ive got a nice shop with a steady flow of bikers but seem to sell very few of the mag..its displayed on the counter where everyone can see it..

does anyone read it? i thinks its rather good but just end up giving them away with every orange we sell… 🙄

I go to a newsagents/whsmiths a lot more than I do my lbs which is why I've never brought a bike mag once from a bike shop. I've never once thought "the new issue of Singletrack is out, must pop down the lbs to purchase it" especially when I pass 3 stockists on the way. In an ideal world I think all bikers would purchase the mags from there lbs but it's not an ideal world i'm afraid.

Ask STW to improve the content?
I'm not interested in a cycling lifestyle, (which last time I read it) is the main content.

Sell more day to day/week to week stuff at good prices?

I'd be tempted to buy mags etc if I was poping into my LBS for brake pads, cables, chains etc at reasnoble prices (I'm not going out of my way to pay £13 for a set of pads when they are a fiver online for example and get deliverd to my doormat quicker than I can get organised to go into town).

Even if they just sold flapjack at a price that made it not worth baking my own I'd pop in more often.

Take less in…
Less to sell then 8)

Get yourself a dog on a bit of string, a scruffy, miss matched set of clothes and a very obviously not real sellers lanyard/badge, then just stand outside shouting “BIIIGISSSUUUE!”

Sooner or later some guilt ridden middleclass Muppet will buy one, and promptly plonk it in the nearest bin without even bothering to read the front cover….

If you really want to maximise profits retrieve discarded copies from the Bin and re-sell them the following day…

Get the editorial staff to excise all the bits like the following:

"Swooping down squirrelly singletrack on a warm summer's evening, alone but for the sound of chain over sprocket and the chatter of a lone chaffinch."

I might consider buying it then. It seems in danger of disappearing into its own fundament.

That said, I'm might not be much of a bike magazine sort of bloke. Wouldn't by MBR or MBUK either and don't buy a great deal of kit. I'm interested in stuff on skills, routes and bits. Not so bothered about A-Level English Lit on how riding a bike is fun, textspeak, rad to the max etc.

try stocking the ride journal? bit dif and wont be sold by many newsagents in your area (ie none prob)

Nice tron… I agree, I wouldn't be surprised if the next copy I read has turned into some kind of Shakepearean script about riding. It does sometimes feel like someone on the staff has been on a creative writing course.

Have you tried actually selling them rather than just leaving the display on the counter for people to pick a copy up?

Maybe they just think it's another catalogue or something.

do you sell the clean cover version?

include them in a bulk purchase deal eg. buy 5 tubes get free copy of ST or similar

Or if a product has been reviewed in the mag give the mag away free with that product – when I was getting started in mtb'ing I liked to see the kit I was using getting a good review as it helped me to be confident I had made the right decision.

It makes me wonder how much bike stuff you sell if you can't sell a £4 magazine.

Ignoring all the magazine specific criticism (some of which I agree with, some I don't), do a loss leader with some copies.

Just offer a reduced price every time someone buys something. I bet you'll shift a few copies then.

Tipp-Ex the letters MBUK over the masthead on each copy?

Only joking.

Why not try a cheery "something for the weekend sir?" when you ring up each sale, you'll probably get quite a few impulse buys.

Start selling ragleys, on-ones, bikes with big wheels and single speed and i'm sure you'll get the right crowd.

But seriously the people who go to your shop maybe aren't singletrack types.

I think you need to ask Singletrack to reduce the price!

I would happily by from a bike shop so from my point of view it's not your fault they're not selling. £4.25 is a lot of money for a magazine in my eyes, especially when much of the content is available online at some stage or from somewhere, and proper books dont cost much more (although I accept there aren't many mountain biking novels by Catherine Cookson).

Cover it in the cover of razzle – slightly less embarrassing than buying the Singletrack magazine!!

Almost everyone that I know that reads Singletrack mag (myself included) is a subscriber… It's loads cheaper that way, gets delivered to your door, and you don't have to think about going to buy it. Also the subscriber only issues with their clean front cover are much nicer to look at than the ones you can buy in the shop.

For that reason alone I think Singletrack mag have shot themselves in the foot (or maybe they haven't, but they've certainly shot their resellers in the foot), as why would you pay more for something when it's also harder to obtain?

As a bike shop, personally I'd take the executive decision not to sell any mags (unless on sale or return), though I think a "shop copy" for customers to browse through whilst in the shop would be a good touch. Certainly having a shop copy would likely keep them in the shop longer, and also maybe get their mind thinking about spending a bit of money at least…

"Swooping down squirrelly singletrack on a warm summer's evening, alone but for the sound of chain over sprocket and the chatter of a lone chaffinch."

I like all that reflective and descriptive writing. It's what makes it distinctive from the functional prose of the others.

Nearly always end up buying it at Smiths or similar, even though I much prefer the clean cover version from the bike shop 2 miles away.

Mental note…….. 'only 2 miles away.' Maybe next month.

Bought one once in an LBS. But I am a subscriber now. – perhaps like most of the people who would actually buy it. And I like the more contemplative philosophical nature of it, but I'm an old git.

The mag cover isn't shouty like MBUK or MBR (which i get with tesco vouchers in any case) and it doesn't have yet another beanie/pair of socks strapped to the front.

You really would have to sell it. It isn't going to sell itself.

I'm sorry cycleworlduk, I used to buy it from my lbs (the same lbs that built up my Seven, ahem, near death hit and run compensation bicycle and I won't repeat my wife's comments about the price but it went along the lines of 'how many f*****g thousand pounds and it doesn't have any f*****g pedals?'….she doesn't really understand about how the type of cleats are individual) but unlike a lot of posts I really enjoyed the genuine sense of near anarchy that still seems to prevail at Singletrack Towers so I became a postal subscriber a long time back. I still feel the need to apologise at my lbs for not buying the, as far as I'm concerned sfb, the finest mtb mag around, over the counter.
I guess in your position, I'd be tempted to be a little more aggressive, have a sample copy for looking at, ask people what they think. Many mags are little more than catalogues with a little bit of content to pad out the adverts, ST doesn't really cater for a short attention span generation, become a proselyte for content over font, Spread the word, best of luck.

"the genuine sense of near anarchy that still seems to prevail at Singletrack Towers"

I like that too.

try giving an orange away with every copy of the mag instead 😆 i would buy two copy`s

well thank you Buzz, I am now lifting my glass to you and Chipps