You’ve heard the Officeworks ads, they run on high rotation on TV, they are in the newspapers regularly, then there are the flyers in the letterbox and, of course, billboards. The all proclaim that Officeworks offers LOWEST PRICES EVERYDAY.
Officeworks does not have the lowest prices every day. Not the way I see it at least. They get away with this claim by publishing a price guarantee, that they will better the price of any item by 5%. Their website says that their price checkers guarantee that they bring you the lowest prices possible every day. Hmmm, their price checkers cannot be all that good. The Officeworks price for a pack of four check tickets is $4.53. These checkers employed by Officeworks would know that the vast majority of newsagents easily beat this price by 47%. Check the responses from newsagents on what they charge for check tickets when I asked the question this past weekend.
Newsagents don’t just beat the Officeworks price on check tickets, we beat them on a range of items every day. It is us who should be proclaiming the lowest prices every day. Instead, we would rather complain about Officeworks and them get away with it. Instead of complaining maybe we should fight.
It’s a bit like the carbon tax debate or the poker machine pre-commitment changes. If you make enough noise with your spin, regardless of how distant from the facts it is, you soon get it into people’s heads that what you are saying is accurate, regardless of whether it is accurate. Spin wins.
Officeworks does not offer the lowest prices every day. What they do offer is to beat any price by 5%. The shopper has to find the better price and provide it to Officeworks. Officeworks does not pursue delivering the lowest price as a matter of course.
I clicked on the social responsibility link on the Officeworks website as I figured it would have something to say about their commitment. It didn’t offer much of substance. Sure it was nice words, but nothing relevant to what I would call social responsibility Then clicked on the ethics link – expecting that would speak to their commitment to honesty and integrity. It, too, lacked substance in my view. The stand out paragraph on the ethics page for me is:
Maintaining a culture of integrity ensures that our team members always act in the best interest of our business and our shareholders.
There it is. Shareholders come first. As a public company this is as it must be.
I suspect that Officeworks knows that it does not offer the lowest prices every day. If they don’t, they should know this. I suspect that Officeworks does not regularly price check against outlets like newsagencies. If they do they need to lift their game.
The out for them on Check Ticket prices is that we do not offer a four pack. I’d reject that saying that we would sell four packs for, usually, $2.40. Even though they are sold individually, it is reasonable to compare the price of four individual packs with a single four pack and they have it displayed.
I’d like to see the Consumer’s Association or some other body challenge the Officeworks LOWEST PRICES EVERYDAY claim. They spend a ton of money on the claim so they ought to be prepared to be investigated to ensure that it is accurate wherever and whenever it is made.
In asking the price of check tickets I intended to write a blog post about the need for newsagents to proclaim that they have the LOWEST PRICES EVERYDAY. Based on prices I checked of everyday stationery lines, such a claim would be accurate. I wanted to write that we should be proud of our price position and that as an entire channel we should make noise about this to combat what I consider to be misleading advertising by Officeworks.
But my attention was diverted by what I found at the Officeworks website and the realisation that truth does not matter for it is perception which sways shoppers. Officeworks has the money, marketing and advertising experts necessary to drive perception.
Australian newsagencies are not as expensive as shoppers think. We need to find ways to push back on that perception.
Lets not ask others to complain for us. I will check my local store on a dozen items and if I am cheeaper on most I will register a complaint re false advertising.
One of the most successful flyers I’ve ever done was a comparison between my shop’s ink prices and Officeworks’.
Big title at the top “PRICE CHECK!!!”
### Newsagency Vs Officeworks
Prices comparisons + savings for the most common ink cartridges, with the date of the comparison.
finished with “shop local and save”
People like to support the little guy when they know he’s cheaper…
This example really does go along way in showing that OfficeWorks pricing is a bit of a raffle.
@Cameron I have done this for a while with excellent results every time. I use a very large sandwich board on the footpath immediately out the front of the shop and the results are amazing.
We have to get away from the turn the ‘Newsagency as a last resort and you have to pay a highter premium for it’ mentality and draw customers attention to the fact that we are/can be competitive.
I was in Officeworks in Canberra yesterday and whilst there was a lot lof loss leading products at reasonable prices and lots of stuff under the one rool (and ultimately shopping trolley) I am cheaper on just about all regular priced items.
Hate to say this, but cheaper at the newsagent seems to be the exception rather than the rule. A standard Marbig A4 Binder is $4.80 at the local newsagent $3.98 at Officeworks and $1.98 at BigW.
Having said that it’s not hard to beat Officeworks on price, the toners for my printer are $110 at OW, online they are $59 (+ $15 shipping, which is the same even if I buy 2/3).
Interesting Officeworks comparison – in my case the guy that I have the most trouble competing with is Aust Post – eg USB sticks – I can’t buy them for their sale price – but its all about perception with Officeworks – believe the advertising and it must be right for the average consumer
Blake, they’re called loss leaders. If you were to do a comparison across a basket of items, most newsagencies come in under the price of Officeworks. Even here in the country we compete fairly well and we have freight costs to add in.
GLEN I TOO ARE HAVING TROUBLE COMPETTING WITH THE POST OFFICE & THEIR USB STICKS, BUT BACK TO OFFICE WORKS I SELL MY LIQUID CHALK MARKERS FOR $7.05 OFFICE WORKS IS $8.35 A CUSTOMERS BROUGHT THE RECEIPT INTO ME CONSERNED I WAS SELLING THEM WRONGLY AND LOOSING MONEY
Blake, I did a very thorough comparison a couple of years back to guauge how much I had to discount my prices to match Office Works.
Results surprised me and my normal shelf price bettered 70-80% of their lines, sometimes substantially. The other 20-25% was easy for me to match and the final 5% I could only math at cost, these would be their loss leaders advertised heavily to get customers in the store where they then paid way too much for other items on the assumption they were saving money. Newsagent are generally much cheaper to the point I have even had a phone call from Office Works to price check ink cartridges after a local was comparing our price to theirs.
Allow for the cost of travelling to an Office Works and even their bargains aren’t quite so attractive.
It does not matter IF they are dearer as they can afford to bombard advertise so customers assume they are cheaper because the advert states they will beat everyone else by 5% on the same item ( they know not many people will go all the way back to get a 5% refund.
Its not fair and it is nasty but most customers are time poor and easily lead by TV ads so the sucker more people then they offend.
@ Vicki & Brendan
I didn’t think my binders were a loss leader so to speak. That seems to be BigW’s everyday price. Now I suppose you could argue it’s still a loss leader. But I generally count loss leaders as items that are on special for a limited time. If you can get it there any day of the week that is the “market price”.
The local newsagent used to be great on stationery. Since then something changed, not sure if it was different owners, or an owner that gave up on competing in stationery.
They used to have a good “business service”, now they only seem to cater to walk-ins buying a single item at “convenience” prices. Maybe they are selling themselves short, or maybe it wasn’t worth the time on the lower margin. I couldn’t tell you.
Not saying Officeworks is the place to go, but certainly the local newsagent isn’t either. The problem is that there are enough newsagents out there that operate “convenience” pricing that it puts off customers from even thinking of going there to get stationery.
It’s the same as a local servo, they actually stock bread, milk & soft drinks etc as cheap as coles/woolies (excluding loss leading specials). But most people wouldn’t think to go there for it due to the rest of the channel charging double normal prices.
Blake, ther are many large businesses that run permanent loss leaders to get you into the store, reflex copy paper one of the best examples. Your comparison with the local servo sums it up and keep in mind that newsagents are independatly owned so there are broad differences in operating methods depending on the individual newsagent.
Don’t give up on the good newsagents, there are plenty out there.
Just filled a diary order – our price $1153.50 vs Officeworks at $1649.49 – a saving of just over 30% – and that doesn’t include their delivery charge in regional areas.
Officeworks do not honour quotes given over the phone. I admit the person made an error but they should still honour their quotes!