I get around a bit and often end up in different towns where I do my shopping. At local supermarkets and even some Walmarts in the greater Boston (M***) area, there are the normal magazine sections. As I understand it guys called "Rack Jobbers" stock the magazine racks, and decide which magazines are stocked (and restocked if an issue sells out). These days, most Supermarkets no longer stock Rod Magazines (like Rod&Custom, Street Rodder, etc) or even Hot Rod. They do stock mags like Automobile, Car & Driver, Road and Track, some of the Tuner Mags and maybe Dubs and Lowrider. A few may stock one of the Rod "lifestyle" magazines, but no actual Rod magazines. Walmarts vary and most around stock Hot Rod and various Muscle car oriented mags (along with the mainstream Car & Driver / Automobile mags) and various NASCAR oriented magazines, but most no longer have Rod&Custom or Street Rodder, etc. Most do stock a rod "lifestyole" magazine. I guess this is because they don't sell well enough to warrant space on the racks. I know a lot of you subscribe to the mags you like, but I stopped subscribing and pretty much buy issues of mags when there is an article/articles I want. There is just way too much of the same stuff in most rod mags (Rodders Journal excepted, but the only place I have ever seen it for sale is at Borders or Barnes & Nobles). So, I end up going to a good newstand/magazine store about once a month, that stocks most all the car mags, and I look through them, before I decide if I "need" to buy any of them. I'm just wondering if Rod Mags (and Hot Rod) have disappeared from the racks in your Supermarkets and Walmarts and chain big drugstores too? I know back in the 60s when I was a little kid, looking at Hot Rod and R&C at the Supermarket, while my Mother or Father shopped, was something I looked forward to.
Walmart down here has a good amount... Rod & Custom, Street Rodder, Hot Rod, Hot Rod Deluxe, Old Skool Rodz(sp?), Rodders Digest, etc. As well as the Automobile, Road & Track, Mustang, Camaro, Truck, Import, blah blah blah, you get the point. Of course to get TRJ or Traditional Rod & Kulture I gotta go to Hastings Book Store. You can get em really cheap if you make friends with someone who works there. When they restock magazines, the unsold issues get their covers torn off and thrown in the trash. I've got lots of magazines with no covers. All for free, heh.
Hot Rod and other rod type magazines are gone from the racks in my area of So Cal (Pomona, San Dimas, La Verne).
I can usually find anything (TR&K, HRD, Etc.) in the local news stand. The local stop and shop down here only carries Hot Rod and Rod n' Custom.
It's a mixed bag here in Rochester. Some months it seems that there is a good selection at the local grocery store (Wegman's) where we shop. Other months, the selection is quite limited. I don't know who is tracking the sales and deciding what goes on the shelf and what doesn't. Also, as is common in retailing, the less popular ***les are placed on the racks in places that are way less visible than the mainstream ***les. Can't see 'em- won't buy 'em. A self fufilling prophecy. As far as I can determine, the print industry, particularly car mags, is in a big world of hurt and I'm not sure how it is going to extricate itself. I hope it survives as I love to sit down with my new issue every month and just enjoy myself for however long it takes to read each one. I'll admit, I'm way behind on my reading, but I loves me my pile of car mags!
As the former manager of a conv.store, let me give you guys a tip. If there's a mag you want, ask for it. I had a standing list of mags certain guys wanted and would order enough copys from our vender. Just be sure to pick them up each month. Most of this type of store dosen't have the space to carry a large nimber of different ***les. Ron
Current Rod magazines and all the old Petersen ***les that I used to view as the foundation of the industry, HRM-Car Craft-R&C, require a trip to a big newsstand or even Barnes and Noble around here. Usually, ONLY Barnes and Noble gives me all the ***les I'm looking for. The convenience store-grocery-drugstore racks are all tuner, truck, and motorcycle stuff plus a couple of road-test types. There is zero hotrod exposure in the high traffic places. Military too, perhaps. I was in a Marine Corps PX with my parents recently, lots of car-cycle-truck mags but nothing in my flavors at all. I think in the past, military exposure was a BIG breeding ground for future hotrodders. (I just remembered...MY first exposure was via HRM encountered at a PX in Panama about 1960! Ruined for life by a single magazine!)
We have one of the few regional Newsstand companies left alive out here. They do a KILLER job stocking the grocers,drug stores etc............I literally have to decide WHICH store I will buy them at because most stores stock the usual suspects! I don't go to Walmart so I can not attest to them.
at Luckys supermarket they have Hot Rod deluxe, Ol' Skool Rods and HOT ROD. as well as truckin' and some others i don't look at. used to go to a liquor store here in town. went there once a week since I was like 12 years old (1972) to buy my magazines. the old couple who owned it sold out to mid eastern people who are extremely rude and have a thing about people who spend more than a few minutes in the store even when you spend 10-15 bucks. **** em... buy my magazines elsewhere now. the Bottle Shop in Fremont... anyone else go there?
My STREET RODDER and R&C subscriptions were extended a year past the expiration date to beef up circulations numbers. These are the number that are used to set ad rates. HOT ROD at $10.00 for 36 issues is cheaper than it costs to print! Just noticed that FIELD & STREAM extended my free sub another eight months. It's going to interesting to see what happens to the books coming out in December and January given the credit crunch.
I would imagine that politics plays as large a role as any other factor when it comes down to the final car mag selection in any venue. When I was a kid there were four or five ***les; there must be a couple of hundred now. You can't beat a large Barnes and Noble or Borders for a good selection. I haven't found as good an independent around since Tower Records folded. That's the only place I ever saw Kustoms Illustrated and they even carried Japanese and Italian car mags.
It all depends on the distributors they are using and if the main distributor has a contract with the local distributor in any certain area. Then there is the sales of the ***le. If they aren't selling, they get pulled. It doesn't pay to cart them around, display them, discard the mags, return the covers, pay the fee for the covers so you know the count of sales, etc. If the mag is not selling in Porscheville, Ca. why display it there? I think, well I know when mine was out, 2/3s sale of a ***le kept you on the stands. That was an average after a 3 time display. Magazine stores and B&N, etc. are a different story unless the ***le just doesn't move at all.
recently some folks have predicted that print magazines will die off due to the internet... dumb***es. if i buy a mag, it's MINE, i HAVE it, i can pick it up and read it anytime i want, even if the power is out and the DSL/Cable is out..... i can "access" it's information, carry it with me on a plane, roll it up and pound the **** out of some punk bumming change on the bus. try to "access" a past issue of some "online E-magazine" and see how you do... guarantee somewhere along the line somebody wants a credit card number. i OUGHT to buy subscriptions but i like to do the weekly rack raid at BooksAMillion and Barnes and Noble..... gather up a bunch of gun mags and talk to myself loudly in the presence of mothers with little kids...
I think it has to do with demographics. There are certain mags I can count on buying at the supermarket in westboro, MA or Shrewsbury, MA opposed to what I can buy in Worcester, MA. These mag guys are in business and they look at what they put on the shelf as a business....No one is going to put Goya beans or goya soda on the supermarket shelf in My hometown market. On that note, they are not going to put Jet magazine or Lowrider magazine on the shelf...nobody shopping in these towns are going to buy these products...... I can find R&C on the supermarket shelf in westboro along with car craft, hot rod, and street rodder, however, three towns over in a different demographic, the only car mags available in the same supermarket chain are Lowrider, truckin, and some kinda NOPI BS..... My post will probally be viewed by some as non-PC, but it is what it is.....marketing 101....BigJim, look at it this way....Do you really think your going to find a Town and country magazine in a store in Lawrence? ---- Of course not.
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