London: greeting cards 1 magazines 0

On a return visit to Hatton News in central London this week, I was surprised to find that two metres of the magazine display had been replaced by cards.

Trade has been difficult for Manoj Harji but he took advantage of the closure of Clinton Cards further down his parade to change his product mix. The cards are generating more profit from the space than the magazines were, he says.

I did not have the opportunity to check his numbers and his range is similar to that in Funky Pigeon, which opened a concession in WHSmith, which is located on the far side of the closed card shop.

The first problem is lower footfall and the second is about filling your linear feet of shelf space with what is scarce, and scarcity is hard to find in the middle of London. (Mind you, across town at Exmouth market Space is selling tiny cards at £3.99, imported from the USA.)

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