advertising. Send them a clipping of all ads you do.
  • Seasonal promotions. Email them a photo of any special seasonal promotion – showing the excitement you bring to the centre.
  • Press clippings. Work at getting quoted in the local newspaper.  Copy these stories and provide them to Centre Management.
  • In-store demonstrations or events. Each time you hos an in-store event, demonstration or the like, let your landlord know as this is evidence of you adding value to the centre experience.
  • Relay and refresh. each time you relay products like magazines or refresh your offer in some way, let centre management know – they could include this in their own shopper communication.

The more you communicate with your landlord about what you are doing in your newsagency the more valuable a body of evidence they will have should they be approached by another party to open a newsagency or take over your tenancy in the centre.

Banging your own drum to your landlord is a smart and vital move for any newsagent.

Some newsagents I have discussed these and related ideas with have expressed concern that they should not have to go after their landlord in this way.  The reality is that you do, it is vital to achieving better positioning when it comes time to discuss a new lease.  A proactive retailer is more valuable to a landlord.  Some landlords will not for themselves how proactive a retailer is.

We are accountable for the perception our landlords have of us.

0 likes
Newsagency management

When a landlord competes with a tenant

Shopping centre property giant Westfield is to compete with small business newsagents by opening Ticketek ticketing agencies at customer service desks in its shopping centres, in competition with many small business newsagents offering Ticketek in these sames centres.

Despite being open for longer hours than centre management customer service desks, Westfield prevailed upon Ticketek to permit the opening of these new businesses in competition with incumbent newsagents.

I wonder if Westfield is paying the usual fee for each new sales location which newsagents have to pay?

Landlords hold the permitted use clause in a tenancy lease to control what we can offer in our newsagencies.  You either buckle to their interpretation of what you can sell or face a raft of penalties to your business.  They say the permitted use clause is there to protect your business as they will fight for you if someone tries to compete with our when their lease does not permit it.

What do you do when the landlord is the competitor, as is to be the case in many of the 37 Westfield shopping centres?

I feel for the newsagents affected.  I especially feel for those who are part of a marketing group which is inactive on this issue.

0 likes
Ethics

How much is a Woolworths or a Coles tenancy worth compared to a newsagency?

I have been sent tenancy data for a regional shopping centre which shows that one of the two largest supermarkets in Australia pays $292 per square metre while an independent newsagent is expected to pay three times that in rent.

The situation is even worse once you factor in that the major supermarket makes no contribution to outgoings – these are all covered in the small independent retailers.

The major supermarket has generous rent review provisions which small business retailers are all on anything from CPI + 1% through to a flat 5% annually.

The final kick in the guts to independent retailers at this regional shopping centre is in the area of lease term.  The major supermarket has a 20 year lease with two ten year options.  Independent retailers are given a five year lease and no option.

While I appreciate that there is a considerable difference between Coles and Woolworths and an independently owned newsagency, it is clear to me that we independents are funding the supermarkets.

0 likes
Newsagency challenges

Unfair shopping centre landlord behaviour

I was in a major shopping centre on the weekend and noticed a temporary outpost located just outside the newsagency selling several cheap no name brand Chinese import versions brand name products in the newsagency.

This is typical of some landlords. They demand premium rent for what they say is a premium shopping centre and then cheapen the experience with junk product outposts, especially at Christmas. It is appalling that they permit outpost traders to compete with long term and loyal tenants in this way.

Of course, the landlords will have their excuses, they always do.

This instance I saw was one of the worst because of the specific nature of the products being offered by the opportunist outpost operator.

Now before any of my landlords reach for the phone or keyboard to contact me thinking that I am writing about them, as is their want, I’d note that I do visit other centres.

0 likes
retail leases

Several factors hurting newsagencies in shopping centres

Some shopping centre landlords are not taking notice of newsagency sales data and are increasing base rent by as much as 75% without apparent justification.  Add to this increased competition from other retailers in shopping centres today compared to a few years ago, supermarkets, Australia Post to name two, as well as trading terms from suppliers which do not reflect the difference between a shopping centre newsagency and other stores and is it any wonder there are shopping centre newsagencies which are struggling.

The industry average gross profit for a newsagency is between 30% and 32%.  The average occupancy cost for a shopping centre newsagency is 15%, labour costs 12%, operating expenses are 5% and theft costs at least 2% and often more.  The labour cost of 12% usually does not include owner’s wages.

A note on the 15% occupancy cost – this aspirational for some newsagents who have occupancy costs closer to 25%.

One way to address this the shopping centre challenge is to diversify. However, the permitted use clause of the lease and an inflexible landlord can often get in the way of this.  I have seen situations where landlords have refused to allow newsagents to sell books, get into gifts or to offer homewares as part of a seasonal sale catalogue tiedback to magazine themes such as food.  At the same time landlords have permitted coffee shops to take on newspapers, Government owners posi offices to expand into stationery and supermarkets to take on papers and magazines.

With sales in core categories over which newsagents have no price or supply control, magazines, newspapers, cards and lotteries, down year on year, it is hard to see the justification for a landlord increasing rent yet it happens – usually 5% a year regardless of trading conditions.

The challenge, of course, is that as long as a landlord can find someone prepared to take on a newsagency at a higher than reasonable rent, they will sign them up and not renew the lease of a long term existing newsagent who will not accept an exorbitant (in their opinion) increase in base rent.

One only has to look at recent history in major shopping centres in Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland so see that this is what has happened.  A bullish negotiator talks up the landlord, says they can achieve a higher than industry average GP, the landlord believes this and signs them up for a nice premium.  The lease is handed (sometimes maybe forced) to an operator who is pumped up by the promoter and sooner or later they close, sometimes losing the family home along the way as has happened recently. The ‘promoter’ walks away unscathed and does it all again.

Publishers, magazine distributors, industry associations and other stakeholders who want to see newsagencies to continue to operate in shopping centres need to do more work educating landlords about fair rent.  Too many newsagents of long standing lose their businesses at the end of their lease.  Too many make barely minimum wage during their time of ownership of the business.

I’d like to see an open forum with landlords and stakeholders to educate all parties and to co-operatively seek a solution which sees newsagencies thrive in shopping centres and deliver an equitable return on investment for the newsagents.

0 likes
Newsagency challenges

Landlord calls in the legal team on opening early

What I thought was a cordial discussion with our landlord about their new tax on us opening at 7am three days a week got legal yesterday when their company solicitor wrote pointing to where in our lease they have the right to charge this fee and the basis on which they can levy it retrospectively.  Their claim for interest, if I do not pay this tax or delay payment, is a gem:

Please note that if you fail to pay these amounts in accordance with the lease, the landlord will have no other alternative but to charge you 2% interest on the outstanding amounts for every day, or part of every day that the amounts remain outstanding in accordance with clause 11.1.3 of your lease.

While the landlord may have a legal justification in the lease – I am no lawyer and cannot be sure – in today’s retail climate this tax is, in my view, an appalling imposition on a service business like a newsagency.  At 7am we are a service in our centre – for other businesses in the centre, for security staff and for customers.  Indeed, when I first took on this location in 1996 the landlord back then wanted to ensure that we would be open early.

While I know I could make a complaint to the Office of the Small Business Commissioner in Victoria, I have no faith in their ‘balls’ to robustly represent the interests of small business.

Since our ‘discussion’ with the landlord started, they have stopped opening the entrance doors to the centre – directly outside our shop – as they used to.  Now, they open them at 8am, greatly inconveniencing other tenants and early regular shoppers.  They are driving our customers away.

What I want is for commonsense to prevail.  Landlords and tenants need each other.  They rely on a successful newsagency to provide a service in the centre and do its fair share of lifting when it comes to attracting customers.  By chasing charges such as a penalty for opening at 7am when it does not add to their costs – they say it does but I disagree – disrespects the bigger picture in play here.

0 likes
Ethics

Being charged extra for opening early

Colonial First State, landlord for our newsXpress Forest Hill store has introduced an extended trading hours charge.  We have been charged because we open before the official centre opening hours each day.  They have applied this charge retrospectively – from July 2008.

We are still waiting for compensation water damaged stock removed from our shop when CFSPM contruction went wrong and we were flooded in 2007.

0 likes
Retail tenancy

Planning the shopfit

nx_frank_front.JPGThe image is the planned shopfront for our Frankston newsagency.  We have been working with designers, the landlord and other stakeholders for months to find a fit which is flexible and fits the various requirements we face.  What started as a partial fit has become a complete refit.  Nothing from the existing newsagency will be retained.  Where we have spent the most time have been in obsessing about flexibility.  We consider it vital that the shop be able to be easily reconfigured as the needs of the business change.

On the front left of the shop will be our card and gift offer.  To the right from the counter back will be magazines and next to that will be stationery.  Across the entrance we will feature categories and products we wish to push.

Now all we need is final building approval before we can lock in dates.

0 likes
newsagency marketing

Affordable Ink not so affordable

affordable_inks.JPGThis ink dispensing unit branded Affordable Ink has been installed at Forest Hill Chase.  A check this morning of their prices shows that their branded ink is not so affordable.  The same products at our newsagency in the centre retail for between 10% and 20% less.  What frustrates me is that the landlord lets another competitor in with dubious offer and based on a low real-estate and labour cost model.  This is disrespectful to existing tenants.  I wonder what their marketing, cleaning and other contributions are.  I am all for competition – Dick Smith is about to open opposite us – but in fair terms and based on an honest offer.

I would be interested if others have seen these units.

0 likes
Newsagency challenges

Landlords price themselves out

I am aware of four new or extended (major) shopping centres which do not have a newsagency. I am sure there are more than these four. In each case, the landlord has offered the space to a cast of prospective newsagent tenants and each has said no. In two cases, the newsagent prospects went back and said no to a traditional newsagency but yes to a hybrid model which pursued a higher than the usual newsagency GP.

Landlords need to be flexible with the definition of a newsagency otherwise they will find their centres left without any reasonable representation of a newsagency. The days of the traditional newspapers, magazines, cards, stationery and lottery offer are fading. Like all good retail, our model is changing. Now if only landlords would allow that to happen.

0 likes
Newsagency challenges

Retail tenancy size and newsagencies

Don’t believe what they say, size matters, it matters a lot when you have to pay the rent off the back of an old retail model built back when small was beautiful.

Landlords like big newsagencies – 250 square metres and above. The size isn’t a problem if a margin model can be built which supports the cost base.

Where newsagencies struggle is with margin for the lottery, magazine, newspaper and some confectionery categories. 25% or less does not cut it today. These products are usually supplied with a model which leaves the newsagent with less control over key business levers.

The 25% GP on newspapers and magazines was set decades ago, before the rents and sizes of today.

The only answer is for newsagents in these larger format businesses to devote less space to the 25% and less margin products and more to the products which provide opportunity and reward for entrepreneurial effort.

If landlords want these larger format traditional newsagencies and 25% and lower GP suppliers want to be represented in these spaces then something has to give otherwise we will see newsagents reject the opportunities.

I am aware of a couple of situations at the moment where the landlord wants a “traditional newsagency” and some suppliers will only permit their top selling products if a broader offer (read less successful products) is included in the mix. While smart newsagents use a lease consultant to navigate such challenges with the landlord, many do not and end up with a lease which does not work for the traditional model.

The market will ultimately decide how this plays out. The result will be a smaller hybrid newsagency with less of the traditional newsagency range. There will be pain for some who do not work the sums of occupancy cost.

When it comes to shopping centres inn Australia, size does matter for small business.

0 likes
Newsagency challenges

Supanews / Angus and Robertson, one footprint

armidale_ar.JPG

Landlords like tenants with multiple formats, it makes for efficient leasing. The photo from Armidale says it all. Supanews on the left and Angus and Robertson on the right. They look like two businesses but are from the one corporate family. I’d expect them to be on the one lease and a good deal.

The competition challenge for independent newsagents in any shopping centre is considerable.  I’d expect to see more joint tenancy arrangements such as this in the future.

0 likes
Newsagency challenges

Shopping centre challenges

closed.JPG

The shopping centre in which my newsagency is located has been undergoing a welcome major refurbishment since March this year. Regulars here may recall my posts about the flooding in my newsagency and the debilitating construction noise which was turning customers away- our request for compensation is close to resolution.

the photo above is the view of the mall three doors down from the front of our shop. But it is worse than the photo shows – the gap between open businesses is extraordinary, making our end of the centre a ghost town for the last six weeks. Our whole end of the mall currently have 10% of available space occupied.

Sales across all departments are affected except for partworks – figure that!

The traffic has been bad for so long that magazine supplies will be cut soon – just as the hoardings come down and the new look retailers open.

I am not angry as these changes and we are not the first newsagent to encounter such challenges. They are part of life in a shopping centre. It is appropriate that the landlord blends tenants to achieve the best return.

Hopefully it will be business as usual soon.

0 likes
Retail tenancy

Construction disruption

construction.JPG

This is the scene behind and next to my newsagency. The in tact wall is the rear wall of my shop. K-Mart closed a month ago and immediately upon its closing construction commenced. They have been drilling, banging and digging for a month. While it is supposed to end by 9am, the work usually goes until the afternoon. The noise is unbearable for some customers – they walk out saying they can’t bear it. Dust is also a problem.

Last week is the heavy duty nature of the work was enough to knock product off the shelves.

After Easter we lose 33% of our stationery space as the builders creep into our space so they can replace 35 year old steel columns with more modern and capable concrete columns.

We’re not the only shop in the centre affected nor are we the only newsagency in the country affected by such construction.

0 likes
Retail tenancy
  • 1
  • 2