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supplier arrogance

Gordon and Gotch moves into gift wholesaling and fails to adhere to data standards (with the help of XchangeIT)

Earlier this month, Gordon and Gotch launched The Market Hub, a wholesale business offering toys, gifts and other items.

In my opinion, Gotch should get its magazine distribution business right first. There are too many mistakes, too much oversupply, poor newsagent customer service and a poor tech platform through which newsagents connect.

As I have noted previously, Gotch could grow magazine sales for publishers by providing better service to newsagents, through a better tech platform. Indeed, the poor Gotch tech interface is a big barrier to newsagents taking on new titles.

There are items offers by Gotch through The Market Hub with a suggested retail price that is higher than the original supplier suggested retail. This potentially sets the participating newsagents as expensive and creates a false margin perception in my opinion.

Some items in the Gotch offer need understanding and support to drive sales success. Simply purchasing product and stocking it is not enough for such items.

FAILURE TO ADHERE TO DATA STANDARDS.

It is in the data side where I have concerns with how Gotch has gone about the launch of The Market Hub. Gotch sent to newsagents an EDI file using a format designed for magazine data. XchangeIT passed through the file, without testing.

The file contained errors. Gotch and XchangeIT people were clueless and, in my opinion, disengaged. It fell to the COO of my newsagency software company to detail the errors in the Gotch file sent by XchangeIT.

A big challenge was that Gotch was the supplier. The way the standard plays out is that having one company provide data for two very different types of products through one file format is problematic. yet, for several days, Gotch and XchangeIT resisted establishing a second supplier for Gotch to send through their data for The Market Hub. 

While I don’t know about other software companies, XchangeIT agitated my newsagency software company, Tower Systems, to change its software to serve the approach Gotch and XchangeIT wanted to take. What this meant is they wanted me to personally fund, to the tune of many thousands of dollars, changes so they could bend XchangeIT data to work with standards not designed to accomodate the data they wanted to send.

I made it clear to them that out of all of us at the table, Gotch, XchangeIT and Tower, only I was being asked to personally fund any work. I refused. Instead, Tower outlined an approach they could take with no cost – by sending the data from a separate supplier.

Thankfully, it appears that The Market Hub from Gotch will be established as a separate supplier through XchangeIT, negating the need for any software changes. Why is this relevant? In my opinion it reflects the poor preparation by Gotch and XchangeIT for this project and an arrogance that they expect others to invest capital on their behalf. But they are from the magazine distribution side of the business so I guess that is their usual approach.

What should Gotch and XchangeIT have done differently? They should have engaged the software companies before sending the file. They should have followed the standards. The should have established a separate supplier for this new Gotch business. They should have thoroughly tested the data they sent.

Instead, they worked in secret and rush to newsagents flawed data, compromising the integrity of the data standards that XchangeIT ferociously protects when it comes newsagent data. It is a pity they are not as tough with themselves and Gotch as they are with newsagents.

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Ethics

Why does Tatts ‘fine’ a small business newsagent for using counter space for other products while allowing On The Run to get away with it?

This post is about what appears, in my opinion, to be a double standard of Tatts in its dealing with small business newsagents compared to the giant On The Run convenience group in South Australia.

This post is also about business ethics, social responsibility, support for small business and, fairness.

Whereas On The Run stores can have non Tatts products next to, in front of and around the Tatts counter space, newsagents are not allowed.

Here is a photo of an On The Run counter. It is setup is such a way that it appears to be permanently operating this way.

IMG_8831 (1)

Now, look at a newsagency counter in South Australia. This location is at the front of the shop, to the side of the main lottery serving counter. If the newsagent puts any other product on the empty square top you can see in the photo they are fined. Well, actually, they are not fined. The site auditor marks them down and Tatts requires another visit to make sure they are compliant. This supplementary audit costs something like $230. I see the $230 charge as a fine.

IMG_8818

This, to me, looks like double standards from Tatts. The newsagent is being held back, their competitiveness is being hindered while On The Run is provided a competitive advantage.

I would like to see the double standards tested on behalf of small business newsagents in South Australia and, indeed, nationally. If this behaviour is allowed to continue unchecked what will happen when more of these corporate convenience and similar businesses come on stream? How will newsagents be able to compete with Tatts stopping newsagents achieving the best possible return from Tatts traffic?

I would have thought Tatts would want to be in successful retail outlets. One way to ensure success is to allow and encourage retailers to be retailers.

The only performance measures Tatts should have are year on year performance on a same store basis and store performance compared to other outlets in the region. These performance measures should apply equally to all retailers.

Not allowing a newsagent to use the space in the photo above is unfair and an abuse of power by what, in my opinion, is a large and overbearing supplier. In fact, it is the type of behavior new ACCC rules from the federal government could assist in resolving.

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Ethics

Some newsagency suppliers need to understand the importance of barcodes on products

It frustrates me when I hear of a newsagency supplier using the same barcode on multiple products. Retailers cannot adequately track sales in such a situation. Suppliers who do this deny newsagents the opportunity to understand what is happening in their business.

How do you understand the performance of your card department with, say, 800 different designs, where a barcode is shared with fifty to one hundreds designs? You can’t! Only the card company can analyse performance in such a situation.

This is poor service of the retail newsagents by the supplier, the card company in my example above. It is disrespectful and not best practice.

While newsagents can produce their own barcodes for cards, they should not have to as doing so would be an extra cost and take extra labour.

We need to be more demanding of our suppliers on these matters.

The more suppliers help me more easily understand the performance of inventory in my business the better for me and for them, and the better for my customers.

We are not cottage industry retailers. We are a strong national channel competing with many national retailers. One way we can effectively compete is with data and business tools of a standard equal to our competitors.

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supplier arrogance

Some newsagency supplier websites turn you off doing business with them

Some product and service suppliers to newsagents have the worst websites I have ever seen. They are a barrier to doing business. Too often when I speak with a supplier about their website the answer is they are working on it. In the meantime, they complain newsagents are not doing enough business with them.

Here are the faults I have seen in the last few days with some newsagent supplier sites:

  1. Out of date information.
  2. Poor graphics.
  3. No product images.
  4. No e-commerce facilities.
  5. A 1980s look.
  6. Too many mistakes.
  7. No useful downloads.
  8. Not automated login access management.
  9. Not mobile friendly.
  10. Serving consumers ahead of stockists.
  11. Not listing stockists and making finding them easy.

A website is your shop window. If you want people doing business with you it needs to be stunning and it needs to be changed regularly.

A good supplier website should give me everything and more I could get from a good rep.

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Customer Service

Magazine publishers who make supermarkets more appealing than newsagents risk the future of our channel

For years there have been differences between how suppliers who supply newsagents and supermarkets with the same products treat these competing retail channels. While newsagents have complained, they have done nothing about it. I think we are approaching a time when we will need to act.

The challenges now are about much more than better gifts with purchase for supermarket shoppers.

The supply model used today disadvantages newsagents as it encumbers our businesses with financial,. labour and space costs that our competitors do not have. But even that is not why I say we are approaching a tipping point.

Price is the issue. More and more I am seeing different pricing in supermarkets for titles we sell in newsagencies.  News Life Media and Bauer Media are the main publishers engaged in this. They must be doing it to drive traffic to supermarkets and away from newsagents for their products. Why else would they make their products so much cheaper in our competitors?

Why price Inside Out $2.00 less in Coles than the newsagency 50 metres away?

Why bundle weekly Bauer titles in supermarkets at a discount to nearby newsagents?

The only reason can be to drive supermarket sales.

Think abut the long-term implications – either newsagencies close or they reduce their reliance on magazines. What that may not hurt many of the titles sold by Bauer and News Life Media, it will hurt them and it will hurt many other publishers.

Today, the Australian newsagency channel is the largest single magazine retail channel in the country. But for how much longer? Those publishers who appear hell-bent on directing shoppers away from us need to consider the bigger picture for all publishers as well as for small business newsagents and the vital and quintessentially Australian role they play in there communities. Thankfully, not all publishers are so inclined to kill our channel.

Publishers: every action you take against us makes magazines less profitable for us and informs our own actions. Every time you facilitate supermarkets presenting your product as better value from them you harm our businesses.  You’ll blame us when we are less interested in your products or quit as you have blamed us in the past, not thinking for a moment about the role you played in us deciding as we have done.

Every benefit you give supermarkets, every time you make them more appealing than newsagents is another decision against the future of the Australian newsagency channel. Shame on you as we have served you well. It is newsagents who have been key to your success and newsagents off of whom you make more money.

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Competition

Why I cancelled future Bauer merchandiser visits

I observed a Bauer merchandiser visit in one of my newsagencies on Thursday. The entire time was spent recording what we were doing: where magazines were placed and other data. I think photos were taken but I cannot be sure. It felt like we were being marked and judged.

In the ten to fifteen minutes or so in store the Bauer merchandiser did not add any value to the business whatsoever.

If what I saw yesterday is what is done by these merchandisers in other newsagencies what a waste for newsagents and how utterly disrespectful.

Given what I observed and that another Bauer merchandiser was recently filmed moving a Pacific Magazines titles into a poor position in favour of a Bauer title I emailed Bauer to cancel all future merchandiser visits. To their credit they acted quickly and took us off the merchandiser visit roster.

This is my business. I want people in the business who want to help me grow the business. The days of treating newsagents as kids to be marked as if school are long over.

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magazines

How some gift wholesalers lost sales at the Melbourne Gift Fair by prejudging newsagents

Oh you’re a newsagent, come over here and see these cheaper lines then. That’s what a rep for one supplier said to a newsagent who visited their stand keen to place an other.

I didn’t realise you were a newsagent. You should see the discount cards we have they’re probably more suited to you. Another said.

We don’t sell to newsagents. Said another.

We sell premium products. Said another in a snooty tone when asked why they would not sell to newsagents.

Each of these situations happened at the Melbourne Gift Fair this week. The newsagents who were treated this way entered the stand of each business keen to buy the products on offer – they had done their homework and we sure the products were right for them.

Several of the newsagents telling me these stories, and there were plenty of them – more than my examples above, sell more gifts than your average gift shop. In one case a newsagent selling close to $500,000 a year in gift and related product was turned away from what he hoped would be a new and profitable supplier for his business.

Even the smaller newsagents turned away are valuable in that a newsagency doing $15,000 in gifts has base traffic and cash flow that make them more viable for many suppliers.

These ignorant suppliers need to visit newsagencies and see our handling of gifts before they judge us. They need to understand the growth some are achieving and the threat we pose to independent gift shops. I could take them to newsagencies they would be thrilled to have as customers, newsagencies that look nothing like the businesses they assume we are.

Several newsagents were so annoyed at their treatment that they switched name badged, replacing Newsagent with Retailer.

Given that newsagents sell over 30% of all greeting cards sold in Australia and that we are the largest single channel in the category, gift suppliers ought to take us more seriously. At newsagency can easily achieve gift sales equal to a third of card revenue. I see results considerably better than this in newsagencies run by retailers – as opposed to newsagencies run by shopkeepers.

Of course it’s not new newsagents are treated like this at the Gift fairs. This year in Melbourne however it felt worse according to some regulars.

There are some ignorant gift suppliers out there who did not write the level of sales this year that they could have.

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Gifts

Optus signing up newsagents who have not signed up

I am guessing other newsagents have received the email from Optus advising that their new account is now active and pitching gifts and offers – when newsagents have not signed up for Optus.

Optus is not handling going direct to retailers well. Indeed, this latest unsolicited communication is demonstrating poor management or dreadful presumption.

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phone recharge

Who pays the rent?

acp_basket_stand.jpgA representative of ACP Magazines visited our shop this week to ask us to remove the $50 million OzLotto posters from the side of the ACP Magazines basket builder stand. They did so because of the photos I posted here.

We had a representative of Tattersalls in our shop just over a week ago who asked us to remove all non Tattersalls product, including magazines from ACP Magazines, from our Tattersalls counter.

The ACP representative did not thank us for the additional coverage we are giving their titles outside their usual location.

The Tattersalls representative did not thank us for the additional coverage we are giving their products outside the Tattersalls dedicated area.

This is all very silly stuff – it gets in the way of newsagents being entrepreneurial.

The ACP stand still serves its purpose well – presenting impulse opportunities to people approaching our counter. The OzLotto message is only seen on the side.

The Tattersalls counter is easily navigated and the pitches for the various games quite clear.

Newsagencies are finely balanced businesses. A range of product categories and major suppliers need to work with each other. Their interests and the interests of newsagents would be better served if they imposed fewer rules and invested their policing budget instead on business building.  We provide access to our retail space, including premium counter space, free.  I have heard that magazine publishers pay 7-eleven in Australia hundreds of dollars a year per title on the counter.

I think that our use of the ACP basket builder stand is clever. I am told that it was not until they saw photos here that ACP realised how the back of the basket builder stand could be used for displaying and selling product.

UPDATE: (10:20am)  I have just spoken with a senior manager of ACP who has confirmed that the company is happy for the side of the basket builder to be used for rare promotions such as the OzLotto jackpot.  They would, understandably, not want it used to promote competitive titles.

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magazines

Do newsagents have the guts to fight for their future?

The treatment of newsagents by News magazines over Alpha magazine is, in my view appalling. We built this title on a promise of partnership with a significant financial carrot as our return.  News magazines has taken that carrot away and handed the title to NDD, a magazine distributor with a less than clean track record for equitable supply of magazines and with a history of refusing to cut titles – that it my experience at least.

So, here we are, shafted.  My question for newsagents is what are we doing about this in our businesses?  Are newsagents writing to NDD to cancel the title and copying the correspondence to News Magazines? Are we complaining here and in other places but putting Alpha on the shelves as usual and thereby saying to suppliers that it is okay to whack us again and again?  Or, are we doing nothing?  Traditionally, newsagents have done nothing when suppliers have changed commercial arrangements to the detriment of newsagents.

One day, newsagents will stand up for themselves.  I wonder if that day is now.

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magazines

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.

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Retail tenancy

NDD likely to block newsagents on Alpha magazine

I know from my own experience recently with magazine distributor NDD that they are unlikely to respond to requests from newsagents that they not supply Alpha.  I wrote to NDD asking that they not supply certain titles.  They threw up all sorts of barriers and eventually refused to give me permission to control the titles I get for my newsagency.

If NDD follows the same approach for newsagents who ask to not be supplied Alpha we could find ourselves forced to take Alpha.  It is this lack of control which has led some newsagents I have spoken with to close their accounts with NDD.  I guess they have exercised the ultimate control.

It should not come to this.  If I am expected to carry the risk of stock in my newsagency then I ought to have absolute control over the stock I carry.  It is my money after all.  NDD appears to have forgotten that.  Just as News Ltd has forgotten that it was newsagents who made Alpha the sales success it is today.

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magazine distribution

Alpha magazine coverage spreads

Posts and comments here about Alpha magazine and the plans of some newsagents to boycott the title have been covered by mUmBRELLA, a respected site covering media and marketing in Australia.  I especially like that they have also published the picture showing how one newsagent converted the Alpha stand into a New Idea stand.

It is good to see the newsagent stand against a supplier get broader coverage.  This is a challenge for us because Fairfax and News would never publish the story.

I’d urge newsagents to continue to engage on the Alpha issue. Let your News Ltd representatives know what you think, comment on Alpha posts here, If you move Alpha, put a sign up advising your customers why, If you remove Alpha altogether, be sure to let News Ltd know why.

As I noted in an earlier post, what News Ltd has done to newsagents with Alpha is un-Australian.  Personally, I consider it to be unethical.  We need to have the balls to maintain our rage.  If sales of the magazine suffer, advertisers will notice and News will become engaged.

Now if only newsagent associations would get behind this issue.

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magazine distribution

News Ltd forgets how important newsagents were to Alpha

News Ltd was singing our praises prior to the launch of Alpha magazine and telling analysts how important we were.

“That positioning in newsagents is a massive advantage,” he says. “And the strength of the newspaper brands gives that instant imprimatur, gravitas and authority.”

Phil Barker, Managing Director of News Magazines was quoted in The Australian on April 28, 2005.

We need to understand the importance of our real-estate and run our businesses accordingly.  While the opportunity to do this nationally has well and truly passed, we do have an opportunity through other communities – such as marketing groups which have levers of discipline.

What News has done with Alpha is a wake up call.  Only time will tell if it did indeed wake us up.

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magazine distribution

ANF lets newsagents down over Alpha

The ANF made its first statement about the Alpha magazine situation today and said, well, not much. Indeed, they reported the facts as we know them but proposed no action on behalf of members. Newsagents can now add disappointment with the ANF to their disappointment with News Ltd on the Alpha mess for it seems that a week after the Alpha announcement, the ANF does not have a plan.

To those inside the ANF who complain about what I have written here I’d say that this blog post recording another ANF failure to lead could have been easily avoided.  Newsagents are angry.  Your constituents are angry.  Ask what they want of you and do it.  This is what newsagents expect from an association – to have their views robustly represented.

No wonder News Ltd thinks it can get away with treating newsagents in such a poor way.

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magazine distribution

Warning to newsagents over Alpha magazine action

Newsagents ought to consider taking care in what they say publicly about their plans to remove Alpha magazine from their shelves or block sales in some other way.  I have heard that questions are being asked about whether newsagents are colluding to harm the sales of Alpha.  If questions are being asked, I know this will be enough to scare off some newsagents.  Newspaper publishers are good at scaring newsagents.  It is why we accept making less in real terms today than we were making ten years ago.  Many of us are like deers caught in the headlights – too scared to take care of ourselves.  Publishers know this about us.

That said, I have received more calls from newsagents who are removing Alpha.  Many of these are newsagents who supported the title through the launch, believing that News was committed to supporting newsagents.

If it were not illegal I would actively promote a boycott and encourage newsagents to practically demonstrate their anger at being treated so poorly.

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magazine distribution

Reusing the Alpha magazine stand

alpha_magazine_newsagency.jpgA newsagent colleague sent me a before and after photo of their Alpha magazine counter unit.  Repurposing the Alpha stand is reasonable given the decision by News Ltd late last week to cut newsagent margin on Alpha and to take home delivery business and give this to Australia Post. Using the stand for another title is better than not using the stand at all.

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magazine distribution

Newsagents take Alpha magazine off the shelves

Newsagents are telling me that they have removed Alpha magazine to the back room ready for return. They say they will continue to do this with new issues of Alpha. It is certainly a practical way to let News Ltd know the extent of your anger over their decision to cut margin and take away home delivery sales.

If many newsagents do this, refuse to display Alpha in-store, sales of the magazine will drop. This will bring the title to the attention of advertisers who would be expected to seek a reduction in advertising rates.

It will be interesting to see how many newsagents take action on this. In the past, newsagent actions have not matched by their words. I suspect that News Ltd is banking on this. They have in the past.

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magazine distribution

News Ltd decision on Alpha stresses newsagents

By reducing the income newsagents make from Alpha magazine, News Ltd places further financial stress on Australia’s family owned small business newsagencies. Newsagencies are mixed businesses – no one part of a newsagency can stand-alone. Newsagents rely on the profits from some departments to cover loss making home deliveries and to cover the falling profit, in real terms, from News Ltd newspapers.

The decision to cut margin on Alpha by 40% and to take home delivery sales of the title away from newsagents and shift this to Australia Post is being taken by newsagents as an indicator from within News Ltd of how the company views newsagents and an indicator of a closer relationship between News and Australia Post.

For all the talk in the pages of News Ltd newspapers about everyday people, News Ltd walks to a different beat.

I’d like the opportunity to debate their decision in a public forum.  They have to face up to the stress they are causing for newsagents and their families.

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magazine distribution

Newsagents suffer from Alpha magazine change by News Ltd

alpha_magazine_newsagents.jpgThe importance of newsagents and the Australian newsagency channel to the launch of Alpha magazine by News Ltd three years ago is clear in a promotional document I found at the Australia Post website.

The document praises newsagents including our compliance with the demands of News Ltd: Three weeks after launch, ALPHA magazine was still positioned with the newspapers in over 88% of retailers nationally.  Yes, we did that.

Newsagents are a key reason Alpha has been such a success.  Thanks to our efforts we have made it a sought-after title among consumers and other retailers.  In hindsight, we were too generous with our commitment.

Rather than sharing the rewards of the success of Alpha, News Ltd is doing the un-Australian thing, they are doing a runner on a mate after the mate helped them.  This is appalling behaviour.

It is no surprise to me that newsagents are angry.  Check out the comments at my original post on this topic and the follow up post.  I know of newsagents who will write to NDD saying they do not want the title.  I know from my past experience that NDD will not permit newsagents that right.  I suspect that for some newsagents, this will be the issue which drives them to cloes their NDD account.

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magazine distribution

Ethics lacking in News Ltd decision on Alpha

The decision by News Ltd to cut the margin paid to newsagents for the sale of its Alpha magazine by 40% demonstrates the double standards of the organisation.

In the pages of their newspapers, News Ltd paints themselves as champions of small business, yet in their boardroom they make decisions which hurt small business. There is no good news for small business newsagents in the Alpha decision by News Ltd.

Having launched and built Alpha sales to an excellent level, newsagents are to lose margin, customers and other benefits.  This is an arrogant profit focused decision by News Ltd.

While there is nothing illegal in their decision about Alpha, it is my view that News Ltd has acted unethically towards newsagents, their so-called partners.

There will be more decisions like this in the coming months and years as News Ltd re-jigs their business to today’s economic and news distribution requirements.

John Hartigan, Chairman and CEO of News Ltd  is on the Federal Government’s Business Advisory Group and has been regularly called on by government to serve on boards and in other capacities.  I wonder how his colleagues on these boards would view him if they knew that he presided over a company which treated small business owners unfairly and, as I content, unethically.

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magazine distribution

News Ltd cuts small business newsagent income by 40%

alphamag.jpgAfter playing a key role in making Alpha Australia’s largest selling men’s monthly magazine, newsagents have been ‘rewarded’ by News Ltd. News has cut newsagent margin by 40%, cut revenue by direct (non newsagent) supply to Woolworths, Coles/Bi-Lo, Franklins, Big W, 7-Eleven and Coles Express, seized control of newsagent home delivery customers and shifted distribution to NDD.

Newsagents earned 50% margin from the sale of Alpha.  This was in return for prime space allocation – next to newspapers.  It is this prime space commitment from newsagents which got Alpha to the circulation it has today.

For the last three and a half years, newsagents have been told to only sell Alpha with a News Limited newspaper. In the early days some News representatives were quite threatening to newsagents about this. That strategy is out the window with these latest changes. I am curious as to what this makes of News demanding that newsagents sell it with a newspaper.

Curiously, the announcement from News implies that the changes with Alpha will benefit newsagents.  There is absolutely no benefit in these changes for newsagents.  It is offensive for News Ltd to suggest otherwise.

Newsagents are white-hot with anger toward News Ltd about this move with Alpha. They feel “conned”, “ripped off”, “cheated”, “abused”. This is the issue of the moment among newsagents.

News makes a big deal in its announcement that the commission through NDD is 5% more than is usual for magazines through NDD. While that may be the case, it is less than newsagents have historically made from Alpha.  Indeed, newsagent margin has been cut by News by 40%.

You’d expect us to be used to this abuse – building a product and having what we have built taken away by a supplier.    For all of our complaints, however, we do not fight back.  We feel helpless.

Publishers will do what they think is right for their businesses.  Newsagents need to start to do the same.

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magazine distribution

Recycled magazine junk hurts newsagents

fhn_caravanmotorhome1.JPGExpress Publications sent out a bagged magazine today which is a waste of money and space.  The feature title is an old copy of Caravan and Motorhome – two issues older than the one we currently sell.  We have eight caravan titles and each struggles so why Express and Network Services would think we would want a ‘new’ (old) title is beyond me.  Gotch would handle this better – I could say no prior to allocation.

I am early returning the junk today from Express – I don’t have the spare space for it.

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magazine distribution

Network Services MIA after spam

Many newsagents reported receiving between 20 and 100 emails from magazine distributor Network Services yeatersday about credits and supply going back several months.  I am not aware of any newsagent successfully making contact with someone at Network about this.  I tried several numbers, including people who can bypass the usual call centre queue, and got nowhere.

Magazine distributors need to understand tht newsagents work when other businesses take a summer break.  To not provide customer service this time of year when your software goes haywire is poor form from Network Services.  The cost in lost time is frustrating. 

The Tower Systems help desk took calls about this because Network was not responding.

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magazine distribution

Party goods

partygoods.JPGWe decided to have another crack at party goods brought in the range from Alpen just over a month ago. We’ve placed this display behind our main newspaper stand, next to our card department. Sales are good, generating a good return on the space and sock investment.

The only downside about the move is Alpen themselves. They have refused a direct account saying they want newsagents to go through a wholesaler. This is after we agreed to their minimum order value and we explained that we wanted more of their range than we could easily get through a wholesaler. Their refusal to grant a direct relationship hs us looking elsewhere for party goods.

Retail is tough. We need to cut costs out of the supply chain. This is why direct relationships are important to newsagents – they provide us the best opportunity of reward for effort.

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Stationery
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