Village Counter Talk - Out From Behind the Counter

Melksham Post Office

2012-01-23T17:53:00.002Z

We used Melksham Post Office for the second time today as we had several things to do that included things to post, bills etc. We were served by the same assistant as on our first visit last week and firstly she remembered us and then served us in a professional manner. We took some time at her counter as she went through a varied transactions, but as there were 4 clerks on duty queueing was kept to a minimum.

Marvellous, we will be using this Post Office regularly.

PS It was announced last week that the Melksham Royal Mail Delivery Office will be continuing in operation, clearly good for the town.

Newspaper Cover Price too expensive?

2012-01-21T19:11:00.001Z

Today the Guardian reports on the NFRN's cover price research. Roy Greenslade says in his column:

"The National Federation of Retail Newsagents (NFRN) believes it has an "overwhelming" case for an Office of Fair Trading review of the newspaper and magazine industry."

This is an interesting piece of public opinion research that HIM have undertaken for the Federation in the long running pursuit of a Competion Commision enquiry, but does it actually tell us anything that is new? And more importantly will it get the OFT to take yet another look at the newspaper and magazine industry?

My guess is that it will not, but the lessons I have taken from the last 20 years are that if there is an investigation:
1 It will be treated in the manner of the last one with a revolving door at the OFT or CC supplying yet more new people taking a bored look at the industry as they go by to better jobs.
2 Any result will not be the the liking of NFRN members.
3 There will be a danger that the physical structure of the industry will morf along the route into something different as the current disruption forces dramatic change.

The good new is a report in this weeks Retail Newsagent indicating a 'good' set of newspaper sales figures for December. The best for 11 months.

Something good at Tesco

2012-01-19T12:36:00.000Z

My latest post on betterRetailing reflects on nearly four months experience at Tesco's Pulborough metro store.

http://www.betterretailing.com/2012/01/managing-your-store/customer-service/maintaining-high-customer-service/

Trip to West Sussex

2012-01-17T13:27:00.001Z

Yesterday I hired a Luton van and drove back to West Sussex to pick up his business stock. I can't say that the vehicle was fast, top speed I managed was around 55 mph so it was quite a look trip. The bonus for me was to drive along 2 of my favourite roads, the A303 and A272. The A303 reminds me of holiday trips to Devon and the A272 is just a lovely not to be rushed country road (its not been spoilt with dual carriage).

The advantage of a van over a car is that the view from the cab is much better being high from the ground. A great day.

www.airsoftsupplydrop.co.uk

Tesco: a lesson in confusion

2012-01-13T15:45:00.001Z

So Tesco has taken a tumble and fingers are being pointed at The Big Price Drop and quite right to. Compared to Walmart/Asda's long term Roll Back promotional tool it was a very damp squib.We have been using a Tesco store as our main shop for all of their recent reporting period and can only report that the BPD promotion didn't gain traction with us at all. What it did was just add to the confusion of offer that we were confronted with. We did not take on the underlying message that the targeted products were cheaper.What we need to see is a consistent style on shelf edge labelling that shows the relative price of any particular product per standard volume/weight. The confusion pricing that Tesco uses makes value judgements close to impossible. This makes the BPD look incredibly light weight. As long term Club Card holders the reduction in the customer 'reward' to fun BPD was a bit of an insult.It will be interesting to see what Tesco do this year to resolve this disaster and how the other supermarkets react. One thing that is clear retailers are going to have to work harder than ever to attract customers and then encourage hem to spend.

Moving experience

2012-01-12T19:25:00.001Z

Today we moved to a new house in Wiltshire. We did this as the fruition of the sale of our village shop and post office back in September. The removal firm that we used were excellent. Now it's just a matter of unpacking all the boxes and getting things straight. From the experience gained when we moved last September this may take a week or two.

We were over charged at Tesco

2012-01-11T20:20:00.001Z

Since we retired from front line retail back in September we have been shopping at many different stores both independent and multiples. The store we have used most is a Tesco Metro which is just 100 metres from our home. We have had good service from the store on nearly all visits, but yesterday something went wrong.We were over charged for all our loose purchases, some feat. What happened was that checkout assistant was resting the handle of the handheld barcode scanner on the built in scales. This cause 2 normal sized apples to weight at 750grams. We bought 3 different loose products and when we weighed them on our own scales all of them were between 100g and 300 g less than was stated on the Tesco receipt. We went back to the store and spoke to the assistant at the customer service counter. She needed to get the checkout supervisor involved as the products required reweighing on a checkout. This done the supervisor returned with another till slip and the pair of them attempted to rearing our purchases on to the till at customer services. This was hugely time consuming as they needed to manually enter each products PLU and the weight. Eventually we were offered a refund of 13p which we queried and the Tesco's employees took another look at our original receipt and we pointed out that they had missed an item that was at the end of the ticket. This found they made a refund of 99p and we went away a little less than happy.I just wonder how many other customers had gone through that checkout that afternoon and how many we're over charged. Even more worrying, just how many supermarket checkout staff operate in this way and are checkout supervisors trained to lookout for this sort of bad practice. Hum, I can't say that I have ever noticed it before, but I will be on the lookout in future!

I now post on betterRetailing.

2011-06-03T17:15:00.003+01:00

As you may have noticed I have stopped posting here and my posts now appear most week's on betterRetailing. I have been there from its start in August 2009 with the very first post.

Two Decades of Missed Opportunities

2011-06-03T17:14:00.001+01:00

The Newsagents Federation are off to conference again next week and the agenda for this rule change conference runs to 55 pages. Will any of it make a difference I wonder.

I had an interesting chat with one of the head office management team this week about the NFRN's lost decades. I have been a member for 22 years and look back at those years and see 2 significant failures. First being the lost opportunity to help members understand how to get the best out of the newspaper and magazine supply chain. The NFRN went for the OFT, Mergers & Monopoly Commision and JIG route. I went down the course of developing my relationship, contact and knowledge and don't have any supply chain issue. If the NFRN had spent the huge fund that it did on member education instead.............

The second issue is of course tobacco and underage selling. The NFRN developed a wonderful tool in the 1990's, Tobacco Watch then threw it away. We all know where tobacco legislation has gone and I am sure you know that up to 30% of tobacco retailers still fail test purchases. But of course the NFRN chose to fight Government instead of solving its members failings though education.

Theres a theme here don't you think.

Remember This?

2011-03-28T06:39:00.008+01:00

Were They UK Shoppers Bags?

I recently posted on betterRetailing about supermarket carrier bags following the publication of a report by the Environment Agency. It's an interesting report that makes some useful observations on which bags we should offer our customers including the flimsy 'single use' plastic bags.

Both on Saturday and Sunday just past the Mail polybagged their magazines. If this happened cross all regions that is around 4 million of these single use bags that real do only have just the one trip. Hum, this is from the newspaper that launched a big campaign against the supermarket carrier bag three years ago.

Of course the only reason why the Mail polybags is to include a multitude of third party advertising inserts. This weekend it was 6 items on Saturday and 4 on Sunday. The Sunday polybag also included several parts of the newspaper where as the Saturday bag just held the Weekend magazine.

So is the Mail for the environment or not?

End of Green Giros: A letter to our MP

2011-03-06T19:02:00.002Z

Dear Nick,

No matter how the loss of Green Giro payments to the Post Office is wrapped up, it’s a great disappointment. I do understand that the need to have a cheaper method of paying benefits to the people left on this system, but I question whether PayPoint retailers are capable of delivering a safe and satisfactory service.

My wife and I offer both a Post Office and a PayPoint service. The key difference between two is that with the Post Office we offer a bespoke counter fitted for the purpose of handling money payouts securely and our shop counter is not.
With the epidemic of violent crime that shops like ours are suffering from we have a policy of removing excess cash from our tills regularly with a low limit for available cash held in each till. The experience we have with Green Giros would suggest that the demand for money from these clients would be much higher than our staff safety driven policy could deliver. It would seem that we and other PayPoint retailers will have three choices:

1 Invest in improved security for cash that will allow Post Office style safety at a significant expense. The transaction payments from PayPoint are unlikely to be sufficient to cover this sort of investment.
2 Increase the risk level to staff and customers by holding more money in the tills to cover potential cash requests. I am sure that our staff would not accept this option.
3 To cease being a PayPoint agent and disappointing our customers who use the service for a variety of bill payment services.

At this time I suspect that we will chose option 3 as the safest way forward, but for the elderly ladies (the over 90 year olds) that have their benefits paid by Green Giro would of course lose the convenience of collecting their pensions from a store in their village. As for these ladies they have their own challenges, one is almost completely deaf and can not use a telephone and the other suffers from Alzheimer’s.

The Pension Service appears not to have a solution to allow either of these ladies to move to an alternative payment method as neither of them can give instruction that will allow the start of moving them to the Post Office card account or any other bank account come to that.

I accept that the decision is made, but it is a long way from being delivered.

I am on betterRetailing

2011-03-02T06:49:00.000Z

My jottings here have been spasmodic over the past few months one of the reasons for this is that I am part of the betterRetailing team.

My latest post was about a visit my wife and I made on a cafe run by friends in Castle Cary.

The aim of betterRetailing is to support enterprising independent retailers with a site full of ideas and business opportunities from each other and selected trade partners.

Daily Express running late today

2011-03-02T06:33:00.000Z

CRAWLEY HOUSE

WEDNESDAY 02 MARCH 2011

NEWSPAPERS

RE RUN EXPRESS/STAR/SPORT/FOREIGN TITLES

Due to late arrival this morning the following rounds are re running the

above titles:

301-302-309-310-311-312-319-320-321-322-330-331-339-340-341-342-350-3

51-352-360-361-362-370-371-380-381-382-390-391-392-400-410-419-420-421-430-431

FIRST ROUND AWAY 4.08

LAST ROUND AWAY est6.45

ARRIVAL TIMES

Daily Mail 2.55

Daily Mirror 3.50

Daily Express 4.33

Daily Star 4.33

Independent 3.50

Sun 3.00

Daily Telegraph 2.40

Times 3.00

Guardian 2.45

Sport 4.33

Racing Post 3.50

Financial Times 0.20

Argus 2.05

I 3.50

Another Electricity Meter Problem

2011-02-24T06:43:00.000Z

Late last year we discovered that our electricity meter had a fault and reported this knowledge to the power company. A date was arranged to have this dealt with, but the December snow defeated the company's engineer. Another date was arranged and a new meter was fitted last month. This exercise required us to close our store due to electricity being cut off the allow the work to be done.

Unfortunately the wrong type of meter was fitted and today we wil;l go through the excercise again. So some time between 12 noon and 2 pm we will be closed again, last time it took around an hour to complete the work.

Lets hope they get it right this time!

A letter to the NFRN

2011-02-14T09:17:00.001Z

The National Federation of Retail Newsagents has recently lost its General Manager, Paul Chambers. His departure follows that of John Rowe (Director of Wholesaler Operations), Stephen Coles (Head of Accounts) and Rod Stevens (Head of Commercial), to go along with Bob Frost and Roger Clarke (both Chief Executives), Adrian Holmes (Director of Operations), David Goddard, (Assistant Chief Executive) and Stefan Wojciechowski, (Head of News and Magazines) from leadership positions for the NFRN. I have to ask how this cascade of failure has happened at no doubt a significant cost to members.

Are these failures set by a poor selection and appointment process with the wrong people being employed or are there other reasons that are causing this series of key personnel losses to the NFRN?

Clearly the National President, the National Executive and other elected national officials have a role in ensuring that people employed for these key leadership roles are not only the correct people, but are also set with effective terms of reference and written rules of engagement with the Federation. These national elected officials also have a responsibility to support and encourage the Federations leading employees in their position. What is apparent is that the NEC does not have effective terms of reference for this task.

With the all too regular cost of ending these contracts being put at members door it is about time the relationship between elected officials and employees was put on a professional basis with a proper and understood division between governance and management functions!

Another Trinity Mirror failure

2011-01-28T12:32:00.000Z

NEWSPAPERS

MIRROR GROUP RE RUNS

Daily Mirror / Independent

Racing Post / I

The above titles were late in this morning and are

being re run on the following rounds only:

330 - 350 - 360 - 370 - 410

We apologise for this inconvenience.

FIRST ROUND AWAY 4.00

LAST ROUND AWAY 5.45

ARRIVAL TIMES

Daily Mail 3.10

Daily Mirror 4.05

Daily Express 2.30

Daily Star 2.30

Independent 4.05

Sun 2.55

Daily Telegraph 2.40

Times Compact 2.55

Guardian 2.30

Sport 2.30

Racing Post 4.05

Financial Times 0.30

Argus 3.52

I 4.05

Is the the year that local publishers sort out the mess?

2011-01-25T08:00:00.000Z

Saturday the Financial Times ran a report on the 'Pressing need for tie-ups at local newspapers', interesting manovering by the five regional publishers.. I think the question for newsagents is what will it cost us?

First Rerun of 2011

2011-01-21T21:04:00.000Z

DISTRIBUTION REPORT

FRIDAY 21 JANUARY 2011

CRAWLEY HOUSE

RE RUN -

THE DAILY MIRROR

has been Re Run on 12 Rounds -

330,331,350,360,370,380,381,391,400,410,420 and 421.

NEWSPAPERS

All other Titles are in and packed.

All Rounds away in reasonable time.

DELIVERIES

FIRST ROUND AWAY 4.10

LAST ROUND AWAY 6.30

PUBLISHER ARRIVAL TIMES

Daily Mail 3.10

Daily Mirror 4.28

Daily Express 2.20

Daily Star 2.20

Independent 3.55

Sun 2.50

Daily Telegraph 2.30

Times 2.50

Guardian 2.20

Sport 2.20

Racing Post 3.55

Financial Times 0.25

Argus 3.20

I 3.55

Down, Down, Down

2011-01-21T15:06:00.000Z

Lost over 2 years

Further to yesterday's post on the declining slaes of newspapers I have taken a look at what this is costing newsagents. The above table show what has happened to the daily profitability of each of the national titles across the nations news retailers. Only the Financial Times is in positive territory with the gross profit from the Sun being hardest hit.

One has to ask just how long will it be before there is a significant exodus by retailers from the category?

688,309 reasons why we should be worried.

2011-01-20T09:01:00.002Z

Last week brought another set of dismal newspaper ABC figures. The Press Gazette say

'One of the coldest December's on record did little to help national newspaper circulations for the month as again, no title grew its sale year on year. The Telegraph, Guardian, Times, Racing Post, Observer and Scotland on Sunday all posted average circulation figures more than 10 per cent lower than the same month a year ago.'

They show a decline in all titles circulation figures year on year and a loss daily loss of 688309 copies. Ouch, and that makes 1.1 million daily copy sales gone in 2 years.

On the 'bright side', the Daily Mail, has only drifted by 2% from its figures of December 2008 followed by the Sun at 6% decrease. At the other end of the scale the Times is down 25% and the Guardian by 23%.

For me as a newsagent these figures offer a mixed story as the Daily Mail is our top selling title by voulme, but its cover price has not moved since April 2008. The Sun has held sales, but at the cost of a 20p cover price and a reduced margin. Both the Times and the Daily Telegraph have gone for the price increase model having risen to £1.00 Monday to Friday. In 2008 they were 80p for a Times and 90p for thr Telegraph.

Hum, I think that there is some comfort of sorts to be taken from the discussion on Business Scotland (from about 15 minutes in) when former News International man, Colin McLatchie says:

'Newsagents are also suffering, it's partly that the small shop has lost out through falling tobacco sales, and will soon have to put the ciggies under the counter. Also, supermarkets are taking an ever-bigger share of the newspaper sales market.'

With a mixed picture on newspaper pricing, the Daily Mail has remained at 50p for more than two years while the Sun was 10p cheaper in December 2010 comparded to 2008, but both the Times and Guardian have both increased their cover price by 25% from 80p to £1. In the case of the Times daily retail value has declined by over £30,000 since 2008, thats £10 million lost from UK newspaper retailers on an annual basis. For the Daily Telegraph its double the Times figure. No wonder Mr McLatchie is saying small shop newsagents are suffering.

Is there a solution, thats the question? Are there too many 'newsagents? Should publishers be investing time and support to 'proactive' newsagent? Today's Retail Newsagent thinks so.

They have launched a campaign to help newsagents get the bank holiday supplies they feel they need, reading their letters page it would suggest that the recent festive season left too many newsagent without enough copies to meet their demand.

The Mail have launched their Flagship scheme to support a very small number of their hand picked independent retailers. News International have got reps visiting some newsagents, but what are the others doing? We have had several visits from a rep for 'I'.

But after more than 20 years of treating newsagents with indifference I do wonder if it is to late.

We Promote Smiths and Tesco Again

2011-01-15T19:12:00.000Z

Today the Mail started to give away Upstairs Downstairs DVDs with customers needing to visit a smiths or tesco branch to get their copy. There is a collect tokens and send away for the set, but independent retailers like us and the Mail's Flagship retailers are excluded from this promotion.

When will the Mail wake up to the fact that this type of promo turn independent retailers off their product big time?

Iconic 60's TV shows

2011-01-11T12:54:00.000Z

Today the Royal Mail launch a set of of postage stamps to celebrate Gerry Anderson's wonderful 1960's TV series, Thuderbirds and all the others. The Times today put them on the front page.

There are 3 First Class stamps in the series and 3 at 97p as well as a rather special mini sheet including all 6 images.

DFS resume their normal service, abusing newsagents

2011-01-08T14:37:00.001Z

DFS and newspaper publishers were back to the cynical selves today with the 69 gram DFS advertising booklet stuffed in many titles this morning. The NFRN scale payments for third party advertising inserts doesn't make payments under 70g!

More tomorrow on this story.

Distress In Local Newspapers

2011-01-07T06:40:00.000Z

This week all of the local newspapers we stock have gone up in price. The West Sussex County Times is now 60p, the Worthing Herald 50p and the West Sussex Gazette 40p. Of course these are not the only regional papers to increase their cover price recently. A check on the National Title File reveals an avalanche of increases across the UK. The start of 2011 has quickened this pace.

So what’s causing these increases?

Is it the fiscal state of the publishing companies? All our local titles are published by Johnston Press
whose share price is a fraction of their vale in 2007.
Is it the cost of newsprint? In November the Guardian reported:

“China's appetite for cardboard boxes is threatening to undermine the recovery in the UK newspaper market, with newsprint manufacturers looking to increase prices by more than 20% next year as demand increases.”

Is it that the internet has taken market share from them for advertising? You only have to look at how the internet has change advertising for cars, houses or jobs to understand the effect that the internet is having on local newspapers.

Or is it falling circulations due to changing demographics and price increases?

Last Weights For 2010

2010-12-21T09:21:00.000Z

Last weekend brought us 'the end of season' adverts Lidl and Argos reminding newspaper buyers that its not to late for Christmas shopping and a crop of charity leaflets hoping for donations lead by the Salvation Army.

This Autumn has certainly seen an uplift in third party advertising inserts which I guess could be seen as an indiction that the economy is improving we will have to see just what 2011 has in store for us.

Merry Christmas and a happy new year!

Sunday 19th December

2010-12-19T07:59:00.000Z

Our newspaper supply for today arrived at 5.10 am and all titles were delivered.

Common Hill, the Common, Harborough Hill and Haglands Lane were all passable earlier. I did notice that there are 'hippo bags' of road salt placed at the junction of The Common and Nyetimber Lane and half way along Harbrough Hill.

We will be open as normal from 8 am to 12 noon today with Rob and Harley working this morning.

Christmas Post Going Well

2010-12-14T09:21:00.001Z

The Christmas mail season is going well with yesterday being one of the busiest day we have ever had at our Post Office counter. We had around 10 sacks ready for the postman to collect by midday and a much bigger volume of mail by the time of the afternoon pick up.

Marvelous!

After last year's unpleasantness it is good to be back with a focus on good retailing again

The Snows Gone

2010-12-05T20:40:00.000Z

The deep snow and the challenges that it brought have both gone. Our stop will recover it normal stocking levels over the next couple of deliveries and I am sure takings will return to normal. I think that we coped with the event better than in January, but our Friday Spar delivery arrived somewhat later than usual as the road conditions across Sussex were not good. In fact the driver had to make three different approaches to West Chilington before he could make it to our store.

Heavy rain over night on Friday meant that we awoke to a much better situation on Saturday, only one delivery route didn't get service compared to serveral on Thursday and Friday, Smiths News delivery time was almost back to normal and Spar arrive at their normal Saturday time leaving us with a much improved in stock position.

Sunday was normal and tomorrow we will be off for a week's holiday.

Another Challenging Day

2010-12-02T20:31:00.000Z

West Chiltington woke up to a foot (30cm) of lying snow this morning and my day started with the thought of how would the delivery driver, George from Smiths News at Crawley get to us today. A call to the wholesaler informed me that George had left as many of their drivers had with the instruction to only complete his round if the conditions allowed him to do so safely. Around 6 am I had a call from Peter, the transport manager telling me that George was stuck about 5 miles from us so I did not expect him to arrive before we opened. But of course for a man who made it every day last January he wasn't going to let a little snow get in the way for any longer than necessary. So he arrived at 6.45 am saying that the place he was stuck at had more than 18 inches (45cm) of snow. He’s a wonderfully persistent man.

Due to the conditions we did not receive our supply of the West Sussex County Times from Johnston Newspapers out of Portsmouth which was due today so a reprint of our round sheets was needed to enable us to deliver the West Sussex Gazette which ran 24 hours late. As most of the local schools were closed most of our younger newspaper delivers arrived and trudged off with their newspapers on foot. Bravo to them.

In the shop it was milk, bread, newspapers, groceries and keeping the tiled floor dry that kept us all busy. Due to a weather related shortage of staff this afternoon we took the unusual step of closing at 1pm. With snow continuing to fall all day we thought that it was the most sensible thing to do, besides after two days of well above normal trading most of our top selling products are running very low stock levels. We expect another Spar delivery tomorrow morning, roads permitting.

On the Post Office side of our business customers are still coming in with the letters cards and parcels but we did not see a postman again today. If its the same tomorrow we will have to deliver the mail that we have to the Royal Mail office ourselves.

Bad Day At Crawley

2010-12-01T09:33:00.001Z

DAILY DISTRIBUTION CRAWLEY

WEDNESDAY 01ST DECEMBER 2010

SEVERE DISRUPTION CAUSED BY BAD WEATHER AND ROAD CONDITIONS

APPROX 20 MAGAZINE ROUNDS HAVE NOT DEPARTED WITH DELIVERY

TODAY UNLIKLEY - PLEASE RING FOR DETAILS.

NEWSPAPERS

17 ROUNDS ARE RE RUNNING SUN/TIMES/TELEGRAPH/MIRROR GROUP

ROUNDS 341 & 431 - NO DRIVERS AS YET (7.00am) WE ARE ATTEMPTING

TO DELIVER IN ANY WAY POSSIBLE.

FIRST ROUND AWAY 4.45

LAST ROUND AWAY TBC

ARRIVAL TIMES

DAILY MAIL 3.24

DAILY MIRROR 5.00

DAILY EXPRESS 3.40

DAILY STAR 3.40

INDEPENDENT 3.40

SUN 5.00

TELEGRAPH 4.55

TIMES 5.00

GUARDIAN 3.40

SPORT 3.40

RACING POST 5.00

FT 1.50

ARGUS 3.43

I 5.00

Looking At Third Party Ads

2010-11-30T15:49:00.000Z

I been weighing the weekend newspapers for a number of years to discover just how much loose advertising material gets inserted. As we offer a newspaper home delivery service we get a payment for adverts that are over 70g. The Mail also make a payment when the cummulative amount is more than 100g.

My data reveals that during the past year newspaper have included Third Party Advertising Insert weighing between 60g and 69g 15 times with 5 of them occuring over one weekend this month. On the cummulative weigh front it is the Telegraph, Sunday Telegraph, Times and Sunday Times that need to step up to the mark on this as between them they have broken this barrier 40 times over the last 52 weeks.

What do you think the chances of them joining the Mail on this issue soon are?

Zero or better than that?

No Green Giros This Week

2010-11-25T17:10:00.000Z

For the first time since we took on the running of our Post Office branch we has not cashed any Green Giros. This is a story that goes back nearly 20 years as they they were seen to be prone to fraud and more recently too expensive a system to operate. The only people that we have left taking their pension payments this way are the very elderly who are not capable to give instruction effectively or the diehards who will not be bullied by the state.

Seems like the remnants of the Green Giro payment system will be around for a while longer yet.

Multi Title Rerun

2010-11-24T09:14:00.000Z

CRAWLEY DAILY DISTRIBUTION NOTICE

WEDNESDAY 24 NOVEMBER 2010

THE DAILY MIRROR, THE INDEPENDENT, THE RACING POST AND THE i have

been RE RUN on Rounds 311, 330, 350, 360, 380 and 410.

All other Titles are in and packed.

All Rounds away in reasonable time.

DEPARTURES

FIRST ROUND AWAY 4.05

LAST ROUND AWAY 6.15

ARRIVAL TIMES

Daily Mail 2.53

Daily Mirror 4.12

Daily Express 2.55

Daily Star 2.55

Independent 4.12

Sun 3.17

Daily Telegraph 2.37

Times 3.17

Guardian 2.37

Sport 2.55

Racing Post 4.12

Financial Times 0.35

Argus 3.40

I 4.12

Today we suffered the spectical of a 5 title rerun, I, Independent, Mirror and Racing Post because they did not arrive at Crawley until 4.12 am and also the Argus which I assume was an in house issue.

Total of 5 customers failed this morning.

I leaves me unhappy

2010-11-23T08:28:00.000Z

The I had a launch margin of 50% or 10p a copy at it initial price of 20p. This of course was short lived and we now recieve their standard gp of 25%, just 5p per copy. There is a 'promise' of a price increase, but will it come soon as the current 5p will not keep it on our shelf for much longer.

When the Daily Star reduced it margin to 5p earlier this year we delisted the title so our policy is clear this low a margin for a newspaper is not enough of a return for us to run our business. So the question is, just how much longer should we give the I to increase its cash margin and price before we take action?

Poppy Appeal Record

2010-11-22T09:24:00.000Z

This morning the local Poppy Appeal organiser delivered the great news that our customers had donated a record amount for poppies this year, over £300.

Remarkable.

Argus Late Again

2010-11-19T10:21:00.000Z

CRAWLEY DISTRIBUTION

FRIDAY 19 NOVEMBER 2010

SUMMARY

THE ARGUS

HAS BEEN RE RUN ON 30 ROUNDS

DEPARTURES

First Round Away 3.50

Last Round Away 6.20

TITLE ARRIVALS

Daily Mail 3.35

Daily Mirror 3.38

Daily Express 2.50

Daily Star 2.50

Independent 3.38

Sun 3.40

Daily Telegraph 3.00

Times 3.40

Guardian 2.50

Sport 2.50

Racing Post 3.38

Financial Times 0.25

Argus 4.50

I 3.38

It finally arrived around 7.15 am, too late for our delivered customer. This is the second day this week that the Argus has run late. Not good enough!

Swipe Card Trick

2010-11-19T10:17:00.000Z

Following a customer's advice about his overseas chipless crdit card that would not swipe though our card reader effectively I placed the card inside a plastic carrier bag and tried once more. Much to my surprise it worked.

Amazing.

The customer who is a pilot and live abroad said that an assistant in a shop in Singapore did this very trick when the card failed to be swiped.

I still don't believe what I did and wonder if the same trick will work with the bill payment cards that we are regularly troubled with at our Post Office counter.

HND Payment

2010-11-19T10:09:00.000Z

Further to the heavy weight Harrods Magazine that was included in the Sunday Telegraph last weekend I hear that the Telegraph are to make the highest third part advertising insert payment ever for a single item, 8p.

Well done NFRN for concluding this negotiation.

Argus Late

2010-11-15T08:10:00.000Z

******** ARGUS RE RUN ********

All Rounds are Re Running the ARGUS this

morning due to late arrival.

******************************

FIRST ROUND AWAY 3.55

LAST ROUND AWAY 5.45

PUBLISHER ARRIVAL TIMES

Daily Mail 2.35

Daily Mirror 3.35

Daily Express 2.30

Daily Star 2.30

Independent 3.35

Sun 3.10

Daily Telegraph 2.48

Times 3.10

Guardian 2.30

Sport 2.30

Racing Post 3.35

Financial Times 0.15

Argus T BC

I 3.35

The Argus arrived just after 7 am so we only lost one sale this morning.

Pride Of Place, harrods

2010-11-14T18:19:00.000Z

This weekend brought another avalanche of loose advertising amtter in the national newspapers. After last weekend's 2kg Saturday Telegraph I was left wondering just how the Mickie Taker would top that feat, but we had only to wait until today for the half a kilo Harrods Magazine to top off the Telegraph#s achievement.

I wonder how much the NFRN negotiated for home delivered copies?

Another Insult From The Daily Mail

2010-11-13T09:26:00.001Z

The daily mail does it again, they use our space to adverise Smiths, Tesco and this time Sainsburys for their free dvd collection. Every time they do this they devalue my business in the eyes of our customers and equally devalue the relationship I have with one of our major products.

Where is the equality in this form of marketing?

Local Newspaper Has Not Arrived

2010-11-11T09:49:00.000Z

The West Sussex County Times has been delayed today due to a production problem at Johnson's Hilsea print centre. We hope that it will be delivered later today.

So What's Going To Happen To The Post Office?

2010-11-10T09:32:00.001Z

Yesterday the Government announced their 'New plans to secure the future of the Post Office'. Hurrah!

Minister for Postal Affairs Edward Davey said:

'We’re determined to turn the Post Office network around and end the years of decline. The Post Office is a tremendous national asset. It will not be for sale and there will be no programme of closures. To underline our commitment we have announced £1.34 billion of funding over the next four years. The money will put the Post Office on a stable financial footing. It will help modernise the network and make it even more appealing to customers.'

My MP, Nick Herbert has been telling me since the 2005 Election just how important he thinks that Post Offices like ours is to the health of communities. When in opposition he told me that a Conservative Government would treat the Post Office network differently from the Labour Government and this announcement looks like a big step towards honouring the promise. As long as we are paid for the new tasks and services in a worth while manner they are likely to be important additions to our offer.

But I think the obstacle to the future viability of Post Offices that has not yet been made clear is the relationship with a privatised Royal Mail. Our mail business is a big contributor to the viability of our Post Office whether it is a single stamp or dealing with a large volume posting we need it to continue. Until we see how a separated Post Office works commercially with a privatised Royal Mail I think there will still be an element of doubt over its delivery and our future.

Lets hope we don’t have to wait too long.

A Newspaper rerun

2010-11-10T06:00:00.001Z

This morning the independent arrived at Smiths News, Crawley too late to come on on the delivery van that calls on us. We did recieve its new brash brother, the i and its still only 20p!

CRAWLEY DAILY DISTRIBUTION NOTICE

WEDNESDAY 10 NOVEMBER 2010

SUMMARY

THE INDEPENDENT

HAS BEEN RE RUN

ON 38 ROUNDS

All other Titles are in and packed.

All Rounds away in reasonable time.

DEPARTURES

FIRST ROUND AWAY 3.50

LAST ROUND AWAY 6.00

ARRIVAL TIMES

Daily Mail 3.30

Daily Mirror 3.30

Daily Express 3.25

Daily Star 3.25

Independent 5.04

Sun 2.55

Daily Telegraph 2.40

Times 2.55

Guardian 3.25

Sport 3.25

Racing Post 3.3.

Financial Times 0.40

Argus 3.05

I 3.30

Interesting Meeting

2010-11-09T10:08:00.000Z

I attended a local food and drink meeting yesterday evening organised by Horsham District Council (HDC). They have been running a Food & Drink Festival for many year that we have been part of. Last night's meeting was designed to grow the opportunty for local growers and producers to start a network process with retailers and people in the food service sector.

I have to say that I wasn't quite sure what I would get out of the meeting but was pleasantly surprised by the experience. HDC quite clearly see the opportunity to develop the great idea that the F&D festival is into something that has an impact all year round by assisting with creating a network and structure that will make this happen. Next step is a small committee to stir this forward of people from both the supply and retail side.

The meeting was held at CAMELIA BOTNAR HOMES & GARDENS bistro and was attended by round 2 dozen people. Emma Mitchell, the Camelia Botnar Foundation Chief Executive gave an impressive 5 minute talk on the work of the Foundation. The key message was that she was not looking for donations, she wanted people to come back and spend money with them. After the formal part of the meeting I had an opportunity to talk to her and she showed me their fantastic Christmas shop.

I also talked to Rory of Cocoa Loco and other producers as we are looking to increase our local product base. The meeting was encouraging and I look forward to working with some new supplier as we up our local game.

Visit From The Daily Mail Rep

2010-11-08T07:16:00.001Z

Last month I sent this email to Neil Jagger:

Dear Mr Jagger

In a recent issue of Retail Newsagent you indicated that if the NFRN were able to offer a distinct branded group of newsagents Associated Newspapers would consider using them as a channel for distributing the free DVDs that the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday regularly gives away.

Well, how about you deciding which independents you would want to work with to give the national footprint that would enable these offers to have broader availability to the Mail buying public. You could call them Mail Select Newsagents and provide a window/front door sticker to provide identity.

What do you think?

I can't say that I was expecting a response concidering I also had this letter published in Retail Newsagent. But I got an almost instant response from James Beardow, the Mail's Circulation Trading Manager asking if he could make and appointment for one of their Retail Area Sales Managers to call. This visit happened last week and their man talked to us about the Mail's Flagship scheme under which they will be working with 200 carefully selected proactive retailers to develop their businesses and to sell more Daily Mails.

The criteria to join this group is pretty demanding as they are not only looking for proactive retailers they also so want to seed success by choosing the right locations. And then they want to total brand the store as Daily Mail, thats fascia, windows, door, floor mat and inside. The intention is the work with this group of independents to grow the sales of the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday.

It all sounds very promising, but we failed the branding test as we already have Spar although we did offer one of our 'window panels' for Mail promotion as the title is our biggest instore seller. It will be interesting to sell how 'Flagship' develops, but I guess the question that has not been answered is about the way that the Mail promotes Tesco and WH smith in my store!

Experiencing the Equality Act Effect

2010-11-03T10:07:00.000Z

One of the services that our Post Office offers is Parcel Force Convenient Delivery. It allows the addressee of undeliverable packages to pick them up closer to their home than the PF depot. Its a good service and works well.

Some times we have husbands collecting the wives parcels and late yesterday afternoon I was at the counter when this happened. In the past I may have said that I could see that the man was not the addressee, but with the Equality Act 2010 now in force I see that there is a potental trip wire over this issue. The Act now covers gender reassignment so I now need to be careful to stay within the bounds of the Act to ensure that I do not inadvertantly become discrimminatory. I will also be training our staff on this issue.

Has there been a poor supply pattern for the I?

2010-11-01T09:25:00.000Z

We have been getting plenty of copies of the new five days a week i newspaper from the Independent. This, it would appear has not been the experience for all newagents. Cosham newsagent, Graham Hales has told me that he has been recieving 6 copies per day so far and quickly selling out. Hardly surprising as his shop is next door to Cosham railway station.

So how many copies should Graham be getting, 50 or 100?

Cadbury/Asda Go For Slime Green

2010-10-30T12:25:00.000+01:00

Cadbury have served up a creme egg variant just for Asda's Halloween offering. An interesting move as clearly, as reported on betterRetailing there has been a kick in sales for this promotional opportinuty. And not just in this country, Mark Fletcher on his Australian Newsagency Blog gave this very helpful guide for Halloween success earliy this month.

I Has Arrived

2010-10-26T13:11:00.000+01:00

Arrived in good shape today!

This morning has seen the launch of I from the Independent. It looks a good production and the content is concise as promised. Placed the paper both on our newspaper rack and also on our counter and have sold 12 copies this morning. We recieved their 'promotional' kit this morning which comprised of a shelf barker and an A4 poster that we have used. We also recieved a visit from one of the publishers 'launch team' who called in just to check we had no supply problems.

So far so good, but we will have to see it the title still has a market with our customers next week.

Retail Is Detail

2010-10-25T16:02:00.002+01:00

Enjoy Your Retirement, Terry

I had to chuckle when I read this story, Small World News Service say:

'Shoppers got a shock when they tried to go up the booze aisle at Tesco but found it barricaded by POLICE – because the store’s alcohol licence had expired. Officers blocked off the wine and beer aisle at the new Tesco Extra store in Brockworth, Glos., after discovering the supermarket did not have a valid booze licence.'

I guess missing a little detail like this seems quite easy to do, but with the check list that Tesco must have for their store development one has to question how such an important item was missed. Its as bad as the Royal Navy grounding their submarine.

Yes mistakes happen, I am just pleased that we have sent off our £180.00 for the renewal of our alcohol licence.

Go For New National Newspaper

2010-10-25T08:23:00.000+01:00

Whilst away on holiday in Portugal the Independent has announced that they are launching a new national newspaper. The Press Gazette reports:

'Alexander Lebedev is to launch a cut-price daily national newspaper next Tuesday aimed at the quality market. The paper, called i, will launch as a spin-off version of The Independent with a cover price of just 20 pence targeting "readers and lapsed readers of quality newspapers". A statement from the owners of The Independent said this morning the new paper would aim to serve "those of all ages who want a comprehensive digest of the news in printed form. i will combine intelligence with brevity, and depth with speed of reading, providing an essential daily briefing."

Interesting, we will be getting 40 copies tomorrow. Whether we will capture the quoted lapsed readers of quality newspapers only time will tell. We certainly have lost newspaper buyers at that end of the market place, but of course many if them are gone forever.

I wonder if Mr Lebedev has seen anonther gap in the market, the one that may be being opened up by the Daily Mail and General Trust. Is the Metro going to close in the UK? And if so would that leave enough room for this newcomer?

Launching a successful new national newspapers in the UK is not easy, I seem to remember when Today was launched by Eadie Shah in 1986 there was talk about the bar being lowered for the cost of producing a newspaper due to new technology. I think that it is fair to say its not the cost of production that counts, its having an interested audience who are prepared to buy the product everyday. Since Today was launched we have seen a few attempts at doing this trick and the Indepenent is the only one that is still with us so may be they do know something about survival.

We will see how 'I' goes tomorrow. At a launch margin of 50% if we sell them all we will make a gross profit of £4.00. The question I have is where will I display it?

Bad Red Tape

2010-10-09T09:37:00.000+01:00

All governments like to tinker with legislation and regulation. This week we had the announcement about Child Benefit. Last week the Equality Act came in to force and retailers like myself are campaigning to get our Government to reconcider the Tobacco Display Ban that is part of the Health Act 2009.

All decisions of Govenment what ever flavour have unexpected consequences, but this regulation from Australia is something I would definately not want to see here. News.com.au reports:

'A DECISION to preserve the minimum three-hour shift has been heralded as a win for casual workers and a blow to struggling retailers and children working after school. Fair Work Australia dismissed a challenge by retailer groups to a national award that stipulates minimum three-hour shifts.'

They go on to say,

But National Retail Association executive director Gary Black has called on the Federal Government to intervene and change the law.

"This decision will rob young kids of after-school jobs and make things even tougher for struggling small retailers such as newsagents and grocers. The decision highlights the flaws in the one-size-fits-all modern award process and the inflexibility that results."

In the 20 plus years that we have run our village shop, a micro business on the national scale, we have been confronted with an avalanch of Government decisions that have impacted badly on us and other indendent retailers in our channel. Everything from the 'freeing up' of the TV listings market through employment legislation to battery recycling and much else besides. Our legislators clearly do not understand the needs of micro businesses or show any indication of knowing how to support and nurture us.

They know where we are, after all we have to pay taxes so why don't they provide, as a condtion of bring any new regulation to the statute book, a user guide written in simple language of how to impliment whatever they want us to do.

Humm........

Times and Sun Running Late

2010-10-06T08:17:00.000+01:00

DAILY DISTRIBUTION - CRAWLEY

WEDNESDAY 06 OCTOBER 2010

SUMMARY

********** RE RUNS **********

The SUN & TIMES

are being re run this morning

due to late publisher arrival. The following

rounds are involved:

301-311-312=319-330-340-341-350-360-370

410-411-419-430-420

We apologise for the inconvenience

******************************

Timings TBC

DEPARTURES

First Round Away 4.15

Last Round Away 6.00

TITLE ARRIVALS

Daily Mail 2.45

Daily Mirror 3.40

Daily Express 2.27

Daily Star 2.27

Independent 3.40

Sun 4.25

Daily Telegraph 4.00

Times 4.25

Guardian 2.27

Sport 2.27

Racing Post 3.40

Financial Times 0.15

Argus 3.00

Our copies arrived at 7.45 am so we failled to delvier any Sun's or Times this morning. All 50 plus customers got a letter from us instead.

Dreadful Failure

2010-10-05T15:24:00.000+01:00

Last week Womans Weekly was bagged with Womans Own. We didn't think it would work when it arrived as it is a bit of a miss match on purchasers. We are returning most of the casual copies as, just as we feared our customers just didn't buy into paying £1.10 for Woman's Weekly.

I have been looking at our confectionery sales

2010-10-04T18:34:00.000+01:00

We Inceased Our Multi-Facings

I have been looking at our confectionery sales and will reveal what I have discovered on BetterRetailing.com later this week.

Wet Weekend

2010-10-04T09:24:00.000+01:00

The weatherwas not the best this weekend, in fact it was dreadful with over 2 inches of rain falling. The most significant impact was on yesterday's Mail on Sunday with every copy of the magazine polybag section arrive at our shop dipping wet. It was almost as though every bundle had been dumped in a swimming pool before delivery.

A phone call to the wholesaler revealed that although the inserts had arrived dry they had been left outside under cover, but with the wind driving the heavy rain into the bundles they got a soaking. At least all our customers would have notices is a slightly dampness of the pages near where I inserted the polybags.

Careful Response From MP

2010-10-02T20:16:00.000+01:00

This morning I have recieved a letter from my MP, Nick Herbert in reply to my to my tobacco display ban letter. I am a little disappointed with his response which in some ways could have been written by the minister for health in the last government.

Nick reiterates that smoking is a is the biggest cause of preventable death in England. Yes, I have to agree with that, but the Act that was passed last year will not make any difference to these statistic t will only push smokers in to the hands of criminals.

Not good enough Nick.

(no pictures today as there seems to be a problem with blogger.)

Independent Arrives Late

2010-10-01T09:15:00.002+01:00

CRAWLEY DISTRIBUTION REPORT

FRIDAY 01 OCTOBER 2010

**********RE RUN**********

There is a RE RUN on the

INDEPENDENT

this morning

due to late arrival. At this stage we anticipate this

will involve all rounds.

We apologise for the inconvenience.

****************************

TIMINGS (TBC)

DEPARTURES

First Round Away 4.05

Last Round Away 6.00

TITLE ARRIVALS

Daily Mail 3.15

Daily Mirror 3.50

Daily Express 2.50

Daily Star 2.50

Independent 5.20

Sun 3.17

Daily Telegraph 2.50

Times 3.17

Guardian 2.50

Sport 2.50

Racing Post 3.50

Financial Times 0.20

Argus 3.30

It is 2 months since the last rerun and on 2nd August it was also the Independent that failed. 5 customers let down this morning.

Many Thanks Convenience Store and Retail Newsagent

2010-09-30T12:50:00.000+01:00

Retail Newsagent today published my letter, posted here about the despicable behaviour of the Mail towards my business when they promote with DVDs. Also today Convenience Store Magazine have reported on this issue.

Their digital edition can be viewed here.

Telegraph Shows Mail How To Do Equality

2010-09-29T14:27:00.000+01:00

The Daily Telegraph are continuing their John Wayne DVD promotion in a manner that respects my business. They have not excluded the independent news retailer by inviting readers to go to a competitor, no they are are using the mail order option as the only method of distribution.

The Observer Gave Us A Challenge

2010-09-27T08:23:00.000+01:00

It is alway good to see national newspapers fully supporting the independent channel, yesterday the Observer had a free DVD for all readers. The challenge for us was that it was a certificate 15 which meant that the paper could not be sold to children under that age. I made sure that our staff understood the role in ensuring legal compliance. This of course was helped by not having any young people buying the paper yesterday!

Mr Jagger, This Is The Way To Do It!

2010-09-27T08:17:00.000+01:00

DVD Free Inside!

With the Daily Mail's continuing abusive position on DVD promotions I think that there has been a great example this weekend of how it should be done. As the photograph shows there was a DVD in both the Sunday Telegraph and the Observer yesterday, one for every reader.

It is clear that Associated Newspapers restrict the availability of their DVD offers to Tesco and WH Smith because they are straped for cash. Their parent company, DMGT, heamoraged so much cash in 2008 and 2009 they have had to stop investing in the independent newsagency channel.

Shame on them.

Unpleasant Reminder

2010-09-25T09:49:00.001+01:00

Scene of crime

A crime wave in Hampshire was reported in the Daily Echo yesterday, they say:

'PROLIFIC gang of cigarette thieves is on the rampage across the county, smashing their way into shops. So far 25 premises have been burgled by the gang who have swiped thousands of pounds of cigarettes from newsagents, post offices and grocery stores.'

In the latest burglary the criminals 'forced their way through metal shutters at the Co-Op store in Nursling.'

I found reading this repport very discomforting less than a year after we became victims of another gang and raises the question of what else we can do to protect our business.

Spot The Difference!

2010-09-25T08:39:00.000+01:00

The Daily Telegraph may have weighed in at a stonking 1.5kg today but they have treated my business with some respect today. The newspaper includes the first of two John Wayne/James Stewart DVDs that are being given away this weekend.

Bravo to the Telegraph.

Where as the Daily Mail continue to send my customers, yes my customers to Tesco and WH Smith. When will they learn that disrespecting my space is unexceptable and their continued disrespect harms the relationship.

Daily Telegraph Add Us In

2010-09-24T08:39:00.000+01:00

Tomorrow the Daily Telegraph will be giving away 'The Shootist' DVD that stars the late John Wayne. Unlike the daily mail's dvd giveaways this promotion is for every purchaser of the Saturday Telegraph so, one could say that for our community we will be starring in the promotion. The Sunday Telegraph will include 'Who Shot Liberty Valance'.

Although westerns are not for everyone we should see an uplift in sales.

Go To Tesco Say The daily mail

2010-09-22T16:30:00.002+01:00

Wonderful Life for Smith's and Tesco

Again today my customers are being told how poor a newsagent we are and Tesco is the place to get excellence in newsagency as they and WH Smiths are the only place people can collect their Cliff Richards DVD from.

Its time to stop this abuse Mr Jagger!

I have sent Retail Newsagent this letter so I hope that will be in tomorrow's edition.

The Daily Mail is continuing their campaign against the independent newsagents in the UK with their next free give away DVD. This week its Cliff Richards films that are only available from Tesco and WH Smith. In the recent letter Retail Newsagent Associated Newspapers circulation director, Neil Jagger tried to explain why his company treats the majority of newsagents so shabbily. He said:

‘We put DVDs in to WH Smith and Tesco because we have a finite number of DVDs that we can print to make the promotion cost effective, and Tesco and WH Smith have a common branding above their premises that our readers recognise and, therefore, know where to pick up their DVDs.’

The exclusion of the independent newsagent channel from the Mail DVD promotions is disrespectful, but the use of the Mail's front page to blatantly promote these big companies is despicable. The message it gives to our customers almost everyday is that we are a second class, second rate store and they should go to ‘one of our first class retailers’.

Just like News International they really don’t really understand the independent newsagent channel and think that we can be treated like serfs and are willing to accept whatever is handed down to us. This approach is fine in the short term, but does have consequences as it indicates that newspapers can no longer be seen as a corner-stone product group for community retailers.

If the Associated Newspapers wishes to continue to block independents from this type of promotion then they must stop using the non participant retailers as advertising boards for their chosen few. If they want to tell their readers (our customers) where to go to then they need to print the information inside the newspaper, not on the front page in a manner that disrespects our businesses.

Remember Toffo?

2010-09-21T17:17:00.000+01:00

This MacIntosh's Toffo wrapper is currently available on Ebay (that is until the end of 21/9/10) and has a bid of £26.99 as I write this. Toffo is defiantly retro having disappeared some years ago, Paul who runs Gum Guide Auction knows a thing or to about collectibles, what is likely to be of value a decade or more down the line and what may not be worth keeping.

We are fortunate to have his custom as he uses our Post Office to send the various pieces of 'obsolete paper' to destinations around the world. But £27 for a sweetie wrapper, who would have thought it!

NOT ON THE FRONT PAGE

2010-09-18T11:13:00.000+01:00

The daily mail continue their campaign against the independent newsagents in the UK with their next free give away DVD. This time its Cliff Richards films that are only available from Tesco and WH Smith.

In a recent letter to trade magazine, Retail Newsagent associated newspapers circulation director, Neil Jagger said:

‘We put DVDs in to WHS and Tesco because we have a finite number of DVDs that we can print to make the promotion cost effective, and tesco and whs have a common branding above their premises that our readers recognise and, therefore, know where to pick up their DVDs.’

Yes, right, clearly daily mail readers don’t know where to buy their newspaper every day or who delivers it.

This is just down to the lack of budget that associated newspapers are prepared to invest in these promotional gimmicks. As I posted here the mail’s parent company, DMGT, has a gaping hole in the accounts having seen a reduction of over £800 million in the company’s equity value in 2 years.

Just like News International they just don’t understand the independent newsagent channel and think that we can be treated like serfs and are willing to accept what ever is handed down to us. This approach is fine in the short term, but does have consequences as it just indicates that newspapers can no longer be seen as a corner-stone product group for community retailers.

If the mail wishes to continue to block independents from this type of promotion then they must stop using the non participant retailers as advertising boards for their chosen few. If they want to tell readers where to go then do it inside not on the front page in a manner that disrespects my business.

Disappointing

2010-09-17T07:37:00.001+01:00

Today we have received a letter from News International that advises us that the price of the Sunday Times will go up by 20p to £2.20 from the next issue. A moment of feeling great about this, a 10% increase and the first move on the price of the ST for 4 years. Then I read on to discover that we will only be allowed to keep 1.7p of the increase per copy. For us that’s a reduced cash margin of over £200 per year.

This is the second title that NI has reduced retailer margins on this year and is a distinctly unfriendly move in these economically challenging times. No doubt they will suggest that the CPI price inflation index shows a rise of about 10% for the past 4 years as their justification for reducing our margin.

Hum, for me it is just another brick knocked out of the wall of newspaper viability, particularly that of home delivery.

They do end their letter with this:

'Thank you for your continued support'

Is it me or does that sound a little hollow.

Just recieved the NFRN's press release.

NEWSAGENTS’ MARGINS SLASHED AGAIN

NEWSAGENTS’ MARGINS SLASHED AGAIN
After cash margin reductions on the Sun and the Daily Star in recent months, newsagents’ margins were under attack again this week as News International announced that it is breaking faith with pro rata terms following an increase in the cover price of the Sunday Times from 19th September.

Although the cover price is increasing from £2.00 to £2.20, News International is giving retailers a paltry 1.7p of the price increase, rather than the 5p it should have done, and keeping the remaining 18.3p for themselves. This is a reduction in the percentage margin from 25% to 23.5%. In effect, retailers are being ripped off by 3.3p for each copy sold at the new cover price.

The NFRN is holding urgent discussions with News International this afternoon in a bid to rescue the recent constructive relationship between the two organisations, which is now under threat.

The Daily Mail continue their campaign

2010-09-16T09:06:00.001+01:00

We Are Left Out Of The Picture

This week the Daily Mail has continued its campaign against independent newsagents. Every day this week they have promoted Tesco and WH Smith as the places for my customers to pick up their latest DVD in the David Attenborough Life series.

Recently Mail circulation director, Niel Jaggers stated in a letter to Retail Newsagent that they have chosen this route because of Tesco and Smiths are national brands with national networks of stores AND THERE ARE ONLY LIMITED NUMBERS OF DISCS. Yes, yes so there isn't a disc for every reader ok we get that.

What I don't accept is that the Daily Mail believe that it is right to force us to advertise competitors in our store in a way that shows our customers that we are not full service newsagents.

Now let me see, do Tesco's operate a Home Newspaper Delivery service? er, NO.

Do WH Smith operate a Home Newspaper Delivery service from their stores? er, NO.

I am fairly sure that there is a national newsagent chain that operates a Home Newspaper Delivery service from their stores. So why do only tesco and smith's get the DVDs. Clearly Mr Jagger's does not tell the entire truth about their promotional restrictions.

If the Daily Mail will not invest in news retailers like myself by providing DVDs to pass give out with their newspaper we certainly need them to stop giving the message to our customers in our own shop that we are second class newspaper stockists.

No more front page treatment for tesco and smiths please!

Well Stuffed

2010-09-13T09:40:00.001+01:00

Telegrapgh Take The Mickie Again

This weekend the Telegraph, Sunday Times and Mail on Sunday showed a leap in weight, but it was the Saturday Telegraph that broke our backs as with over 250g of loose third party inserts there is no additional payment to home delivery newwsagents.

Crazy.

The question remains on the table as to when the NFRN will resolve this issue.

Crawley Branch Secretary Makes A Point

2010-09-12T18:53:00.000+01:00

Congratulations Anjali

The Independent on Sunday reports:

'Anjali Karpal, a retailer and branch officer for the National Federation of Retail Newsagents (NFRN), which is one of Europe's largest retail trade associations, has called on cabinet minister Francis Maude to lobby against the sanction. In a letter to Mr Maude, Mrs Karpal and her husband, Prabodh, wrote: "There is no evidence from anywhere in the world where display bans have been introduced that they reduce levels of smoking among adolescents or adults. Instead, this legislation is asking the 70,000 small shops that sell tobacco across the UK to collectively pay £70m to implement a measure that will not work at a time when small shops like mine are struggling to survive.'

Brilliant, it is wonderful to see an independent community store retailer get national media exposure like this.

Responded to Your Freedom

2010-09-10T16:40:00.000+01:00

'Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister, today thanked the public for their contribution to the Your Freedom debate, which he launched on 1 July. Now that 46,000 people have left 14,000 ideas and 95,000 comments on the Your Freedom website, Mr Clegg said that it is time for ministers and officials to set to work examining every idea to see what might be feasible and how it might be brought into effect. This phase of Your Freedom will begin on Friday 10 September, after which the site will not be accepting new comments or ideas.'

The Your Freedom website was launched in July, but I have left it to almost the last minute to make my contribution to the Tobacco Display Ban debate page. I said:

There is no evidence that shows that children start smoking because they see displays of cigarettes in shops. The Department of Health's own survey into Smoking Drinking and Drug use among young people in England 2009 clearly shows that children are more likely to obtain cigarettes from other sources than they are from shops whether a community based store like mine or a supermarket.

The survey also shows that the influences of family and friends are a dominant factor when it comes to children smoking their first cigarette. If children don't have a parent that smokes and don't have friends that smoke they themselves are unlikely to start smoking. I think that it is fair to say in communities where there is a high level of adult smokers there will be more children that start to smoke than in communities like mine with a very low a level of smoking adults where it is now very rare to see evidence of underage smoking.

Couple this with the cost of meeting the needs of the legislation; I would expect the cost in my store to be over £1,000. And then there is the logistics of ensuring that we can carry on with our business by providing our customers with adequate choice and dealing with display filling and goods receiving of these high value products.

The legislation idealistic at best and will not deal effectively with the problem that it sets out to cure. What it is likely to do is give heart to the criminal gangs who have infiltrated the supply of tobacco and cigarettes following the significant tax increases that started in the 1990's.

No the only thing that a display ban will do is further weaken the already frail but important community asset that independent community stores are.

This was on top of the email I have sent to my MP on the subject.

Newsagent Murder Trial

2010-09-07T09:56:00.000+01:00

'Gurmail Singh, 63, was beaten over the head with bottles of wine taken from his own shelves as he tried to stop four young men taking cash, cigarettes, alcohol and sweets from his shop in the Cowcliffe area of Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, on February 20. '

So reported the Daily Telegraph last week. The details of this sickening attack on Mr Singh is a brutal reminder of the dangers community retailers face while going about their lives and business. My wife and I had wine bottles thrown at us when we were burgled last year.

My thoughts are with his family.

Last week there was another report about the consequences of crime in our channel. This a report from the Winsford Guardian should ring alarm bell for our trade associations. They say:

'THE country's largest newsagent's chain pleaded guilty to failing to ensure the health and safety of staff at its Winsford shop after a woman was seriously injured in a robbery. Martin McColl, which has 1,250 stores nationally, was fined £5,000 and ordered to pay £5,000 in costs by magistrates in Northwich, on Wednesday, August 25. Cheshire West and Chester's regulatory services launched an investigation following an early morning robbery at the Willow Square store in November 2008. Branch Manager Christine Rowe was knocked unconscious and suffered internal injuries to the eye and a fractured eye socket.'

The case was about employee safety and clearly our industry works on early morning lone workers who unlock the shop premises to deal with newspapers, magazines and the other challenges of getting the store ready for the days trade. How many of us would know how to answer this man's comments?

'Ian Moore, prosecuting on behalf of the council, told the court that, prior to this incident, a robbery had taken place at the store where both tills were seized. He said the company had failed to assess the risks associated with the shop, amounting to 'a catastrophic management failure'.

It seems that the State having failed in its duty to protect the citizen could well now be after the victim. Where does the independent retailer stand if it is one of their staff that is beaten up or worse? Do any of the trade associations have an answer?

Weights: Its September And The Newspapers Are Getting Fat

2010-09-06T09:51:00.000+01:00

This weekend saw a return to heavier newspaper with the Saturday Telegraph including their Ultratravel and Sunday Telegraph the third party Red Bulletin.

Looks like one payment coming from the Daily Mail.

Daily Mail Dump On Us

2010-09-04T16:14:00.001+01:00

There Some Thing Missing

From My Newspaper!

Today the Daily Mail were giving away money. In each of their Weekend magazines they were including a flashy pouch stuck on to page 17. After having many customers asking where their money bag was I checked through 50 copies and found none at all.

Smiths News did include a letter in the pack stating that although these money bags were supposed to be glued in there was a posibility that some may be loose in the magazines. Hum.

This type of shambolic delivery of a doubtful promotion provides us or the title no credit at all.

Appaulling for a newspaper that continually points its finger at the failures of others.

Now Why Didn't I Think Of That Before

2010-09-03T15:16:00.000+01:00

Blogspot makes setting a website up so easy I wonder why I have not use the format for a store site. So today I have launched http://yourvillageshop.blogspot.com/ to have a internet face for our business. I will have to see how it goes, but today there are the first 3 posts.

More tomorrow.

Newspapers, Magazines And The NFRN

2010-09-02T15:56:00.000+01:00

I have been a member of the NFRN for more than 20 years and for most of that time have been troubled by the organisations lack of guidance to members about how to manage these core products. With the recent changes within the NFRN's head office management structure regarding News and Magazines I was interested to understand how the approach will change.

For the passed 20 years there has been much focus on trying to get an industry relationship 'solution' provided by the Office of Fair Trading at a significant cost both finacially and in the Yeoman House based team's time. This laudable effort did not however provide any real solution to the challenges for new retailers that were trying to be addressed. the torrent of new selling points in the early 1990's was not stopped, carriage charges were accepted as a tool to make wholesalers 'profitable' and are a matter of fact today, JIG failed and the independent newsagents channel has wilted.

So what do we need from the new NFRN News and Magazine team?

I would like to see a Promise List, a list of activies that can be defined and easily understood, but more importantly can be delivered within a foreseeable time frame. The list should include:

A supply chain minimum standards charter to measure success or otherwise.
A series of best prictice guides to encompass the challenges of magazines, newspapers, HND and the supply chain.
An investigation into newspaper and magazine profitability.
Research the newsagents of the future.
Improvements to the AIM magazine promotion programme.

I am sure that there is more that could be added, but the promises have to be deliverable in a next 12 month time frame.

Weights 21 August, Where Some DFS Adverts Ended Up

2010-09-01T11:30:00.000+01:00

Brian Webb, the East Anglian newsagent has been leading a campaign against third party loose advertising inserts for many years. Last weekend he returned a few to his local DFS branch.

Well done Brian!

Why Marie Claire Idees?

2010-08-31T16:32:00.001+01:00

This morning we recieved 7 copies of Marie Claire Idees, a french magazine distributed by Comag. On investigation with Smiths News it would appear that we recieved the title due to an error.

Hum.

PS I asked Mike Miram at Comag for his view on this allocation and as expected it wasn't at Comag's direction. Really seems to be a 'digital' error probably at Smiths, but I know that we will not recieve the title again.

Retail Newsagent Cover Our Recovery

2010-08-29T20:43:00.001+01:00

Retail Newsagent published my sequel to my first article following the break in last October. The feature article deals with what has happened to us during the passed 10 months. Chris Rolfe, their feature editor has done a good job, thanks to you and the team.

There Is Always Something Else To Worry About

2010-08-27T12:15:00.000+01:00

Paid Content reports:

'UK newsagents are making 14 percent less money from newspapers than they were a decade ago - and the amount is set to fall a farther in the next five years, says retail analyst Mintel. The retailers’ income from newspapers has fallen from £3.4 billion to £2.9 billion since 1999, and Mintel forecasts it will dip by 44 percent, at constant currency rates, between 2010 and 2015.'

With over 50,000 newspaper selling retailers across the UK this is serious news and Mintel are telling us nothing we don't already know; newspapers sales are declining. In fact they have been declining since the mid 1950's. The additional 10,000 non traditional selling points have not helped the profitability of newsagents by spreading the falling sales around more 'mouths'.

In 1993 the average newspaper retailers was selling over 300 copies per day and taking a little over £100 at retail. This produced £27 gross profit. By 2009 the average selling point moves under 180 newspapers a day, takes £87 and grosses under £20. If Mintel are right and the number of newspaper selling points doesn't contract, probably by half down to 25,000, the average store numbers will look very sick. Problably less than 100 newspapers for the average store taking less than £50 and making less than £10 and that is only £3,500 gross profit per year.

As I said here the newspaper lead retail format is past its sell by date and Mintel is only confirming that view.

The Also Rans Miss The Starting Gate

2010-08-27T06:29:00.000+01:00

DAILY DISTRIBUTION REPORT

FOR

CRAWLEY HOUSE

FRIDAY 27 AUGUST 2010

The following titles are RE RUN this mortning

on all rounds.

Daily Express, Guardian,

Daily Star, Sports

and All Foreigns.

Sorry for the inconeniencein it cause you.

All other titles are in and packed.

All vehicle left at very good time.

DEPATURE TIME

FIRST ROUND AWAY 4.10

LAST ROUND AWAY 6.00

ARRIVAL TIMES

Daily Mail 3.47

Daily Mirror 3.50

Daily Express 4.22

Daily Star 4.22

Independent 3.50

Sun 3.01

Daily Telegraph 3.00

Times 3.01

Guardian 4.22

Sport 4.22

Racing Post 3.50

Financial Times 0.20

20 customers disadvantaged.

Speedy Service

2010-08-26T09:20:00.000+01:00

We don't carry PC Pilot in our magazine range, but do have a customer that orders the title as a shop save. The latest issue arrived at the end of last week and it would appear that the free cover mounted DVD has a flight simulator program that he has told one or two other people about. One of these came in yesterday and ask if we had a copy. I told him that we could try our wholesaler to order him one which we did. He was delighted this moring to be told that we had recieved his magazine so we know what he will be spending some of today doing.

When it works being able to source extra copies of titles like PC Pilot for customers means that we can offer a piont of difference to supermarkets who may offer a 'wide range', but they can't offer the type of customer focused service that an independent magazine retailer can. One of the great things about community retailing is being able to surprise customers with personal service.

New Part Work Arrives Today

2010-08-25T10:03:00.000+01:00

We recieved the first issue of Tiger tank this morning and have given it prominence at the front of our store. At 50p the first issue is bound to sell, the second issue is going to be £2.99 and then it will be full price from 3 onwards. It is 68 years since the Tiger Tank was first produced so it will be interesting just how many people want to collect the whole series. Probably more than the 1,347 Tiger Tank1's that were built by the Germans between 1942 and 1944.

Daily Mail Elvis Promo Causes Problem

2010-08-24T09:52:00.000+01:00

This week the Daily Mail have continued their Elvis dvd promtion with a different twist. The extetion to the original promo requires readers to clip the coupon on page 31 and send away for the film. Yesterday we had several customers ask if we had the dvd's as last week they were told on the front page where to collect them, WHS and tesco.

When we are not positively included in the marketing and promotion as in this promotion, it just devalues us as professional news retailers. Shame on you Daily Mail.

Mirror and Independent Miss The Van By 7 Minutes

2010-08-23T06:51:00.000+01:00

DISTRIBUTION REPORT CRAWLEY HOUSE

MONDAY 23 AUGUST 2010

Daily Mirror and Independent

Re Run This morning on following rounds

330,350,360,370,410

All other titles are in and packed.

All rounds are away in good time.

DEPATURE TIMES

FIRST ROUND AWAY 3.40

LAST ROUND AWAY 4.45

TITLE ARRIVAL TIMES

Daily Mail 3.07

Daily Mirror 4.07

Daily Express 2.35

Daily Star 2.35

Independent 4.07

Sun 2.44

Daily Telegraph 2.15

Times 2.44

Guardian 2.35

Sport 2.35

Racing Post 1.15

Financial Times 23.35

Success!

2010-08-22T10:13:00.001+01:00

We were delighted to hear this morning that one of our weekend team, Gabbie achieved her goal to get to her university of choice. She gained 3 A Levels at A* grade and 1 at A grade. Congratulations to her and her family. Our newspaper deliverer, Tom also got the right results and will be off to the Royal College of Music. We will miss them both when they leave us next month.

Two other members of our team have had their results and we congratulate all of these young people for their achievements.

A Stop The Display Ban Letter To My MP

2010-08-21T10:34:00.001+01:00

Depatrment of Health Figures!

Dear Nick

There are several issues that concern me has an independent village shop owner at this time, the economy, criminal attacks against shops like mine, the future of the Post Office network, but the most pressing is the Tobacco Display Ban. This was legislated for with the passing of the Health Act 2009 and is due to become a reality in large stores on 1st October 2011 with smaller store such as ours in 2013.

Tobacco and cigarette sales make up around 10% of our sales, somewhat less that the average for the small sector where the average is around 30% of turnover. Lynda and I are responsible retailers and do not sell cigarettes or tobacco products to under 18 year olds. We have never sold cigarettes to children. We and our staff do not try and guess the age of customers and ask to see proof of age when we consider the customer to be less than 25 years old, this sometimes means that 40 something’s are challenged for proof.

As a responsible retailer I support measures to reduce levels of youth smoking and am delighted to hear that the number of 16 and 17 year olds who are smoking has fallen significantly since it became an offence to sell to under 18 year olds in 2007.

There is no credible evidence from anywhere in the world where display bans have been introduced that they reduce levels of smoking among adolescents or adults. In Canada there is evidence of children getting cigarettes from the First Nation contraband sources. In Ireland there is significant concern about crime and smuggling taking over some of the tobacco supply chain. In the UK we already have a real problem with smuggled and counterfeit cigarettes on the black market. The Drinking, Smoking and Drug use among young people in England 2009 highlighted the fact that shops are no longer that main source of cigarettes for children. Children are much more likely to be given them or buy them from other people.

What is strangely missing from this legislation that is much more likely to have an impact on reducing juvenile smoking, is legislation that would make illegal the purchase, or attempted purchase of tobacco by minors, as well as proxy purchasing by adults on behalf of minors; and a commitment to crack down on smuggled and illicit tobacco. Instead, this legislation is asking the 70,000 small shops that sell tobacco across the UK to collectively pay £70m to implement a measure that will not work at a time where small shops like mine are struggling to survive. This ban would:

1. Cost me £1,000 to implement. To cover this cost, I must generate about £20,000 additional sales revenue (on an average margin is 5%). Also, this figure does not include maintenance costs.

2. Put me and my staff at risk of being robbed or attacked. Shopkeepers know very well that our vulnerability to crime increases when we are distracted. With this law, we will be distracted every time we have to find a tobacco product from its hiding place for a customer.

3. Put small shops at a competitive disadvantage to big branded stores: small shops that compete in close proximity to the big brand stores will lose passing trade i.e. smokers will stick their head in, not see what tobacco products are available, will not bother to queue up and find out but go instead next door to the larger competitor where they feel more confident of finding the product they want.

4. It will also take longer to serve customers, increasing the size of queues which is frustrating for consumers and cause me to lose trade to larger shops that can manage larger queues.

5. Finally, the regulations brought in by the last government are incredibly complex and prescriptive and I do not believe I will be able to comply with them.

I am also aware that there is no evidence that this measure would reduce smoking rates and that it has failed to do so anywhere else it has been implemented. In fact, in other countries that introduced it, illicit trade increased afterwards. Given that there is no health justification for this measure, it is not a tobacco issue. It is a small shops issue.

I ask you now to write to your colleagues, the Secretaries of State for Health and Business to ask that they ensure that this measure is not implemented in small shops.

Yours sincerely

Slough Man Jailed For 30 Months

2010-08-19T09:45:00.000+01:00

The Maidenhead Advertiser reports:

'A robber who helped himself to cash in a newsagents in Britwell and punched a member of staff in the face has been jailed for two and a half years after being found hiding under a sofa. Adam Smith, 28, of Tintern Close, Chalvey, was sentenced to 30 months at Reading Crown Court on August 5, after he had previously pleaded guilty to robbing Star News in Wentworth Avenue.'
The report caught my attention because I went to school with many children from the Britwell estate in the 1960's and this report is just another reminder of just how bad it is on the front line of community retailing.

Here is another list from Convenience Store Magazine. This time from 10 days in July.

July 18th A man holds staff at knifepoint before fleeing with cash at a c-store in Clifton , Hertfordshire

July 22nd Two men armed with gun rob a c-store in east Belfast.

July 24th A theif wielding a 12 inch knife forces an Edinburgh store owner to hand over money.

July 25th A shopkeeper is stabbed as he tries to stop two men robbing his store in the West Midlands.

July 26th AWisbech trader is punched and his takings stolen on route to the bank in Cambridge.

July 27th A female shop assistant is threatened with a knife at a One Stop in Binley Wood near Rugby, Warwickshire

Last Act From Crime Saga

2010-08-18T15:39:00.001+01:00

New Door

This week we have had new floor tiles laid to replace those damaged when our new shop front was fitted last December. I do have to admit that I did over look this small detail, but it is now done and we can move on. All that is left is to pay the bill and make this final claim on our insurers I have already spoken to the loss assessor about the final detail and he has told me that as soon as he has the evidence of cost he will authorise the settlement.

10 months on from the burglary that unsettled our lives so much we have regained our lives and our business has survived the trauma. In many ways we have been fortunate as the 3 men who interfered with our lives in the early hours of 21st October 2009 were only interested in robbery not violence. It is all to sad that all to many other retailers and their staff are not so lucky.

Convenience Store Magazines regularly publish a list of violent crimes against shop staff, here are some from May and June.

May 22 - Two men threaten customers and staff with a gun at a Co-operative store in Knaresborough, Yorkshire.

Jun 2 - A cash in transit van driver is assaulted minutes after leaving a convenience store in Donaghadee, County Down.

Jun 10 - A security guard is hurt in a struggle with armed raiders at a Spar store in Bellshill, Lanarkshire.

Jun 12 - A shopkeeper suffers arm and head injuries after an assault in his store in Pollockshields, Glasgow.

Jun 11 - A pregnant store worker is threatened with a knife at Makdonaldson’s store in York

Jun 15 - The would-be robber produces a knife at the Alldays store in West Worthing but staff refused to give him cash from the till.

Jun 21 - Staff at Martins Newsagents in Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire are threatened with a knife

Weights 14th August 2010

2010-08-17T09:18:00.001+01:00

Another light weight weekend, but there should be a HND payment for the Boden catalogue in the Sunday Times. Newspapers are a gauge of economic activity as their size/pagination is driven by the adverting that they can attract. Three years ago is worth a comparison:

Nearly all the Saturday titles were bigger with the Daily Telegraph shrinking by a quarter and the Guardian slimming by 40%. Startling.

Yes I know that advertisers have a wider field to spread their resources, but with these sorts of falls in newspaper sizing it would seem the the economy has some way to go the regain any sort of vigour.

Daily Mail Makes Us Second Class

2010-08-16T11:31:00.000+01:00

On Saturday the Daily Mail launched their Elvis DVD collection, but of course all we will see of the promotion is the pictures on the front page. Independent newsagents used to be part of these circulation boosting promotions for the first weekend with the DVDs being stuffed inside the paper.

Not any more.

Associated Newspapers have for sometime used WH Smith and Tesco as their promotional route from the first day of this style of promotion. This is clearly disappointing as me along with the rest of the independent newspaper retailing channel are treated as second class. It clearly doesn't concern the Daily Mail publishers that the hundreds of thousands of their readers who have their newspaper delivered everyday don't use WHS or Tesco as they don't offer the service.

NO, the Daily Mail publishers, DMGT have been having a difficult time through the economic down turn. They have lost almost £810 million in their equity value in the past 2 years. Ouch!

So is it that the Mail treat us a second class newsagents or is it that Tesco and Smiths pay for the promotion? If that is the case, can independents buy in to this type of promotion?

Or are we forever to be doomed as second class and irrelevant?

The Death Of Another CTN

2010-08-15T08:33:00.074+01:00

View Larger Map

The Swindon Advertiser reports:

'A POPULAR newsagents is closing its doors after more than 50 years of service. Grange Drive News, which has served customers in Stratton St Margaret for more than half a century, will stop serving on August 27.'

It is sad to hear of a newsagent closing, but the story of Laura Feare and her gallant, but vain attempt to make Grange Drive News a success holds a significant lesson for the channel. The CTN (confectionery, tobacco, newsagent) formula is dead.

Item No. One.

Newspaper sales have been on the decline for more than 50 years, yes on the decline since the mid 1950's. Not only have circulations declined the 'monopoly' that newsagents once had has been long shattered with the 'any shop that wants them' approach to distribution. The cover price has in the main seen an above inflation increase, but profit margins have been squeezed both by the publishers lowering the gross profit percentage per copy and their wholesalers significantly increasing their service charges.

Item No. Two

Confectionery remains a low price impulse category for CTN's where the volume game driven by high customer footfall is the only way to 'win'.

Item No. Three

And as for tobacco, Government and the health lobby has been after the category for years with more regulation and higher tax.

Laura Feare, owner of Grange Drive News, said to the Swindon Advertiser:

'The trade’s just been really quiet, the whole area has just quietened down and the last six months have been dead really. It’s a shame because there’s been a newsagents in this area for so long but we can’t keep the business afloat if people aren’t spending.'

Salutary

Who's Buying Our Weaker Lines?

2010-08-14T10:08:00.000+01:00

Nick Shanagher has written an interesting post on betterRetailing.com, he says:

'Retailers need to introduce new products to provide their shoppers with “good news” and to generate interest. But for each new product that you introduce you need to consider delisting an existing line. Easy, you might think. “I will just print out the list of products in the category and take off the one with the lowest sales.” However, if you do this, research from the US suggests you might be wrong.'

As we have been looking at how our confectionery range is performing 3 months on from our Spar inspired changes it is both timely and pertinent. This week I have been looking at our top sellers and how we treat them on our display. yesterdays post listed our top 20 and checking the placement of them showed us that we have not been consitent in how we handle our most valuable products in the range.

We were giving lesser products double facings and having too many of these 'champions' tucked away from the centre of the display. Shocking!

The display plan has changed. Its not the finished article yet, but I will be monitoring sales performance to see how sales are effected by chustering the best sellers nearer to the center of the display and giving them extra facings.

I have been writting a series of post about what we have been doing with confectionery on betterRetailing. More to follow on this subject on that site.

Our Top 20: Confectionery

2010-08-13T20:33:00.001+01:00

1 THORNTONS PREMIUM COLLECT
2 CAD DAIRY MILK 250g
3 MARS BAR Standard
4 CAD BOURNVILLE 200g
5 CAD FRUIT & NUT 250g
6 ROWNTREES FRUIT PASTILLES BAG
7 WRIGLEYS EXTRA PEPPERMINT
8 MALTESERS STD
9 ROWNTREES FRUIT PASTILLES 52.5G
10 KIT KAT FOUR FINGER BAR
11 TREBOR EXTRA STRONG MINTS ROLL
12 LINDOR MILK CORNET 200G
13 LINDT EXCELL EXTRA CREAMY 100G
14 SNICKERS DUO
15 DAIRY BOX 400G
16 MARS DUO
17 NESTLE SMARTIES TUBES
18 TREBOR SOFTMINTS ROLL
19 KIT KAT CHUNKY 4 PACK
20 HARIBO TANGFASTICS 160g

These are our top 20 confectionery lines, without scanning data I would not have picked half of them!

So why Is The NFRN's Member Communications So Bad?

2010-08-12T09:54:00.000+01:00

News

Latest News

Date Title

02 Aug 10: Menzies, Norwich - Update on i-SAP

29 Jul 10: NFRN Hits Back at Press Distribution Forum Claims

29 Jul 10: NFRN Pledges Support for LBRO and Calls for Government to Sit Up and Listen to It

28 Jul 10: Northern District Say Thank You to Delivery Staff with Theme Park Trip

28 Jul 10: Booker Adds Spaghetti and Basmati Rice to Euro Shopper Range

22 Jul 10: LONDON DISTRICT BIDS OPS MANAGER DAVID GREENER A FOND FAREWELL

20 Jul 10: Keep your World Cup stickers and albums on sale

19 Jul 10: NFRN Urges Lottery Regulator to Think Again

The list above is copied from the NFRN's Latest News page on their website. All very important reports I am sure, but wait a minute where is the report about Tuesday's announcement about how the Federation is going to manage the Newspaper and Magazine sector in the future after the recent departure of Stefan W. I know that there has been an announcement because bothe David Daniel and Brian Murphy told me last week that there would be. So is it a secret?

I understand that Paul Chambers is taking the role of Head of News and Magazines and that the 'department' is being strengthened by other personel moves including posts for David Daniel, Brian Murphy and a recently recruited former Dawson News chap who will be on the case of poor wholesalers. Sounds great.

The problem I have, and this is just an example as an illustration, is that the rank and file fee paying membership are all to often kept completely in the dark about what the NFRN are doing at a national level on their behave. There is no mention of the important change to the way the Federation is going to tackle news and magazines. The is no mention of what the aims and expectations of this new strengthen team are.

GHHHaaaaaagggg

I could go on, but I have been told that National Councillors are the channel of distribution for this announcement and I think we all know that the Federation Districts across the country do no have a cost effective communication process for paying members. I know that the NFRN do have email addresses of many members because I recieve other emails from them like the regular information on the AIM magazine promotion program.

So, why is the Federation so bad at communicating with members, does any one know?

Mirror Late Again

2010-08-12T07:37:00.000+01:00

NEWS SUMMARY

Daily Mirror

Re Run

this morning

on following rounds.

309, 330, 350, 360, 370, 380, 381, 390,

400, 410, 430.

All other titles are in and packed.

All rounds are away in good time.

DEPATURE TIME

FIRST ROUND AWAY 3.55

LAST ROUND AWAY 6.00

TITLE ARRIVAL TIMES

Daily Mail 3.28

Daily Mirror 4.20

Daily Express 2.57

Daily Star 2.57

Independent 3.42

Sun 2.53

Daily Telegraph 2.27

Times 2.53

Guardian 2.57

Sport 2.57

Racing Post 3.42

Financial Times 0.15

Arrived at 7.20 am, 2 customer disadvantaged.

Interesting Project

2010-08-11T09:48:00.000+01:00

When were were discussing joining Spar with their regional wholesaler, Capper & Co we told that the SparPos store management system had home newspaper delivery capability. We were also told that none of their stores use this fuctionality, but other Spar wholesalers do have it up and running. Would we be happy to be a trail store for Capper? Our answer was of course. We knew that it would be much simpler to make the supply relationship work with Capper if we installed SparPos so it was an easy decission.

After running with the news management part of the program for more than a month we were introduced to the HND offer last Thursday. Since then I have been adding our shop save/put away customer details on to the data base. So far I will just say that it is different and it may be a week or two before we can start to use the program to control the shop based customer orders. I think that there may be a few phone calls to Capper's man on the case Jonathan.