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Ugh!

Is it unethical to send more stock of a title a newsagent without justification?

Imagine the surprise of a newsagent this week when they received additional stock of Modern Wedding Styling magazine when they still had stock on the shelves from the August allocation. There is no sales history to indicate they will get through the initial allocation. So, the newsagent topped the supply this week and early returned it.

The newsagent has lost time and money on unwarranted allocation. The publisher has copped the cost of shipping out the stock that was topped this week. They will probably cop a return fee and maybe a topping fee.

The distributor could have saved the publisher and newsagent costs had they used the data they have from this newsagent and not sent the extra stock in the first case.

What happened in this situation could be considered to be a poor allocations, poor management or deliberately actions to generate fees for the magazine distributor.

It’s say it’s not a poor system as that’s an excuse Network has used for decades.

It’s say it’s not poor management because network has had plenty of time to address that.

I think the supply reflects a commercial decision to apply and this is what I’d label unethical. Whoever participated in or facilitated this situation ought to be ashamed of themselves.

This is another example that makes a mockery of the pressure newsagents are put under by XchangeIT for data accuracy. There is no evidence of magazine distributors being put under similar pressure.

18 likes
Environment

Evidence Bauer Media sales based replenishment of magazines to newsagents is not based on sales data

Thank you for sending your sales data.

Based on the information you have provided, we have raised an extra order on your behalf.

This order will be delivered to you on the next available delivery day.

Outlined below is a list of what the order will contain.

This is the opening of an email this week from Bauer to a newsagent. The Sales Based Replenishment (SBR) system / experts at Bauer advised he was getting two additional copies of Top Gear. The problem is, he has only sold two copies and has four copies of the initial supply in-store. The sales data sent to Bauer was for the two copies. This is not evidence to support the Bauer claim to supply more. Their email is wrong, it makes this newsagent trust them even less.

It’s not the first time Bauer has said the sales data made them do it to justify sending extra stock. Nor is this newsagency the only one in Australia to receive such an email from Bauer where there is no evidence in the sales data to support the claim.

This action makes Bauer’s systems look broken and their allocations people stupid or deliberately abusing newsagents to serve the company.

My suspicion is that the Bauer SBR system, if it is a system, is broken and raising new allocations without any evidence – causing newsagents to incur more costs over which they have no control and for which they are 100% liable.

This is unfair. It disadvantages our channel. It makes us less competitive against supermarkets.

Looking at Top Gear sales for this newsagency for 2014, I see no evidence in the data for the newsagent to be suppliers more than three copies each month yet the initial Bauer allocation is six copies. Then, weeks into the month, they allocate two more.

No wonder this newsagent does not trust Bauer. The data informs his position on this.

This is another example that makes a mockery of the pressure newsagents are put under by XchangeIT for data accuracy. There is no evidence of magazine distributors being put under similar pressure.

15 likes
Competition

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.

41 likes
Competition

Our card vandal is back

rippedcardWe found these cards torn in our Spirit Humour stand on Saturday. Our prude shopper who judges what we sell by damaging our stock is back.

What an arrogant yet weak act. Arrogant in that they clearly want a world reflecting only what they approve. Weak in that they don’t have the guts to speak to us.

People are entitled to their views and interests as long as they are legal. What they are not entitled to is to deny others of their views and interests. What a horrible world this prejudiced shopper wants.

We will identify them and when we do let’s see if they stand up for their convictions.

8 likes
confectionary

It’s a mystery

mysteryNetwork Services sent us a new product: Bungees. Mystery Pack it says.  Well, it’s a mystery to us why they would send us this item. No thanks. 25% if an offensively low GP for a toy item. It makes us less competitive when suppliers send us unrequested product that it not appropriate to our business model.

5 likes
magazine distribution

Fairfax prefers 7-Eleven over newsagents

goodfoodFurther to my post about not being able to get The Age Good Food Guide to sell in my newsagency, Fairfax has been promoting that it’s in 7-Eleven outlets and newsagents. Thanks Fairfax. They go negotiate to get it into 7-Eleven but don’t even try and get it into better service focussed retail newsagents.

This is dumb.

And they wonder why newsagents retreat from newspapers.

Our channel is the best opportunity Fairfax has to increase, yes increase, single copy sales yet they continue to ignore retail newsagents.

10 likes
Ethics

Fairfax misses opportunity to connect with retail newsagents

If Fairfax wants to increase over the counter sales of newspapers they need to develop a better relationship with retail newsagents.

Yesterday, they published a list of newsagents offering a deal for the Good Food Guide and The Age bundled together. From what I can tell these are newsagents who also deliver the newspaper.

I don’t deliver so I’m not on the list. Yet I know I can sell plenty of their papers and plenty of copies of their Good Food Guide – if only they would engage directly with me.

How Fairfax has handled this demonstrates breathtaking ignorance by the company in the changing newsagency business.

It’s very simple: to grow over the counter sales, engage with those who own and run businesses with counters, engage with retail newsagents.

15 likes
Newspapers

Tomorrow’s news today at Coles Express Goondiwindi

colesgoonHere is the display of magazines at Coles Express in Goondiwindi. The photo was taken yesterday morning. Some of the titles in the photo were due to go on sale today.

The local newsagent received their stock early but did not put it out, respecting the contract. Coles, apparently, lives by a different set of rules.

Despite engagement by Network, Gotch, the ANF and me here and on Twitter (to which Coles responded), the magazines were still up at 4:15pm. Shame on you Coles.

8 likes
Ethics

Newsagents infuriated by IPS supply of colouring books

ipscolourFairfax owned IPS has made a dreadful decision to scale out colouring books to newsagents. We can source similar quality colouring book products which will carry a 50% and more gross profit so there is no commercial sense for us to sell these titles on magazine margins.

IPS management is not responding. They need to as there are newsagents saying this move is the straw that has broken their back and they are planning on closing their IPS account.

Colouring books? Seriously?

The person who agreed to this ought to be put on notice.

To the supplier using IPS to distribute colouring books to newsagents: stop! We have excellent sources of supply of colouring books that enable jus to make 50% and more.

Using the magazine scale our model for poor margin product is wrong. Stop it.

23 likes
magazine distribution

How one customer paid $2.00 for Yours magazine

A customer today told me that we charge too much for Yours and that they just paid $2. They bought the Australian Women’s Weekly and Yours at a Coles Express and got Yours for $2.00. They went back later and returned AWW using the refund to buy another title they actually wanted – meaning they got Yours for $2.00. They left reminding me that we charge too much for Yours. Thanks for that Coles & Bauer.

7 likes
magazines

Memo to Your Brides Guide publisher from a newsagent

bridesWe received the Your Brides Guide yesterday for the first time and I’m ready to early return the lot. However, as it’s a full copy return and bulk, I am going to give it a couple of weeks before I freight it back to Network at my cost (which sucks!!).

While the title comes with three months delayed billing, that does not give it any rights.

The publisher says, in a note with the title, Your Brides Guide is a High value publication with low space requirement. No it’s  not. This title has a high space requirement. It does not fit in traditional magazine fixturing. Either I create something new or I place it with wedding gift lines off of which I make more than twice the gross profit.

The publisher says open up a copy in your newsagent and watch sales go through the roof. Really? First off, the business is a  newsagency not a newsagent. The owner of the business sis a newsagent.  You say sales will go through the roof yet offer no evidence to support your claim.

The publisher claims Almost $7 earned per copy sold.  Based on shopping centre rent and given the space requirements of the title – especially if I open a copy like they want – I would need to sell two copies a week just to pay for the space it would take. The earnings comment from the publisher shows little understanding of the operating costs of many newsagency businesses.

For this title to be of any real interest I need to be making at least $14.00 per issue and preferably more.

More newsagents will reduce their magazine focus if the numbers continue to fail like they do for Your Brides Guide.

9 likes
magazine distribution

Gold Coast Bulletin souvenir edition not in newsagencies

News Corp’s Gold Coast Bulletin published a special edition yesterday commemorating the handover of the Commonwealth Games. As their own report indicates, this special edition was not available in newsagencies.

News Corp has passed up another opportunity to demonstrate its commitment to the newsagency channel.

The company for years has said newsagents are important to them – their actions do not match their words.

8 likes
newspaper home delivery

Old NW discounted with current OK!

cheapNWI don’t like these discounted bagged magazines from Bauer: they waste space in already crowded magazine shelves. This latest offer is promoting NW magazine with the current OK! – an offer that does not make sense to me. We have no space so have relegated the offer to a rear pocket.

3 likes
magazines

Too many copies of restored Cars

magsrestoredcarsOur supply of Retsored Cars Australia was increased without any justification in the sales data. While I like this Aussie magazine and want to support them, the publisher needs to ensure newsagents do not face an increase in supply without any justification in the sales data. Ugh!

2 likes
Magazine oversupply

FIFA World Cup Sticker Collection pack fail

worldcupThe retail pack for the FIFA World Cup Sticker Collection is not ideal for use in retail. Instead of being the retail-friendly merchandiser we expected, it was a box holding product that we need to modify if it’s to be put on display in store. The publisher could have done a better job. to help us more easily merchandise this product.

4 likes
retail

Selling guns is retail

gunshopI know of a couple of newsagents who sell guns but not automatic and semi-automatic weapons like I saw in the window of a gun shop I visited earlier this week. They, they had what looked like everything you’d need for a private army. Some pretty crazy stuff.

Once I got over the shock of the weapons on show in their window I found myself critically appraising their lack of good visual merchandising. retail is retail after all.

2 likes
Ugh!

Magazine distributors should not distribute books

returned-bookI was surprised to receive this book with magazines yesterday. We don’t sell books –  not full price titles and not for 25% in gross profit. We need to be able to stop products like this being sent to us without out approval. As it stands we have to pay to send back this stock we don’t want. Some newsagents will look for other ways to strike out at Network for this scale out. This is what all magazine publishers need to understand when wondering about why newsagents early return stock.

7 likes
Book retailing

News Corp. is allocating Labour Day newspaper supplies based on Australia Day!

Distribution newsagents have told me to be ready for sell-outs on Monday – Labour Day everywhere except for NSW and QLD – as those managing circulation nationally for News Corp. have set supply numbers based on Australia Day this year. Yes, seriously!

Newsagents who have sought to change their Labour Day 2014 figures based on sales for Labour Day 2013 have, I am told, had their allocation reset to reflect Australia Day 2014 sales.

There are plenty of areas in Australia where customer traffic on Australia Day is very different to Labour Day. I know in Victoria, for example, that Australia Day is about BBQs and parties whereas Labour Day is more likely to be family outings often including shopping.

Looking at my own retail data, Labour Day is easily double the Australia Day sales.

So, if you own a retail only newsagency and find supplies of your News Corp. products low for Monday and can’t get extra, don’t blame the distribution newsagent. They are likely to have been cut by a circulation management decision at News Corp. that has not sought to understand the differences between Australia Day and Labour Day.

One newsagent I was talking with about this yesterday questioned the News Corp strategy: if they want to kill off newspaper sales they’re going about it the right way.

Footnote: today is not GET NEWS CORP. day. This post and the previous one are here because the company is letting shoppers and newsagents down.

7 likes
Newsagency challenges

Unnecessary barcode and poor placement

barcodeblockoutCheck out how one newsagent barcoded The Saturday Paper. There is no reason to barcode this title since it already has a barcode. Even more important – it was a mistake to place the barcode over part of the masthead – this makes noticing the title more difficult. This is poor management by the newsagent – they should have processes in place to set when barcoding is necessary and to ensure stickers are placed to not hinder sales.

4 likes
Newsagency management

FOUND! The missing Australian Open Tennis programs!

austopenI was in a couple of transit location newsagencies yesterday and discovered plenty of stock of the Australian Open tennis programs. The sighting of all the spare stock made me wonder if these were the copies Network failed to supply me. Regulars here will know that we expected to sell close to 30 copies this year based on previous sales. The allocations geniuses at Network cut us back to 2 copies, denying us hundreds of dollars in revenue. Calls to the company resulted in nought.

5 likes
magazine distribution

Ad covers barcode on Melbourne Bride

magsmelbournebrideIn a production blunder, the ad booklet for Rydges stuck to the latest issue of Melbourne Bride magazine covered the barcode.  The ad booklet is also falling off when browsers put the magazine back on the shelves. Part of the problem is the thickness of the magazine and the flimsiness of the ad booklet.

I’ve removed the ads because of the barcode issue and because they were getting trashed. Whoever is responsible for this Rydges ad booklet should reconsider this type of advertising. It doesn’t work.

4 likes
magazines

This perfect impulse line brings out disgusting behaviour at the counter

ringplasticThese small plastic rings that light up sell easily at the counter. Kids eyes light up when they see them. They are a perfect counter line.

Two days ago a male customer in his late seventies was belittling his female companion, aged in her late thirties. I heard him snap get over here – that’s when I noticed them. At the counter while the he bought a card, she noticed the rings.

It’s what happened next that shocked me. After completing the card transaction he asked how much the plastic rings were, I told him and he bought one. The lady put a ring on her finger and beamed a wide smile. The guy turned to me over his shoulder as he walked behind his partner and said: that’ll keep her quiet as he rolled his eyes and raised his eyebrows.

You see some awful things in retail some days.

6 likes
Gifts

Network Services magazine allocations fail again: supply of 2014 Australian Open tennis program slashed

magstennisWe have been building our sales of the tennis Australian Open program for the last four years and then this year some genius or some genius process at Network Services cut us back to our 2010 supply number.  Last year we sold 26 copies out of 28 supplied. Talk about a screw up. While I am sure the allocations experts at Network will have their excuses, we are not interested. All we want is reasonably supply based on the accurate sales data we provide. That they cannot get this simple thing right shows how useless they are at their job. Now we go on the hunt for more stock, we have to jump through their pathetic hoops in the hope that they allow us to make the money we could have made selling this title.

For the record here is the supply / return data:

  • 2010 – 3 sold out
  • 2011 – 7 returned 1
  • 2012 – 20 returned 3
  • 2013 – 28 returned 2
  • 2014 – 3….

Idiots.

15 likes
magazines
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