Someone deep inside a magazine distribution company decided that my shop in Forest Hill Victoria would sell the Queensland Tertiary Guide for next year and so they sent us four last week. We are supposed to hold the stock until May. I make $3.28 off each copy if they sell. The space the title takes costs me $3.50 a month in rent. I can’t make money off this title and sales history shows that it should never have been sent to me in the first place. So, I decided to return the stock and for that right I have to pay the freight.
This is a perfect example of how newsagents are being ripped off. Our competitors (Coles, Woolworths, petrol outlets, convenience stores) don’t have to put up with this. They get the magazines they order. Newsagents get everything. The magazine supply model sucks our cash and makes us uncompetitive.
This is the supply model the Howard Government brought in when they deregulated the marketplace to make it fairer.
If newsagents were farmers or miners they would have been compensated for the damage done.
I’ve returned the QTAC 2007 guide and will wait a couple of months for the credit to hit my account and smash my fist against the wall one more time.