Wal-Mart, moving magazines to back of store, also reducing space and titles

Not only is Wal-Mart moving magazines to the back of its stores, its "Project Impact" remodeling program will actually decrease the space devoted to magazines and reduce the number of authorized titles, based on profitability and sales. According to a story in Audience Development, the major magazine retailer is reducing mainline space by 20 feet -- about half of what it was previously -- which leaves about 210 magazine titles on display.

Those numbers may vary from store to store and final counts are still under consideration—estimates place the number of titles Wal-Mart carries across its chain at 2,000.

Mike Porche, president, Distribution Services, Inc., told AD that Wal-Mart is in the process of reviewing the list of titles that are carried in “Project Impact” stores and is looking to remove any titles that are deemed “unprofitable and low-selling,” but that the company has yet to determine the number of titles that will remain on the aisles.

Titles that remain on display in “Project Impact” stores, according to the industry source, will be given full-face display. “This is good news for the major mainline titles,” the source wrote in an email to AD. “But it’s undoubtedly not going to be good for niche titles that have been fighting to hold on their space.”

Dennis Porti, the president of Curtis Circulation LLC, one of the biggest U.S. distributors, say that because magazines are impulse driven, the combination of fewer magazines in less space at the back will inevitably reduce sales.

“We were fortunate to have a wonderful display at the front-end, not just at checkout, but on the mainline where there was maximum foot traffic and eyeballs.”

Porti added that reducing the number of titles in these stores might cause additional issues. “I’ve seen numerous studies that conclude that any time you reduce, in any significant way, the number of titles on a rack, you’re going to lose sales,” he said. “The remaining titles never pick up those lost sales.”

The story pointed out that magazines will continue to be sold at checkout lanes, even though the mainline is being relocated.