Welcome to the cutthroat brutal world of newspaper rack sales and the vicious games that are played for the sake of selling a newspaper. (Hopefully, you read this first sentence in the voice of “Red Pepper” voice-over artist for blockbuster films such as Men in Black and Armageddon. If not please re-read it with the appropriate voice-over in your head.)
I’m hoping that this column will eventually become less about rack wars and more about peace and prosperity in the realm of retail sales with the help of our readers, supporters, and volunteers. While last week I illustrated some of the antics that occur when competing for space on a shared newspaper rack, this week I bring attention to abuse that occurs even when we do have our own rack to place our newspapers.
The situation is currently ongoing at Walmart on 19 where we are lucky to have our own rack. Unfortunately, for many weeks our fearless newspaper delivery aficionado/reporter/assistant editor Summer has found our papers completely covered by free coupon flyers on our own rack. Large piles of free coupon flyers and other free publications are mysteriously set on top of our paper, both on the upper and lower shelves indiscriminately. So every week, Summer removes the flyers and sets them on the floor next to the rack, and places our new issue on the rack. She returns the next week to find the same situation.
The regional paper does not seem to have this problem on their rack.
There are many locations where we co-exist peacefully with free publications and we don’t mind when they are placed on the bottom shelf of the rack without smothering our newspaper. It’s the smothering that is the problem.
If you shop at Walmart on 19, we’d be much obliged if you could stop by our rack and check on the situation for us. If there is smothering going on, please help us out by placing the flyers on the bottom of our rack if there is space available or on the floor next to the rack in a neat and tidy manner.
Be sure to email us before and after pictures so we can send you a special thank you gift!
This week, the store I’d like to recognize for their outstanding partnership in newspaper distribution is Chick-Fil-A on Cortez Blvd. We deliver 50 newspapers a week to Chick-Fil-A, where they are placed on our rack at the entrance. Chick-Fil-A purchases the newspapers for their customers to enjoy each week. And usually, all 50 papers are taken home by happy customers. So the next time you need to grab a bite to eat, stop at Chick-Fil-A where you’ll find a great meal, great service, and the reading material isn’t too shabby.
