And what fun it is!

I am serious, it is quite enjoyable. It is far from the dreaded job that so many of our customers think it is. Yes, we even count every 5 cent sour candy. Mind you those on candy duty don't usually end up at that station again for at least a couple of years. It is only one of two nights a year when we all get together, the other being the staff party of course. We count for a while and then we all have supper together. In the past we have ordered in Chinese, Thai, Turkish but this will be the second year in a row that we will have Salvatores Pizza in again because it was soooo good last year. Who knows what will be on the menu next year. We close the store at  4pm and we are usually done around 9pm. When Stephen and I bought the business, inventory was done on New Years Eve and we didn't close the shop till later and we never got out before midnight!! Needless to say one of the first things we did as new owners was to change our year end. As much as we all like to work together we should not be in the shop on New Years Eve.

I receive an industry newletter almost daily via my email. It was such a treat to read the very positive headline: "Believe it or not, Fewer Magazines Folding in 2009." With such high profile closures such as the most recent Gourmet plus Country Home and Best Life it seemed that all I have been reading is doom and gloom. Not to mention the other headlines such as "Newsstand Decline Contiues"

 Todays article reports the surprise statistic of only 383 title closures so far in 2009 compared to a total of 613 in 2008 and 643 in 2007. There is still the fourth quarter to reckon with but that would be a sudden rush of closures to reach last years numbers. One of the other interesting statistics was that of the 259 titles to launch ( 75 of them were B2B magazines) the food category gained 14 new titles, health and fitness (13), and home (13). We must all be cocooning, exercising and hopefully eating well. Looks good for our future health perhaps!

There was also a previous article that refers to some assumptions being made on the "impact of the recession on ad pages and the consumers relationships with magazines. And those assumptions are often wrong." To my eyes reading that " magazine readership is up- up about 5 percent from 2005" is also very good news.

Enjoy your favourite magazine.

And back to work...

I felt like I was in and out of the store for the month of August grabbing days off here and there. Several of the staff took well deserved holidays and thankfully the weather held for them.

There is something about the day after Labour Day weekend, psychologically it seems to be the herald of fall, when it is time to pull up the boot straps and get back to work. Mind you maybe that is just me needing to get back to work! The university students are out in force all around our area, doing their frosh week fundraiser for Cystic Fibrosis. As the shop door opens you can hear them hooting and hollering and having fun all for a good cause. In this neighbourhood you definitely know it is back to school when that happens.

Just last week the magazine shipments seem to get back on track for fall as well.  We have been receiving smaller shipments and I would say it wasn't just because it was summer as one of my suppliers told me that over 300 magazines have stopped publishing. Over the summer our main supplier has been bringing us around 2200 magazines each Tuesday and then boom, right back up to 3000 magazines. We have already had the big fall fashion issues and tomorrow the October issue of Vanity Fair arrives.

Welcome to the next season and the next routine

Did a song just start playing in your head?

We recently had our staff party and we had a really nice night. We don't have to worry about things said or done at the party that are talked about at the office for days after thankfully. Mind you, last year after we all played paintball Karla did get the new nickname "Killer Karla". This year was back to simpler times. We had a BBQ at our home and then went for a walk out to High Head in Prospect and had a fire down by the ocean. Yes, the Some Mores were there, with much discussion on the best way to toast the marshmellow. It is interesting how passionate people can be: Golden brown, charcoaled with a very gooey centre, in the flames til just before it ignites or two at a time.

That is not snow or rain in one of the pictures but a very heavy fog. As we all know, living in Nova Scotia you can't let the weather stop you, you just go anyway.

They are all to be found at your favourite magazine shop.

I have been told on a number of occasions that I should be letting more people know that we have live music here every Saturday afternoon. It all started last September at our 35th Anniversary Party (see Blog Sept 08). We had so many positive comments about the musicians playing that we decided to continue bringing them in. So early Sat afternoons you can browse for your special magazine and listen to Colin MacRae on the piano. Many people have told us how much they enjoy his playing. I like seeing the surprise on some peoples faces as they walk in the open doors and realize there is live music. On occasion we have other performers as well. Singer/songwriter Cassie MacDonald will be playing again on Sat Jun 27th. Come and listen to her beautiful voice.

While you are browsing and enjoying the music you can also fill out a ballot to win a Bicycle. Cadbury's Chocolate has a promotion on at the moment to send 5000 bicycles to Africa. We have the same model here to give away on June 30th. The bike has been designed for Africa. They have back peddle brakes (remember those?) and just one gear. Simplicity and few parts to need repair. Boy couldn't I use that after trying to repair my gears last year. I just made them worse and had to take my bike to Ideal Bikes.

 I hope you like what is now happening at the store

Well done Jeff,

On Wednesday May 20th Jeff Haggett graduated from Dalhousie's Faculty of Architecture and Planning  with Honours in Urban Design Studies. Jeff has been a customer, friend and mentor. Then we did what someone said I should never do and that was " to not hire friends or family". Well in this case I can say it worked out to both of our mutual benefits. 

Ours paths in life are rarely straight and for Jeff it was no different. A chance meeting pointed him in a new direction in his 40's, one that was to take his interest  in architecture and cities to a brand new career. After working at Atlantic News and devoting himself to school I was very excited to see him up on the stage receiving his degree. It was equally exciting seeing him receive 3 prizes including the Sexton Distinction for 1 of 2 highest grade point averages. None of us are surprised after seeing all the hard work he has put in.

They have lots in common!

The other day I met up with the father of my daughters friend. While he was waiting for me to arrive he was happily spending time reading a book. When I came up to his side, he said " Books are dead". Print that is; in his hand was a Sony Reader. I hope I masked the distress that flooded through me! I replied that I didn't believe that to be the case. He went on to say that his wife swore she would never read a book unless it was print. She did up trying the Sony Reader and read a whole novel in a weekend. I was given the analogy of rugs, brooms and vaccums. Can you picture in your minds eye the woven cane rug beaters? How each spring the carpets and rugs would be taken outside and given a beating. Brooms were used to tidy up and then along came vaccum cleaner sales men traipsing from door to door selling the new fangled gizmo to make your life easier. The father said how it took a few years to make the vaccum commonplace but where would we be without them today. Soon enough he believes that The Reader, Kindle, and others like them will replace shopping for and reading a print edition. My answer back is that most of us may have a vaccum cleaner but we all still have a broom. And some of us even still beat out the rugs in Spring. Print Dead? I don't think so.

And away they go...

No, just kidding they aren't leaving, but they are forging ahead with their own passions. Angela  ( Her Blog and website )  has a show this summer at the View Point Gallery on Barrington St. It gets a mention in the Summer issue of Canadian Art , which will probably arrive in June at the shop.

Leah has started installing our windows for several months now. We entered a country wide contest for two displays. I get to happily tell you she won first prize for both windows. Approximately 25 stores from across the country joined in the competition. Well done Leah. The first window was for Wallpaper magazine where she literally created wallpaper from the masthead. Then she turned the window into a setting for Decanter magazine. Most recently she created a universe for a science window. It looks brilliant.

 Caitlin one of our former staff is on her way to Toronto to work in Theatre. She graduated from the Dal program while working with us. Back in Mayof 08 she wrote the play Living my Life in Circles which got her a review stating " Pillsworth off to good start with new production by Metamorphic". So we wish her well on yet another new start. Break a leg Caitlin.

I was not exaggerating.

Mind you I wasn't accurate though. The paper is actually 32" wide by 23"  so not quite 3 feet x 2 feet but pretty close. The Globe and Mail is 24" wide x 23"  and The Chronicle Herald is 22" wide x 21.5.

I just came across the following blog on the Masthead Online (Canadian Magazine Industry site). The editor was also checking out newsstands in Australia

I just spent a wonderfully relaxing month in Australia staying with my husbands family in Newcastle, the farm in Guyra and with friends in Tasmania. Needless to say I did check out the newsstands of which there are many. Lots of the towns still have all their shops lining the main street. They have canopies that reach out from the side of the buildings allowing you to stroll protected from the sun. Some of the smaller towns will even have two newsstands. They are quite different from ours, as they are more a stationary and general goods shop with magazines added to the mix. Boy you should see the size of the Sydney Morning Herald it is huge, the dimensions must be nearly 2 ft by 3ft opened. I have to ask myself if I am exaggerating?? I am going to have to give a quick email to my parents in law to ask them to measure it....

 I also checked out the North American titles to see what their "import" retail prices were like.

                                   Here             There

Dance magazine          $4.99           $13.00

Grafik                         $25.50         $33.90

Adbusters                     $8.95           $9.95

Wired                          $5.99           $11.95

Yoga Journal                $6.99           $11.95

Collectible Automobile   $11.95         $14.95

Not too surprising really considering how far they have to go. Mind you the various differences don't make alot of sense particularily when you look at Adbusters with just $1 difference and then Dance with $8.00. 

The staff did a great job while I was away, as I had every confidence they would. I was pleasantly surprised by the lack of "must attend to" notes on my desk.