Last night’s OzLotto prize was a $13 million jackpot and such a jackpot usually means a sales kick of between 10% and 20%. Yesterday, I drove past many newsagent Tattersalls outlets which were closed. While this was good for outlets like mine in shopping centres, it sends the wrong message to Tattersalls. Newsagents, in lotteries, have a great traffic generator. We know from press reports last week that there is talk of supermarkets getting in on the action more. We cannot afford to demonstrate poor service. Those stores closed yesterday sent the wrong message to Tattersalls and to Government, they gave them a reason to think we’re not serious about gambling product. Hard as it is to open Boxing Day, the $13 million jackpot should have seen every store open and actively promoting the dream.
If we lose some or all of the gambling product we have today, in part we will have ourselves to blame.
Thanks to others being closed and o our marketing our Tattersalls sales were up 200%. While that makes me happy, that many in the network were closed is a huge disappointment.
Part of the reasons why I have given up buying even the Saturday papers at the local shopping centre newsagency is that I am sick of having to line up behind twenty people who believe that buying a Lotto ticket actually increases their chances of winning.
Having observed in the past the amount these mugs wager each week on the very long shot of a lotto win it’s obvious that they should have saved up their stakes for a period and then invested in the stock market which would likely produced very positive returns or better still paid off the mortgage.
The sooner we give the bludgin’ newsagents the flick and let anyone who wants to sell newspapers and magazines for the short period they have left the better.
Get with the times mate. Since 1999 any business wanting to sell newspapers and magazines can. The government deregulated the distribution of newspapers and magazines.
On the lottery queue maybe visit one of the smart newsagents – and there are plenty of us – we serve from four counter points and one product category does not delay another.
Here Here Mark,
We are open every day of the year except Christmas Day and Good Friday. Our Lotto sales are usually up substancially (if the appropriate draws are on) because the other NSW Lotteries agent in town either closes around 1pm or doesnt open at all. (Having daid that they arent a newsagent, theyre a Pharmacy?)
And i dont know why someone would think that not everyone could sell newspapers and magazines. Newsagents call them sub-agents and there are plenty of them.
If your having to wait so long in line then that newsagent hasnt developed their checkout operations properly. In our store the majority of people that just want a lottey ticket and nothing else, simply line up at the Lotteries counter and the other checkout points have a regular and continous flow so please like yourself dont walk out dissatisfied.