Supermarkets could wrest instant lottery products from apathetic newsagents.
As I’ve written here recently Victorian newsagents risk losing scratch ticket product if Greek company Intralot is successful in the bid they have before the State Government of Victoria. Intralot has said that they plan to sell instant games through supermarkets if successful.
In the absence of any apparent prctical activity by newsagent and lottery associations I created a petition. The Victorian newsagent association, VANA, belatedly endorsed the petition and asked its members to get behind it. So far 154 have signed the petition – the majority are not newsagents. I know of 20 newsagents who are collecting signatures over the counter.
This is a pathetic response by newsagents. Talk to the industry associations and they will tell you it’s normal – newsagents rarely respond in a practical way on issues which affect them.
Newsagents will scream if/when Coles and Safeway get instant scratch tickets at the counter. By then it will be too late but they will scream and blame everyone but themselves for the loss of instant lottery product.
Now is the time to act on this matter. The petition is designed to create noise to enable representations to the Government and raise awareness on the issue. Other action is necessary if newsagents are to ensure that instant lottery product remains with small business. There should be letters to local members, flyers handed out to customers and, maybe, a protest rally on the steps of parliament.
If newsagents want to stop Coles and Safeway getting 10% of their lottery sales they need to act now.
Maybe I shouldn’t whinge about newsagents – they’re important to my business and I shouldn’t get them offside. I’ve worked with them for twenty-six years, I care about them. I care about their investment, their work ethic and what they get through day in day out. Their lack of entrepreneurial spirit is frustrating as is their victim mentality when issues like Intralot come along.
The Intralot fight is one of several newsagents ought to be politically active on. No one will take their case on for them. It’s up to every newsagent to engage for their business and for the channel as a whole. Either that or roll over and die.
My answer to the question in the headline – yes.
It suprises and dissappoints me that more Newsagent/Tattslotto agents are not taking up the fight. We have the petition on our front counter and the response has been overwhelming.
To date we have 132 signatures; the trick has been to ensure that you have the petition on both counters, as the majority of signatures have come from the Newsagency counter.