Show me somebody who ‘never reads magazines’ and I’ll show you a fibber! Anytime you are in a doctor’s or dentist’s office you are sitting next to a pile of bright slick paper that you just can’t help glance at. Pretty soon one is open on your lap, and you are unaware of wasted minutes spent sitting in a cramped waiting room.
If you have a business that requires people to wait for service, odds are you need some sort of distraction in your waiting area to quell impatience and discontent. Magazines are a favorite, but only if they hold interest for the reader.
Choosing the magazine subscriptions for your business waiting room should be done with a sharp eye to what audience they will have. If you run a hip new tanning salon used primarily by female high school and college students, you will probably want to stock publications as Cosmopolitan or Seventeen.
A beauty parlor catering to a slightly older demographic might be better off with Glamour and Elle. A men’s barbershop could carry Spin or Golf Digest, a custom stereo installer Motor Trend or Popular Mechanic.
Some waiting rooms lean naturally towards one field or another.
A cardiologists office might stock publications focusing on health or fitness, while a pediatricians office would want a cross section of parenting and children’s magazines. Don’t go overboard, however - some people want nothing less than the soup de jour shoved in their face. Make sure you have a generic magazine or two handy for those who just want to escape. When in doubt, go for the top sellers that embrace the widest demographics.
People Magazine and Reader’s Digest are obvious picks, as are magazines focusing on entertainment, celebrity gossip, and the home and garden arena. People naturally like to read about the lifestyles of the rich and famous - that imaginary world where WE own the beach house in Malibu and the yacht off the coast of Greece is a pleasant place to kill an hour!
Once you have decided what demographic frequents your waiting room you can start picking and choosing your publications. Often you can get a discount if you bundle a few subscriptions together, so have a little fun and pick one or two that suit your family in the bargain.
You can always bring the read copies up to the office to beef up your available supply. A word about your magazine display - a stack of ratty coverless magazines crammed in a corner doesn’t seem that appealing.
Take a moment each morning to check over your stock and discard any hopelessly crumpled or torn specimens. Fan them neatly on a coffee table, or invest in an inexpensive magazine rack that will hold your collection without being overly crammed.
If you have too many, rotate them out on a regular basis. Magazines can make the difference between a reasonably content waiting room and a roiling pit of dissatisfaction and petulance. Fortunately, the magazine subscription solution to waiting room blues is fast, simple and inexpensive - you can build a decent selection in virtually no time, at relatively little cost to you.
About the Author
The author of this article has a general interest in all things technology, including PCs, hardware, software, Internet, programming, gaming, as well as gadgets and gizmos. Get more information regarding magazines.
