Discount supermarket giant Aldi has stopped selling newspapers and magazines at all of its UK stores.
Aldi, which was ranked as the UK’s fifth biggest supermarket earlier this year, put up notices in its stores on Monday to tell customers it would no longer be stocking its newsstands with immediate effect.
The notice said: “From 30 September we will no longer be stocking newspapers and magazines. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.”
Press Gazette understands sales were consistently low, with the company expecting the impact on customers to be limited.
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The German-owned company found the space in its stores needs to be better utilised, especially as they are generally smaller than other major supermarkets.
It therefore decided to optimise the sales space it has available by getting rid of its newsstands.
The decision was made about five months ago but has only just rolled out to the hundreds of Aldi stores across the UK.
An Aldi spokesperson declined to comment.
After seeing the notice to customers inside one Aldi store, Guardian media columnist and former Daily Mirror editor Roy Greenslade said the company’s decision “appears to be yet another sign of the disruptive, nay destructive, nature of the digital revolution”.
“Once there were tablets of stone. Now we get our messages on tablets of plastic.”
Money journalist Simon Read said today it was “another blow for traditional print media”, while the Telegraph’s consumer champion Katie Morley described it as “bleak”.
Picture: Reuters/Darren Staples
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