I tried to purchase a ticket in tonight’s $25 million OzLotto jackpot this afternoon in Melbourne only to find the five newsagencies I tried closed.
Jackpots are vital to driving purchases by first tine and infrequent lottery ticket customers. Being closed when a jackpot is on sale is poor form. You choose to be a lottery agent and in doing so accept the obligations associated with this.
To those who say I should not write about this here because it could bring the issue to the attention of tatts I say – they would know from terminal activity.
To the newsagents in Melbourne who have been open all day – well done.
Everyone trading under a brand is connected and responsible for customer perception associated with the brand. For a typical newsagency, the key brands are: Tatts, the major newspaper, a marketing group (if you are in one) and all newsagents.
Maybe NANA and the ANF should lobby newsagents with the same vigour and cash with which they lobbied the NSW politicians.
Mark,
You are attacking newsagents who sell Lotto. If all newsagencies in high streets were closed, surely you can find one in a shopping centre during the business hour. What’s the purposes? I don’t get it. Because you don’t sell Lotto, so you want to push Lotto to supermarkets? Not every newsagency can sell plush toys.
Newsagency cannot be perfect, just like other business, but that cannot be the reason of pushing Lotto to supermarkets.
Wasn’t it only a day or two ago you were saying that from your experiences, Melbourne Cup day after noon has been dead quiet?
How do you expect people to go buy a lottery ticket for tonight’s draw when people have spent who knows how much trying to win on the horses? Not to mention the fact that Powerball is double what tonight’s jackpot is!
The stray that sees a sign, or like you said the infrequent lottery ticket buyer won’t necessarily make that much of a difference, especially if they are a first time buyer (a mini quickpick to try out isn’t going to be that beneficial).
And I know what you’re going to say, think of long-term, this shopper may come back etc. Honestly, if they don’t win (more than a fair chance), the odds of them playing regularly and coming back isn’t too high.
If a newsagent isn’t recouping the amount of money it is costing them to stay open, why should they when they have the choice not to? Why are you berating their decision and applauding those that are open when you don’t know all the facts?
Yes I agree that all newsagencies are connected, whether they like it or not, but they are not unified. What I mean by that with your customer perception assertion is that if one isn’t doing what the customer wants, they’ll just go to another.
The fact that you couldn’t find one near you means that these businesses felt it was in their best interest to shut up shop earlier than usual, nothing more, nothing less.
All I’m saying is, you do you and don’t berate those that made a decision that was best for them.
Sounds like a Melbourne problem. Everyone in Qld was open all day I think. No Pub Holiday here, just a furtive two minutes listening to the radio for the race broadcast. Unless you mean that we should be trading all the way up to the draw time when it is a big Jackpot? Most stores close about 6 I think.
Maybe you should have bought a ticket yesterday.
I went to buy meat yesterday afternoon but the butchers was shut due to the Melbourne Cup (I am based outside Sydney) so I had quinoa and kale salad instead. Being closed on a big bbq day in my house is poor form…
Daniel there are two different topics. yes, cup day is quiet in Melbourne. However, if you are an agent you take on the obligations and responsibilities of being an agent like it or not.
If I was a Tatts agent I would be open, especially for a $20M jackpot.
To your core point I say – if a newsagent is not making what they need to make from Tatts to serve their obligations they should quit Tatts.
Luke, I was in New Zealand on Monday.
Alan, the facts are the facts. Those who closed could impact the situation for those who were open. They need to own their decision. I am pushing nothing here.
25 MILLION isn’t exactly a huge jackpot these days .just coming off the back of a 20 million sat and there is a 50 million Thursday , sadly 25 million is just a bit better than a normal draw .
If I were in the newsXpress buying group, I would be making it a priority
To call you and make sure you understand my displeasure with this continental
attack on what is still a unique, core product to newsagents.
If I were looking to enter into a buying group I would be thinking long and hard
before I would enter into a partnership with someone that from what I read does
not have my best interests at heart regarding Lotto.
I have also read here before how easy you found the process of purchasing tickets
Online. That was another option.
Mark i think your totally wrong here.
If newsagents received a better income from Tatts they would have opened.
Was it not a public holiday in Melbourne???
A $25M Oz Lotto does not generate the traffic of a $20M saturday lotto or even a $10M Powerball. There would not be enough increase in sales to cover the increase in wages.
Furthermore, traditionally Tatts gambling sales suffer massively during Melbourne Cup week.
In addition to this outlets may be restricted to specific trading hours dictated by the landlord.
I think the real issue is OzLotto as a game being unable to generate extra sales / traffic until it reaches $50M, and Tatts outlets are fully aware of this.
My thinking is when everyone is closed, its a good time to be open. Open all day in Melbourne, lotto sales boomer.
Brett this blog predates my involvement with newsXpress. This post is nothing to do with newsXpress.
My post is not an attack on newsagents. rather, it is shining a light on those who are letting the rest of the channel down, providing evidence for Tatts and others.
On one street yesterday, cafes and other shops were brimming with people on either side of a closed newsagency.
When we take on these businesses we take on obligations. To not write about this would be to in denial about these obligations.
We ought to be adult enough to have a discussion about this without it becoming a personal attack.
Thinking more broadly on this issue, it speaks to the reliance of some businesses on single traffic generators. I urge newsagents to run their businesses with tatts as the icing and not as the key traffic driver. This makes being open on public holidays an easier decision.
Amanda, I agree about the challenge of the now smaller jackpots. This is an issue for tatts and their retailers but I do not think it is reason to be closed.
I completely disagree that newsagents should be required to open on a public holiday. Many of my newsagent subagents who would normally have closed chose to open due to $25mill, even if only for part of the day.
Many newsagents get little or no holidays and deserve to take off any public holiday they can at their discretion. Especially when most of their regular customers would have known in advance they were closed.
NANA and the ANF have lobbied for the NSW government to not permit supermarkets to get lotteries. The best way to stop such a move is to make the newsagent retail network 100% aligned with the goals of Tatts.
Me writing about this does not alter the facts.
In Qld I am pleased to say we do not have a public holiday. How ridiculous to have a holiday for a 2 minute race. I am in between a pub and the TAB and afternoon Trade was not worth being open. We did catch up on lots of jobs that needed doing. If I had that sort of trade or worse in Victoria I would close.
Whether you open on any given day is purely up to the business owner to decide hopefully based on their previous trading figures for the period and whether it’s worthwhile for them. The only way in part to change this is for people like Tatts and the newspapers to offer higher commission to ensure it is worthwhile for agents to open on what are likely to be very low traffic days.
Good on the newsagents down south who decided to close for the day because it wasn’t worth it for them and good on the ones who were silly enough to open even though it wasn’t financially beneficial for them to do so as it was THEIR decision to do so.
For us it was a good morning, quiet afternoon and then back up close to normal for after school.
As others have said, OzLotto doesn’t boom until above $40 million, but that said, our Lotto sales always drop after a Saturday Superdraw, yesterday they didn’t. We finished the day up on the same day last year (15 mil Oz).
Outside Lotto, we also had a good day’s trade, and apart from BillPay, every department was ahead of the same day last year.
We usually close at 6, closed yesterday at 6:15,
The Cafe’s were probably brimming with people, and the cafe owners were probably charging a surcharge for being open on a public holiday.
And the cafe owners may or may not be paying their staff at the correct public holiday pay rate.
An newsagent can’t charge a surcharge for a fixed price item. Papers, magazines, lotto and the list goes on. We have to cover the additional staff costs out of our own pocket.
For what lotto pay us in commision, it wouldn’t be worth staying open for an extra 2 hours (eg6pm-8pm) on a normal day, let alone a public holiday….
I open every public holiday from 7am-12pm. And have been for 15 years. I also put a reminder that we are open these hours on Facebook for our customers to see.
Most of the comments I hear from our REGULARS are “I didn’t know you were even going to open today”. I tell them that we do it every public holiday, but it doesn’t seem to register.
The jackpot has been on sale since last Wednesday that is plenty of time to purchase a ticket surely anyway there is $35Million on offer next week so now you have plenty of time to buy that ticket
I think it’s up the to the individual newsagency and knowledge of their trade. This is more a Victorian issue as it was a normal trading day for me. There is no Cup Eve in other States either because as mentioned by someone else whilst it may well be the race that stops the Nation it only stops for a short while in other States and then life is back to normal.
I’m open every day of the year with the exception of Christmas Day as there is no paper printed. I didn’t break any sales records yesterday afternoon however I would have missed out on good money if I had chosen to close.
What a pack of wingers. Mark is saying newsagents have obligations to each other. Tick. He says poor operators drag everyone else down. Tick. He says being closed on a jackpot day is poor form. Tick.
People should stop being sooks who think they are entitled. No one is entitled in this economy.
Well maybe before you left for New Zealand smart arse, you knew the draw was coming up as a newsagent so shouldn’t have left it to the last minute. You missed out because you were not organised.
Mark
The conception of this blog is irrelevant and does not diminish your involvement with newsXpress.
If it’s a shinning light it has a very focused beam.
I would doubt very much that newsagents did not for full their obligation to shopping centre landlords and Tatts obligations yesterday before they closed.
Lets be adult, you are drawing a long bow to perceive this as a personal attack.
Most newsagents would have burrowed on all their assets into the purchase of the business. That would have included the profit from Lotto and being unique to the channel.
If being open on a public holiday is an easy decision to make Sunday trade and penalty rates must not be an issue.
I love my business and the community it brings I also believe that we should not let Lotto be lost without a fight and if NSW politicians can be lobbied for that outcome.
All the better.
Brett, you made it relevant through your claim.
I put my opinion out there with my full name attached to it. This is a forum where it is easy attack and to do so from relative anonymity. I’d prefer more fact-based debate from people prepared to stand by what they write.
My post is about the impact the actions of a few can have on the whole. Early store closures in Victoria yesterday provide Tatts with ammunition at a time when they it matters to them.
Newsagents don’t want supermarkets to get Tatts. Being commercial is the way to stop that – it will do more for the cause than lobbying.
The core point I made was about consequences.
It is frustrating that point has been lost by some arguments that are not relevant today.
In terms of it being worth it to open on a public holiday – this goes to points I have made in previous posts about diversifying into other products that attract their own traffic and drive overall business GP to 50% and more.
you say
My post is about the impact the actions of a few can have on the whole.
Well well where does that stop then, how far do we go with that ,are we all the same based on what others do
I hope not
Paul it depends on what your customers think. In regional and rural situations they are less likely to see you as part of a big group whereas in city situations newsagents are likely to be judged by perception of ay newsagent.
My own view is your business is only as strangers the weakest business anywhere that has the same shingle as you.
(Different Paul to above btw)
Mark,
If Tatts has a problem with that what sort of a problem would they have on Labour Day when all Coles and Woolies close as what I believe is part of their award arrangement. Many Newsagents would be open on these days (not me – I don’t open public holidays anymore).
I can just imagine the Tatts person getting laughed out of the Coles or woolies boardrooms when they try and tell them that they require them to be open or require a certain fitout similar to what a Newsagency has to have.
Paul I agree with you. You only have to look at the double standards evident in their corporate image requirements for Coles to understand the double standards. Frustrating.
I’d be happy to open the same hours as Coles and Woolworths if I was able to pay my staff the same rate the supermarkets pay their staff.
Once Again Mark Attacking NANA and ANF now mark i am in NSW and I wouldn’t open all day on the Public Holiday all day start think small business mark and not your self as i said once before bringing newsagents down again because there not open again
And NANA and ANF because they dont do what you want them to do Mark
Absolutely, the reputation of our industry as a whole is only as a good as the worst newsagency (which there are lots of). The ANF and NANA should set in place a system of training and education to help push the levels of newsagency operations higher. If continuous improvement is not one of the goals for your newsagency then you need to rethink your business process.
Chris I agree. Any business trading under a brand ought to be held to a standard in order to be able to use the brand. Your comments re training are 100% right.
Ruth my comments have not brought newsagents down. The newsagencies that closed brought newsagencies down as they have provided Tatts evidence should they wish to use it in support of a move to offer their products in supermarkets.
People can complain all they like about what I have written. The only risk in all this is the actions of some newsagents. My post sought to draw attention to this.
mark
Why complain about tatts when you dont have any in your stores is it worth having?
Sharyn in this post I am not complaining about Tatts.
This blog is where I comment on topics relating to newsagency businesses. I often write about issues and products not speccing to my own newsagencies.