As part of their Climate Smart program the Queensland Government ran a giveaway through the Sunday Mail newspaper yesterday – buy the newspaper, clip the coupon and take it to a participating newsagent for two free energy saving light bulbs. The promotion ran off the rails when newsagents did not receive enough globes. I have head from several newsagents in Queensland who did not receive any globes at all. Newsagents will know that when you can’t honor a promotion like this the customer blames you. So thanks to either the Queensland Government or the folks at the Courier Mail this promotion made newsagents look bad.
But, wait, there’s more. Queensland Premier Anna Bligh told people last night that if they could not get the energy saving bulbs they could go to Australia Post where they have plenty of stock. Thanks Anna – you have effectively blamed newsagents for the light bulb undersupply. If newsagents had been supplied sufficient stock in the first place Anna would not have had reason to endorse Australia Post.
Anna Bligh owes newsagents an apology. What a mess!
A government concerned about small business would not have given a big business competitor like Australia Post suich a free kick against newsagents as has happened in Queensland.
UPDATE: Part of the supply problem appears to relate to some newsagents (sub agents actually) not being given any stock. Here in Victoria publishers tend to supply promotional materials direct to all retail outlets regardless of the newspaper supply model.
Promotions are only good if they are popular and build customer. Customer loyalty to some newsagencies has been hurt by this promotion.
I’ve had over twenty disgruntled customers in this morning. Luckily I have the excuse that I’m not open on Sunday’s.
Customers have said that when you buy it you WILL recieve two globes. They’re are now doing the rounds going from newsagent to newsagent trying to find them. Increasing pollution and wasting energy!!!
Mark said “If newsagents had been supplied sufficient stock in the first place Anna would not have had reason to endorse Australia Post.”
Absolutely correct – government owned Australia Post gets increased foot traffic this week because of it and hurts small business at the same time. Well done Anna!!!
just had the australia post from down the road call up and say stop sending people down to get light bulbs (not that i have )they have no stock as well
I guess this won’t get a lot of coverage in the Courier Mail tomorrow!!!
What a shamozzle.
I’ve just had two more customers in asking for them.
One of them said they had just been to the local Post Office but was told that they (AP) gave them away last week because they didn’t need the coupon to give them away!
This is from a government that is anti-day light saving just to rub it in.
Mark , It still gets better, the AP globes come in a four pack, not a twin pack that was supplied to us. Had a customer who raised mary hell this morning telling everybody that went past our business that we ripped her off yesterday because we didn’t have the 4 packs like AP.
1 million light bulbs
500,000 to newsagents.
500,000 to Aust Post.
Anna Bligh , our Queensland premier who has got no idea what is going on, you owe me and the entire newsagency channel a very big apology.
I think you need some of the free light bulbs to see what you are doing.
Will she ever get it right! I DONT THINK SO
We actually got heaps of globes!!! Maybe because we’ve chucked up a stink at numerous other promotions that were very poorly run/supplied by QLD News.
Mark, sub-agents do get promo material, but it seems only where there is a cost to it like NRL cards or Nat Geo DVDs which customers need the coupon and payment to get it. Hence previous NRL/Nat Geo customers assume we have the bulbs.
Warrick, you’re right, she does need to apologise, there are a lot of newsagents in Qld which chat to an awful amount of the public each day.
get over it Michael – enjoy the day
Congrats on the name anon. I’m actually laughing at this one, I’m having a great day thanks.
I’m not sure why anyone is surprised by this because i’m certainly not in the slightest. I’m struggling to remember one of these type promotions over the years that i haven’t been abused by at least 10 customers for running out of the item thats being promoted due to not receiving enough stock.
When we do cop it for running out, the only advice i give the customers is that whenever these things are on it’s best to get in as early as they possibly can as we only get a certain amount of the product and 99% of the time it’s nowhere near enough.
I also tell them to ring up and complain to whoever is running the promotion in the hope that if they get enough complaints they’ll do what they should do in the first place and give out enough to go around for everybody.
It’s obvious that an election is now in sight. Anna on the Friday news announcing the free globes – (what a green Government we have) – then plastered all over the Sunday Mail – Anna selling them from an agency with a smile all over her face – YOU CANNOT GET BETTER PUBLICITY THAN THIS!
But how about a deal with AP to make the Newsagencies look mean – and into the bargain an agreement for discounted mailing at the election – you help us and we’ll help you. THIS GOVERNMENT IS REALLY ON THE NOSE.
No that’s not he Qld government that you can smell, thats the stench comming from the NSW Government.
We received plenty of globes and still have some left. We were told by our area manager that a lot of newsagents sent globes back as they didn’t have anywhere to store them. We did run out of sunday mails though. We were offered more gobes today when receiving extra courier mails but didn’t need them so there is still supply out there.
We received bulbs to last half an hour on Sunday but still the Sunday Mail still had staff roaming the mall handing out leaflets telling shoppers that free light bulbs were availabe with the paper. Considering we are the only newsagent in the centre many customers again blamed our business functions for the sell out after we raised this issue with the sunday mail staff throughout the day on many occasions.
we had no trouble getting bulbs in hervey bay .they are very good .thanks anna
I really hope Qld News and Co read all of these situations and learn from it. It’s affected too many of us in a negative way. Not good enough.
After all of this it would be a nice apology to have on page 3 of the Sunday Mail this week displaying full page Mark’s Newsagents ad.
We got stacks of the bulbs as we have a large home delivery/subagent run…we still have enough left to keep all customers happy after they come to us having visited the neighbouring newsagents who have run out of stock.
Our little shop, which opens for 5 hours on Sunday (6am – 11am), averaged over 75 customers an hour. The young girl who does Sunday’s for us did an absolutely stirling effort handling the counter transactions. HOWEVER it meant that I had to go to the shop at 5.30am to set my light bulb stand up at the back of the shop and then spent the next 5 hours cutting out coupons and handing out bulbs just to keep the customer flow going and prevent the selling counter from becoming too congested. (Our shop does not have a wide entrance). Keeping the flow of traffic through the shop worked well and customers were very satisfied (but it meant that none of the accounting work I do at home on a Sunday morning got done). Being a free hand-out meant that we could not afford for another staff member being employed to do what I was doing in regard to the light bulbs. Even after ordering an increased supply of S/Mails we strated to run out and I had to order more from Qld News….these took a while to get to us. I had to make a frantic phone call to my partner to dash over to the shop and grab back some S/Mails from some of our SubAgents just to keep us going. I could not leave the shop as chaos would have started in regard to the customer flow (and the phone never stopped with customers asking about the bulbs).
And what did we get out of this…..Two exhausted business owners (we then had to stay at the shop after we closed to get Xmas set up as we have just undergone a new shopfit over the last 2 weeks), 1 overwhelmed staff member, empty cardboard boxes as far as the eye can see, very little profit, BUT VERY VERY VERY HAPPY CUSTOMERS……..The life (of a newsagent) was never meant to be easy (as the famous quote goes).
While it sounds like Queens;and Newspapers could have improved the supply model, the bigger issue for me is how the Government handled and the free kick they gave Australia Post.
mark
I agree Mark…..The kick in the guts for us was when we got hame at 6pm and heard on the TV news that Aust Post were giving away FOUR free bulbs the very next day….NOT HAPPY JAN!!(…ANNA). I took great delight in telling all the customers that they could go to the nearest Aust Post outlet and get more (after they called into us and got their two bulbs…and also nearly always purchased something else), knowing that AP supplies could not hold up. I started to get feedback from customers around lunchtime on Monday that Aust Post had run out of bulbs = unhappy Aust Post customers….How sweet it is!!!
We had the globe thing happen in Vic some time ago. More work, no pay. We always get excess, these promo’s never increase our sales figures, just more work. I am all for giving the customer a bargain, but even just 20 cents for the globe and we received all of that 20 cents would be something. This week its door seals ( free ) and they are a bit like the tennis balls we gave away some time back. Imitations that are useless and just create land fill. These door seals are stick on types that will last a week. Customer will come back and complain to me how it fell off, like its my fault. I have received too many, so I will be looking for rubbish bin space to get rid of them. I like to see my customers happy but I am in this business to make money, not a community service, leave that to the Salvos