Australian Newsagency Blog

The photo shows a closer look at the ad stuck over the masthead of today’s Age newspaper. It offers a 300g bag of Darrell Lea liquorice for 80 cents.

It’s a good deal, but there is a catch. You have to go to the website to find the participating stores - as if people with the coupon in their hand have time for that. No, they will think of their closest Darrell Lea location.

My newsagency at Forest Hill is not listed as a participating store. In fact, I can’t see any newsagency listed as a participating store. From what I can tell the list is corporate stores only.

Maybe the marketing people at Darrell Lea are smarter than me because I would have thought that tying in this promotion with a newspaper and through outlets which sell newspapers and the Darrell Lea product would have been smart.,

I know we will get customers asking about the deal. Should I tell them to go to a Darrell Lea store? Of course not! Given the floorspace, labour and stock investment I have made in Darrell Lea for the last five years or so, I am not about to tell my customers to go elsewhere. Now, we’ll come up with a response which hopefully does not direct them elsewhere.

This is a disappointing offer from Darrell Lea which, on the surface, appears to disrespect its non corporate stores.