The advent or badvent of small business decline: The case of the newsagent and the monopoly newspaper distributor
Lynne Baxter, University of York
In December in the UK, children of all ages every morning open small numbered ‘windows’ on a cardboard picture of a cartoon character or a festive scene. The opened window reveals a picture or a piece of chocolate as a small surprise as part of the build up to Christmas. The idea is that it is a daily reminder of the momentous day to come, the 25th of December. Excitement builds, and for one of the authors, her November birthday presents included an advent calendar which had a way of sustaining the birthday mood through the winter.
Every day Gerardo Alonzi opens the package delivered by his newspaper distributor and checks the packing slip against the contents. The checking process reveals no pleasant surprise but usually a shortage. The paper describes data that reveal that the majority of orders are short. This is a form, we argue of ‘badvent’ calendar foretelling the end of his business, like two other newsagents in his neighbourhood in the recent past.
The consistent nuisance of shortages is undermining his customer relations and financial viability. When one title is not delivered, customers buy another title, thus creating a shortage in that title, doubling the dissatisfaction from the error. The distributor bills Gerardo as if he received the full complement, they will deliver the shortfall if Gerardo rings them, but there is frequently no-one to answer the phone, the customer has long gone, and the billing favours the distributor’s cash flow, not Gerardo’s.
To make matters worse, the distributor operates their own version of a system called ‘vendor managed inventory’ (Waller, Johnson and Davis, 1999) where their computer system, and not Gerardo decides how many copies of any given title will be delivered that day. They present their system as reducing cost and hassle for the customer, when in effect it does nothing of the kind. Gerardo pays for the privilege of having them supply him, and has no alternative.
The paper discusses the data in relation to the supply chain theory, and will refer to Walter Benjamin too!