Ask Our Newsstand Guy!

by Eddie Roche

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Magazine Café’s very own Manish Golchha loves magazines more than anybody we know. The Daily made our biannual visit to his West 37th Street store to dish on the industry—and get his take on Alessandro Michele, of course.

 

Always fun to catch up. Personal question first: How’s the kid?
She’s going to be 4 in April. She’s growing up fast. It’s fun. She doesn’t read magazines yet—she doesn’t even read. There’s a long way to go before I let her read Teen Vogue or Cosmo. My heart will skip a beat when that happens.

And who are you wearing today?
My shirt is from Zara, jeans, and the same D&G belt that I always wear. Perhaps your readers will do a fund-raiser to get me a new belt.

So, what’s new?
We’ve been slammed with new magazines. The March issues are rolling in, so we’re excited. Today, I had an order for 500 copies of Bazaar and Vanity Fair.

Wow! Is someone selling them on the black market?
I don’t think so. It’s for a company who gives the issues to their employees and clients. I’d like to work for a company like that!

Same. What’s selling these days?
Our best sellers are still Vogue U.K. and Elle. I’m waiting to see how thick the March issue of Vogue is. We still have the September issues for sale—we keep them on hand because people still ask for them. This is the first year we’re doing that.

How did the Zoolander cover of Vogue sell?
Well, but not more than any other issue. Ben Stiller looks good. I’m pretty excited about the movie. Not everybody loved that movie, but this fashion district is the crowd for it.

Thoughts on InStyles redesign?
This new look is liked. It reminds me of U.K. InStyle. We also have the new Glamour in with Gwyneth Paltrow. Covers love her.

The cover line says Gwyneth “owns her own mistakes.” Do you own yours?
I wouldn’t say I’m there, but I’m trying to work on that. Sometimes I do and sometimes I don’t.

GQs issue is very sexy. Is Cristiano Ronaldo wearing a Speedo?
Men are very excited and motivated about improving themselves and their bodies. It’s a European style of underwear on him. Guys should be inspired to pick up a copy of something like this. I know I would be.

You’re selling Vanity Teen! Should we be calling the cops about the people picking this up?
We haven’t sold too many copies.

Is that a creepy old man reader?
It’s a fashion reader, but it sounds a little…you know what I mean.

We know what you mean. How do you feel about Details folding?
I’m not very happy about it. We did pretty well with Details. I won’t say it was the best-selling magazine for men, but after GQ and Esquire, Details was pretty popular. I wasn’t happy when I learned about it going out of business. If we can stop this loss of good magazines going out of business, places like Magazine Café can also stay in business.

Do you have a digital strategy?
Not really. We feel pretty confident that print is not going to all turn into digital. We want it to survive. We want to be best at print. We’re currently not thinking about digital. I like the feel of holding a magazine. It feels much better than swiping. We look at screens from the beginning of the day at our computer to the TV at night. Magazines break up the monotony.

What did you think of Alessandro Michele’s looks for Gucci?
It looked classy. A lot of prints. It’s a very classic look going on. Though I don’t think lace is ever going to be popular with men.

The lottery was a huge deal. Were you affected?
It was crazy in here. We always had 10 people lined up. It was initially fun, but afterward, annoying. People would get impatient and start arguing with each other if someone was taking a long time.

We noticed you’re selling Valentine’s Day cards.
We have a sale going on our website—5 percent off!

Will you read us a card?
“To my husband, magic happened when I met you and it grew into something more amazing and wonderful than anything I could have imagined.” It’s a bit cheesy, but we have to please all our customers.

We understand you don’t want to be referred to as our “newsstand guy.” Any alternatives?
How about the magazine mogul? That sounds better. My store doesn’t look like a newsstand.

You’ll always be the newsstand guy to me.
Let’s see what your readers think. Let’s do a poll!

 

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