Click on the image and read a Facebook Post from Occupy Sydney about newsagents and what is happening with lotteries. Their 3,322 Facebook friends received this post in their timeline while their 11,600 Twitter followers received a link to this in their timeline.
Besides the inaccuracy of what they have written, I do not want to be identified with a channel others say will disappear in one part of the channel has one or two new competitors. Such as view, as I have written many times here before is, in my opinion, inaccurate.
While I do not want to see Coles and Woolworths get stronger, I don’t think we benefit from this type of shrill argument. Further, if a newsagency is so weak that it would close if Coles or Woolworths nearby got lotteries then the business is already in serious life-threatening trouble.
My call to newsagents is to fix the business now rather than waiting to react to something which only may happen.
Hi Mark
why don’t you sell lottery products it seems to me an income stream that is not that difficult to manage ?
Andy I have it for around 13 years in one of my newsagencies and sure enough it was an easy income stream. I sold that business a few years ago.
Today, my opinions are: there is no upside in lottery traffic / revenue, retailers have little control over the cost base through which to drive profit, online is the main game for lottery sales in the future and, lottery traffic is not the most valuable traffic I can attract as a retailer.
I am not advocating people follow me or embrace my opinion. We all have to do what we think is right for our businesses. However, none of us should expect other people to fix things for us. Our business situations are ours to own.
Mark
I don’t get how there no up side in anything that drives traffic ?
The issue is that our industry and the newsagent name is being described as solely reliant on Lotteries yet that is no the case. I hate reading stories like this as it educates people how they should view Newsagents. Lotteries is a traffic driver for my store but it is also a time consuming product to sell with low profit levels plus a very high percentage do not increase their basket size in store. Not all traffic drivers are good for business, take Western Union and transport tickets.
The important point is to make sure that your business could survive without lotteries, like it could survive without newspapers. Future-proofing your business is essential.
Chris – well said!
Andy – by no upside I mean no growth. Growth is vital today.
My lotto and scratchies are up 9% for the year so far. Customers are going nuts over the new Round the World scratchie. Tatts are about to launch a new game in lotto, first for 18 years. Don’t know about anyone else but I’m bloody excited about the direction they are going.
I think this can qualify as growth. Beats the crap out of anything else going in the newsagency channel at the moment.
Gary my card sales are up 25% YOY, gifts up 146% and total business up 17% in revenue (no agency sales) and GP is tracking close 42%. I know of other newsagents with excellent results which out-stretch growth in low margin lottery product sales.
Great numbers,you have inspirational ideas. But on lotto you suck.
Mr Cooke is taking lotto and scratchies to new and exciting places. As he said in Tatts annual report to shareholders “Our retail agents remain our most important distribution channel generating 90.6 % of our sales”. I believe Tatts have no intention of messing with the channel. Contrary to opinion they need it to succeed and grow. My customers like what is happening and this is reflected in sales.
That was what my post is about. Lotto is not the no growth dead end product that you portray it as. It is alive and vibrant.
Gary we’re all entitled to our respective views. I think Tatts will continue to support the channel. However I think they will continue to push growth of online and I see that as a bigger risk than Coles or Woolworths. What happens with Tatts in retail will happen regardless, pretty much, of what retailers do.
My pitch to retailers is invest time and money in the non Tatts parts of your businesses (if you have tatts) as an insurance policy as growing these other areas will offer a safety net of Tatts does decline. It gives you more of your business over which you have control.
Mark, mate. I have listened to your wisdom, followed your advise over the years, and reaped the rewards. Over the past few years I have invested a sizeable amount of capital in a new fit out ( and this I feel is a necessity to successfully change direction) and reinvented my business.
But my store is in a large regional centre so my expenses are challenging. There is no way that I could survive without lotto. Talking to colleagues in other situations, we all agree on this point. I am not ashamed (and I get the feeling you think I should be) that the viability of my business should depend on this one product.
You may not want to be identified with a channel dependent on Having lotto. It’s
your choice and I can respect that. The reality is that to me my business is my livelyhood so I have to accept its frailties.
Your business is a hobby so you can afford to take risks and experiment.
Gary I don’t think you should be ashamed. If I thought so I’d say so as I’m all for being direct. I’ve also not said I don’t want to be identified with a channel with lotto. Hell I write this blog to absolutely be identified with the channel in all its glorious incarnations, challenges and frustrations.
My business is not a hobby.
I’d help any newsagent who wants to be able to prosper without lotto, so they have options.
You are right Mark. I misunderstood what you didn’t want to be identified with. I have never disputed the passion you have for the channel.
Do feel that there is a disconnect between what you are advocating and what can be delivered. But I guess aim high fall short is better than not aiming at all.
Thanks for the dialogue. Found it stimulating.
I can still embrace lotto, and still change the direction of my business, it’s not a case of one or the other. In fact the foot traffic lotto generates allows me to show new product off to more people. The growth in lotto revenue also helps to finance the move into new areas, I don’t see them as mutually exclusive.