Industrial action by delivery drivers stopped magazines getting to many newsagents yesterday. Many newsagents in many shopping centres were without current stock while competitor supermarkets had stock – magazines are delivered to supermarkets in different runs and were far less affected. The harm of this action is that in newsagencies more than 50% of sales of weekly titles occur on the day of issue. This means that newsagents will have lost hundreds of dollars in sales for Take 5, That’s Life. I don’t care about the grievance the drivers have with their employer, it is appalling that they hurt small business newsagents and give a free kick to supermarkets.
I would expect a knock on effect from the action since future supply figures are based on sales data and the fall this week will not be understood by computer models unless someone intervenes and quarantine data.