Are self-serve checkouts cutting into magazine sales?

Call it the law of unintended consequences. Many major consumer magazines, including the likes of Canadian Living, Homemaker's, Flare and so on depend on impulse purchases at the supermarket checkout for a good part of their newsstand sales. A speaker at a Magazine Publishers of America conference, reported in Folio:, says that self-checkouts threaten to cut into these sales.

Michael Porché, CEO of Distribution Services Inc. told the Magazine Publishers of America Retail Conference in Orlando that there is a 40 per cent decrease in magazine sales among the 27% of shoppers who use self-checkouts.

“Self-checkouts are shifting the consumer’s focus away from magazines,” he said. “Retailers are increasingly turning to self-checkout models, which lower the cost of their most important focus: labor. But retailers need to recognize the impact of self-checkout centers on magazines. They may reduce costs, but they also reduce the opportunity for impulse and other sales at the checkout.”

Porché said magazines have to make the case for magazines at all checkouts.

“Why are magazines at the checkout?Because they deserve to be. Magazines perform better than any other category. They have a 35.7 percent profitability margin at the checkout. They represent five of the Top 10 skews at the checkout and they have less space than confection, but they perform better.”