Everyone in the newsagency industry I think suspects that 2009 will be an important year for newsagents. Because the industry is asking now "Where are we going?"
Over the last few weeks, we have had meetings with several largest organisations in the newsagency industry.
Now everyone sees that retail is in great flux. We can see that too in our benchmarking project. Retail is so much about public sentiment and now the public is confused. Also most newsagents and suppliers work in months. The difference between November 2007 and November 2008 is one more Saturday and Sunday and two weekdays. There will be an instant difference just there. So November is out.
Then we are going into the holiday season. That clears up in mid-February. Beside many professionals are in holiday mode and do not want to start then. Also between February 2008 and 2009 there is an extra weekday because of the leap year. While March 2008 and 2009, the difference is minor with only one weekday and one Saturday.
Almost all are zeroing on March 2009 as the earliest date for doing studies. That is when we will see many studies in the industry.
