A blog on issues affecting Australia's newsagents, media and small business generally. More ...

Author: Mark Fletcher

Concerns at moves by Tatts to reduce lottery terminals in some outlets

Tatts has contacted some agents advising that they will take back a terminal. This advice has come as a shock and raises questions about the future of over the counter lottery sales in small business newsagencies – in the light of the Tatts online push and their apparent commitment to roll the Coles Express trial out further.

Some newsagents who have just completed their tatts required shop fit and included space allocation for two terminals have been told they will now lose a terminal. While it looks like Tatts has the right to do this I would have thought that a small business affected by this could make a case through a tribunal for adjudication.

Newsagents affected and who feel their business will suffer financially as a result of this move ought to consider options to have the matter considered in an appropriate forum. In Victoria the Small Business Commissioner would be the first port of call. In Queensland it would be QCAT.  In NSW it would be the CTTT.

From what I have seen, tatts owes its retailers a more fulsome explanation.

Here is what the Lottery retailers Association has sent to its members about this.

This week the Lottery Retailers Association (LRA) has been inundated with calls from members advising that Tatts are in the process of informing some outlets they will be losing a lottery terminal. Members report that this advice has only been given verbally and without warning.

The LRA is greatly concerned that some members report that Tatts has taken this decision without giving full consideration to the retailer’s individual circumstances. Alarmingly, we have been advised this advice has been given to outlets despite the fact that they have just completed, or are in the process of completing a Tatts shop-fit, which is designed to accommodate the current number of terminals. A Tatts shop-fit is one of the most significant investments a retailer will make. The purpose of doing a shop-fit is to help drive additional sales and help the retailer to achieve a fair return on investment. Removing a terminal at this time may put at risk the retailer’s ability to generate the additional sales needed to support this level of investment.

The Tatts franchise agreement allows Tatts to vary the number of lottery terminals at any time, but by usually giving the franchisee twenty business 20 days written notice. Retailers have reported that Tatts are asking retailers to agree to removal within 5 days or they have an option for 20 days.

The LRA would encourage all affected retailers to ensure Tatts provides this notice in writing and setting out in detail why this decision was taken. It is important that you are satisfied Tatts has considered your individual circumstances. If you have been informed by Tatts that you will be losing a terminal and are unhappy with this outcome, please advise our office as soon as possible, as we will be urgently taking this matter up with Tatts.

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Lotteries

Odd magazine placement?

oddplacementI thought the placement of Get a Six Pack in 8 Weeks with Famous in a newsagency was odd but maybe not according to someone I discussed this with. Maybe the disruptive placement works for both titles – Famous for the 6 Pack and the 6 Pack for Famous. What do you think?

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magazines

Good Tour de France promotion at Newslink

newslinktourdeNewslink outlets re-running their Tour de France promotion from last year – with a bike as the giveaway. Like last year, they are linking products from several suppliers in this promotion. I like they way they are promoting it – with a double sided banner at the front of the store.

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marketing

How we manage our newsagencies #3: transacting a sale

How we process sales at the counter needs to be accurate, consistent and good for the customer. Training in hour to do this ought to be structured with regular reminders for everyone working at the counter.

  1. Smile and greet the customer. Not: next! or next in line or yes? or how can I help.  Try, instead: hi or did you find everything you need? or thank you (as you take their purchases from them.
  2. Scan from left to right – from one pile to the other. Always the same way. Scan everything, every time.
  3. Enter the total cash they give you if they are paying by cash.
  4. Bag the goods. Don’t ask, always bag the goods – get your brand out there.
  5. Give them the receipt – facing them so any saving or discount voucher can be seen.
  6. Farewell them with a smile and what comes natural: thank you or thanks for shopping here today or see you next time.

This week I’m going take a look at everyday management of the typical newsagency business – to open discussion among people here about what they do in the area of I cover and to help others to look at their own processes.

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Management tip

News Corp. pushes newspaper shoppers to supermarkets while ignoring newsagents

newscorpritchiesdealNews Corp. yesterday advised newsagents in Victoria of a deal with Ritchies supermarkets where Ritchies get a free Herald Sun if they spend more than $30 in Ritchies.

It frustrates me that News Corp. does deals like this and others with supermarkets yet they ignore retail newsagents. Two years ago the company made considerable noise that it had plans to drive sales of its newspaper products in newsagencies. They have done nothing – unless I have missed it.

The average newsagency is finely balanced, layered in its reliance of traffic and revenue sources with each stream of the business relying on the other. Every customer encouraged, lured and bribed to change their habit to a purchase elsewhere is a loss not only for that purchase but much more and a loss not only for newsagents but other suppliers such as magazine publishers and card companies.

I think this Ritchies campaign is ill-conceived and unfair on distribution and retail newsagents. It looks like a pitch from people who do not understand print media and the role Australian newsagents play.

Here is what one newsagent directly affected wrote yesterday to News Corp. about this promotion:

I am gob smacked at the narrow minded attitude your company is taking with these types of promotions. They are designed purely to hurt my Retail Market. Supermarkets do enough damage on their own without you guys handing things to them on a platter!

You come into my office and tell me how News Ltd is so focussed on improving the retail strategy with newsagents, how focussed they are on increasing sales with newsagents; it seems to me that is a load of bollocks!

This promotion is solely intended to take customers away from newsagents and hand them to the supermarkets on a platter!!

I disagreed and made formal complaints when you told me about the “trial” offer for News Ltd to control supply of my Ritchies store; nothing was done. It was plain to see that you never had any intention other than to take control of the Ritchies account.

I complained when you stuffed the supply figures up at Easter and I requested that the supply control was given back to my store; I know the seasonal data, you don’t. Nothing was done. No communication or feedback was given from News Ltd, you just continued with the status Quo!

Now some numb-nut sitting in an office thinks “oh hey, how can we screw newsagents over even more”………..and the above promotion is the answer…..sheer brilliance from your marketing team.

You write “An exciting promotional offer has been developed to introduce more readers to The Herald Sun.”, You’ve simply developed a way to take customers away from my store, decrease my basket size, and impacted heavily on MY cash flow by giving a newspaper away for free…………I don’t see anything exciting about it!

This mentality of giving stuff away for free must stop! You have a respected brand that people will pay for; bastardising the product simply to increase your supply numbers is far from brilliant!

You failed to discuss this issue with me which reeks of pure arrogance; I guess you would have known what the response would have been from newsagents!

No mincing of words there. Good on him.

It’s actions like this from News that encourages newsagents to put newspapers to the rear of the store and then to put them on a lower shelf – a slide to newspapers ultimately exiting newsagencies. We can get off this slide if News Corp. employs people who understand print media and who respect Australian newsagents.

If you wrote to News, publisher your comments here. Where do you stand?

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Ethics

A Kennys Cardiology outlet closed by the landlord

k2The landlord moved and locked out the Kennys Cardiology operator at Robina Town Centre last week. The notice stuck to the shutter names the company holding the lease – a Kennys head office company as I understand it.

There can be all sorts of reasons for landlords locking people out. Sometimes it is part of lease negotiation with the landlord flexing their muscle. In this instance it looks permanent as hoarding has now been erected at the site.

This activity is on the back of a retreat by Kenny’s from their corporate store at they Myer Centre in Brisbane – delivering a free kick for other card retailers in the centre.

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retail leases

Here’s where a full cover display helps drive sales

tastyfoodThe covers of the current issues of Delicious and Feast look terrific. Each offers an excellent reason to get the magazine out of the old-school magazine fixturing and placed where the full cover can be seen.

I suggest running either or both right next to weeklies to pitch them to shoppers who would not otherwise notice these titles.

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magazines

How we manage our newsagencies #2: opening the shop

Opening a retail newsagency in the morning involves more than opening the door, putting out the day’s newspapers and magazines, turning on the lights, putting cash in the cash drawers, making sure the floors are clean and turning on their heating or cooling.

Opening the shop every day should include other tasks like:

  1. Checking the window display – that it looks excellent.
  2. Checking that the counter is fully stocked.
  3. Checking that magazine shelves are tidy.
  4. Checking that the card department is tidy.
  5. Knowing what the counter pitch is for the day.
  6. Making a change so the shop is different in some way today than it was yesterday.
  7. Embracing being at work – being there because you want to be there for your customers.

Whatever your process is, write it up and have it on a clip board for your person opening the shop to have it to check off every morning.

Stop being predictable and your sales will not be predictable. Stop being average and your sales are more likely to not be average.

Opening your shop is like putting on a show. Imagine that everything up to today has been a rehearsal for today. Okay, this may sound weird but think about it.

This week I’m going take a look at everyday management of the typical newsagency business – to open discussion among people here about what they do in the area of I cover and to help others to look at their own processes.

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Management tip

The ANF promotes newsagents versus Officeworks

anfpensIt’s dangerous for the ANF to promote that newsagents sell four colour Bic pens for $3.20 with Officeworks at $3.61 – dangerous because newsagents are not consistent with pricing and dangerous because Bic is not the only brand pen we sell.

I sell a Papermate four colour pen for $2.60. I think it’s better than the Bic product. The ANF promotion does not support my business nor the businesses of many newsagents with this pitch.

While I understand what the ANF was trying to do with its tweet, I don’t see it as good use of the social media platform. There are other tweets the ANF could more safely send for newsagents.

I’d be interested to low if the ANF engaged with GNS and Ancol about this.

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Newsagent representation

Dressing the newsagency for the holidays

holidayfosThis is the front of my newsagency as it looked on Sunday. I’m posting to show off the pitch to shoppers in the mall for school holidays. Visitors to the shop often say it does;t look like a newsagency. The thing is, core newsagency lines like magazines and stationery are doing well and achieving excellent growth for us – above industry average growth. So while this newsagency does not obviously present as a newsagency, at the cash register it works as a newsagency in core departments.

Click on the image for a full version.

The Siku cars on the right attract boys through to granddads, the TY stand attracts girls through to grandmothers, the sand attracts everyone and the puzzles attract smilies through to retirees. Each offer has been deliberated selected and placed.

Placement, too, has been done so passers-by can see past the front line to cards, gifts and other lines.

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Newsagency management

The Tatts barrier to selling your newsagency

If you have tatts in your business and are planning to sell you will need to factor in time for tatts to go through their processes. Not only do they take time to vet and approve applicants, there is the real risk that they could say no.

It surprises me when I hear of Tatts saying no to someone approved by their bank for a business loan, the landlord for a lease, magazine companies for magazine supply and other suppliers for product supply. It’s happened before and I am sure it will happen again.

It would not surprise me to see a newsagent taking Tatts to some tribunal to challenge their process when they knock back someone the vendor newsagent feels should have been approved.

My own experience is that the Tatts process differs based on your connections. They are not transparent. They appear to use unnecessary hoops as a barrier to entry, causing you to spend time that could be better invested in helping to kick-start your new business.

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Ethics

How we manage our newsagencies #1: the end of shift

This week I’m going take a look at everyday management of the typical newsagency business – to open discussion among people here about what they do in the area of I cover and to help others to look at their own processes.

Today, I am starting with the end of shift.

The end of shift is vital for tracking cash meeting XchangeIT data compliance and being disciplined in how you run your business. I’m not talking here about closing up for the date. No, this discussion is about the balancing of the register(s) and managing your record keeping.

Every newsagent needs a structured end of shift process. Maybe I am biased but the approach I recommend is that you do the end of shift in your newsagency software.

In my own businesses it is structured yet simple. We count back the float in each cash drawer, pool the cash, count the denominations, enter that into the software and the software then reveals whether we have balanced. depending on the difference determines what happens next. If we are less than $5.00 we move on. If we’re out by more, we have to find it.

Once we have balanced the cash, the software does the rest – checking data, printing banking sheets, handling the XchangeIT sales data send and comparing the day’s trading with the recent average for that day of the week as well as performing other checks such as fast sellers and letting me low y text message and email the trading results for the day.

All this is done behind the scenes. It keeps the process for the staff simple – get the cash right and the rest is taken care of for you.

I don’t write up any books or journals. I don’t enter any data into a spreadsheet.

The end of shift is taped so I can check that if I want at any time.

From closing he door to having the cash bagged with the end of shift reports ready for the safe usually takes between five and ten minutes depending on the day of the week and whether there is any cash discrepancy.

Join the conversation.

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Newsagency management

You are not your customer

fartpenI did not expect the Fart Pen in our impulse / counter lines range to sell all that well. I was wrong. In a couple of weeks we close to selling out. On any measure that’s a good stock turn. Take-aways I’ve been reminded of from this are: I am not my customer, don’t judge, people like fun products and people don’t always buy a gift for why you think.

The most important of these take0aways is having products that make customers smile. Happy customers spend more. They are also more likely to remember the shop. It’s a delight when people tell you why they are purchasing a product like this.

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Fun

APC magazine overloaded

magsapctoomanyAPC has a consistent sell through for us of under 50%. It’s now on my early return watch list given the failure of the allocation processes. Bauer has our accurate data yet they allocate ignoring this. Check your supply. Anything less than a 70% sell through and you’re probably losing money.

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Magazine oversupply

The quiet partworks launch

magspiratescarWe have the launch issue of the Pirates of the Caribbean partwork on show and while its attracting interest, it feels quiet – especially for school holidays when a title like this should go nuts. Merchandising to launch the series would have helped.

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partworks

Sunday newsagency marketing tip: six ways to promote your point of difference this winter

Winter can be tough for some people. It can be tough for retail too as traffic is often down. Newsagents have an opportunity to leverage the season, to make it more enjoyable for you and your customers.

Here are six suggestions to get you thinking abut winter differently:

  1. Reach out to retirement villages and nursing homes. Pack up key items from your shop and tele it on the road – go to those customers who can’t come to you because of the cold.
  2. Offer free delivery. If option one does not work for you promote a delivery service so people shut in can still get their magazine fix or get cards to sent to loved-ones. Be the retailer who goes the extra mile.
  3. Add to your customer service. have somewhere people can place their umbrellas and raincoats when they enter.
  4. Keep your shop warm. Offer hot coffee, tea or hot chocolate. Maybe have a slow cooker with some delicious home cooked vegetable soup using a recipe from a magazine you have in-store.
  5. Have a summer sale. In the middle of winter, at the coldest, have a blow-out sale and call it something like a SIZZLING SALE. Get people warm with great prices.
  6. Change your music playlist. If you’re using Pandora or some other online station or CDs, select brighter, warmer music.

If your shop is in a really cold area consider an outer door to keep the warmth in. They do this a lot in Europe and the US in Winter.

Winter is a seasoning which you can show off your point of difference and get people seeing your newsagency differently.

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marketing

Sunday newsagency management tip: remove your own red tape

Business owners often call on politicians to remove red tape and make doing business easier. I think some small retail business owners including newsagents create red tape of their own, red tape that makes it harder for customers to do business with the business and red tape that makes it harder for our employees to serve our business.

Common red tape I see in newsagencies that could be eliminated and thereby help improve business includes:

  • Signs like this is not a library.
  • Credit card processing fees on non-agency lines where you can cover yourself in your pricing.
  • A shop layout that discourages shopping.
  • Slow sales processes.
  • Poor back office processes with customer accounts.
  • Mixed messages in signs in-store leaving shoppers unsure about offers.

What red tape, what barriers could you remove from your newsagency thereby making doing business with you easier?

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Management tip

Terrific Gift HQ event in Brisbane

gifthqbneWhile the organisation was poor leading up to the event and there was a glitch with getting visitors in in a timely manner, once inside retailers visiting the Gift HQ gift fair in Brisbane yesterday were treated to a good mix of products. I enjoyed getting to see some products that will be at bigger fairs in a few weeks in advance and ahead of the rush. Smaller fairs are easier to navigate and there is less stress for suppliers.

Gift HQ is running through to Monday afternoon. If you’re in Brisbane it’s a few hours well spent.

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Gifts

Speaking at a national Newsagency Management Workshop series

I am speaking at a half-day Newsagency Management Workshop that will be held in Adelaide, Perth, Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Hobart starting in ten days.

I’ll be presenting new Newsagency of the Future material that newsagents will be able to use right away in their businesses regardless of technology and marketing rout affiliations.

Click here to download a flyer with dates, the agenda and a booking form. Attendance is free and all are welcome.

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Newsagency management

Are you selling out of newspapers earlier?

One of the challenges in this world of declining newspaper sales is tighter than ever allocations by newspaper publishers keen to keep returns to an absolute minimum. I am finding Fairfax tighter than News Corp. Most Saturdays we sell out of The Saturday Age come time between 12 noon and 2pm and only rarely can we get extras.

What is your experience?

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Newsagency challenges

Cheeki water bottles – a terrific local supplier

cheekiI’ve been selling Cheeki water bottles for years now, since before they were in many newsagencies. Cheeki is an Australian company that offers excellent quality and safe water bottles for home, work and on the road. years ago there was skepticism that newsagents could sell water bottles. Now we know then can, easily!

The folks at Cheeki made it easy with good merchandising solutions.

Cheeki is a real local Aussie success story – as you can see from the about page on their website.

This week I am drawing attention to several local suppliers newsagents could consider. Stocking products from these and similarly local suppliers adds credibility to our shop local pitch. To me, local products are products made and / or designed in Australia. If my newsagency was in a country area my focus would be more on products sourced even closer to home.

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Social responsibility

English Woman’s Weekly opportunity

ewwdonovanjason Donovan on the cover of English Woman’s Weekly gave us a good opportunity to promote the title more than usual. That and the Peppa Pig knit pattern let us pitch the title to the infrequent shopper.

It pays to check magazine covers for extra promotional opportunities.

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magazines

AWW Diabetes cookbook popular

awwdiabetesThe AWW Diabetes cookbook launched Thursday is popular with sting sales already. We are driving this with placement with diabetes titles more so that placement with cookbooks. It is disappointing that Bauer now releases this to supermarkets at the same time as newsagents. We used to get 6 to 8 weeks head start.

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magazines

Is the Officeworks reflex paper pricing predatory pricing?

cheappaperWesfarmers owners Officeworks has an amazing deal right now on Reflex paper. In fact, the deal is so good that it is well below what newsagents can buy this paper for at wholesale. I’ve checked around and I doubt even hundreds of newsagents buying in bulk together could buy better than the Officeworks retail price.

This price of $3.20 a ream looks to me like it is below cost. It looks to me like predatory pricing.

Here is what the ACCC says about predatory pricing:

Predatory pricing occurs when a company with substantial market power or share of a market sets is prices at a sufficiently low level with the purpose of damaging or forcing a competitor to withdraw from the market. 

This Reflex pricing is another attack on small business by a giant company that is half of the supermarket duopoly in Australia. We’d be letting ourselves down if we do nothing about this.

What should we do about this?

We should complain to the ACCC. Use the small business complaint form and tick the anti competitive behaviour box as this covers predatory pricing. Completing the complain form will take a couple of minutes. Making the complaint puts pressure on Wesfarmers and it puts pressure on their Reflex supplier Australian Office.

We should also complain to our local member of parliament and use this reflex pricing to pressure them to support reining in the power of Coles and Woolworths.

I plan to stop selling and using Reflex. I don’t want to carry a product that can be subject to price comparison in such an unfair way. Newsagents owned GNS has paper I can stock that is not treated this way and that’s what I’ll carry. 

17 likes
Newsagency challenges
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