Penalty rates were introduced in Australia back when the weekend was, well, a weekend, when the majority of the population did work Monday to Friday.  Now, with so many businesses open seven days a week, it is time to look at the penalty rate structure.

Overtime should be for people who work beyond the usual, or what is expected in their situation. A casual employee, a university student, working Sunday because it suits their schedule, should not get a 100% hourly rate bonus. They are not doing anything extra. retail businesses, like newsagencies, can’t charge extra to cover for the significantly higher cost on a Sunday. Indeed, the sunday penalty payment makes retail businesses worth less for these trading days.

I am watching the campaign by the banks on this issue closely. I am sure other newsagents are too.

This is not about trying to rip employees off. No, it’s a matter of making use that everyone is treated fairly. As it stands today, most newsagencies operating under management would lose money on Sundays.

Click here for a copy of the report released by the ANZ reporting 5% year on year growth for small business retailers in the twelve months to february. This same store retail sales data comparison is based on data harvested by the ANZ through a range of their transactional services.

Non retail businesses tracked 11.3% growth for the same person.

The retail figure of 5% is interesting since this is what ANZ will compare newsagents against. For years this didn’t happen because we were looked at as being protected.  Now we are just like any retailers.  This is  good thing.

Newsagents need to know their year on year performance data. If it’s below 5% for the year to february 2012 you have to look at what you have and haven;t done to create your result and set about making changes immediately. This goes to the core of what I am discussing in the Newsagency of the Future series.

I am glad we got back into toys in our newsagency. It’s a small but good department to have in the business.  It’s ticking along for us, attracting some new shoppers and extending the basket when shoppers of other products purchase toys on impulse.

We find that we are selling three types of toys: the low cost impulse items (like in the photo), brand name products people know and love (like Play Doh) and fun products for kids (like water cannons).

We have a display table full of toys at the peak of an offer.

We give toys time in the spotlight and then move them back into the business. School holidays is when we usually punch the offer … for obvious reasons.

Since we are not a toy shop of a major discounter we know that people are not purchasing toys from us because of depth of range or price. We range and price knowing these points and this helps us achieve a good margin and focus only on top selling opportunities.

Toys are a good example of a product category newsagents use to own, lost and can win back.