We completed a relay of stationery at our Forest Hill store two weeks ago and while it is early days, we are seeing close to a 25% increase in sales on some days. As part of the relay we quit plenty of older stock and stock which represented brands we now wanted to carry and brought in new product – especially around the new brands. I expect the increase to settle at 40% long term once the makeover of stationery is complete.

The MPA drives newsagents to relay magazines in pursuit of sales growth. Why not stationery? If we can get such a kick from our small business – admittedly off a low base – then imagine what newsagents more successful in stationery could achieve. The kick has come without any promotional activity.

The project took two man weeks and a reasonable financial investment in new stock. The payback started almost immediately.

The image above is a clip from the latest Australia Post brochure which arrived in our PO box yesterday. If John Howard was as serious about small business as he claims to be, he would stop the 865 100% Government owned and protected Australia Post retail outlets from taking business from independent small businesses.

Australia Post used to be a Post Office. Under the stewardship Prime Minister Howard Australia Post has morphed its corporate stores into mini newsagencies – leveraging the lemming like conga line of customers into stationery sales.

The Government says Australia Post is operating within what is permitted under the Act. Since they control both houses of parliament they also control the Act. If they wanted to stop the retail network they own from taking sales from family run newsagencies then they could.

It all comes down to will and whether the commitment to small business is hot air.

The Post Office opposite my newsagency is Government owned. It competes aggressively in the ink and general stationery space.

As part of our focus on branded stationery items, we are giving preference to Marbig branded products. We like that they are not a one or two category company. We also like the quality of their product. There is no financial aspect to this decision – indeed I’d suspect that the folks at Marbig don’t even know since we are buying through a wholesaler and have had no direct contact with them.

Making a decision such as this around a brand brings clarity to other decisions in the stationery department.

I sold a customer a sheet of carbon paper on Saturday. While those working in a newsagency would not be surprised by the sale, others would be. Why buys a single sheet of carbon paper? Someone our Forest Hill way obviously. Actually, the customer wondered aloud how mush longer she would be able to buy the single sheet. Her open wondering was more an acknowledgment of times changing.

The business person in me says we should not sell single sheets of carbon paper unless we have a price model which makes carrying and caring for the stock viable. In a social responsibility sense we must offer single sheets of carbon paper – it is our role as independent small business retailers to carry these traditions as long as we are able.

This is a challenge newsagents face: we compete in a tough and rapidly changing commercial world yet many of us want to respect traditions as demonstrating our point of difference. For now we will continue to stock and sell single sheets of carbon paper.

We are tracking strong sales growth for ink as a result of this latest Hot Ink flyer. Customers come in with the flyer, head for the ink bar and make their selection – usually two or more items. It is good to be a destination in this category.

The Hot Ink brochure focuses only on brands: Epson, Lexmark, HP and Canon. This suits us since we ditched compatible inks a couple of months ago.

We have distributed the brochures to 20,000 houses around our centre. This is the third such campaign around ink this year. This consistent pitch, around brand names and at keen prices, breaks our newsagency out from others. In fact, it breaks the whole group participating.

Thinking back to my comments here yesterday about brand newsagency, focusing on consistent range and price for branded product across a group of stores is how marketing groups can break away … from brand newsagency.