I was disappointed to see the Herald Sun report yesterday about the ACCC decision about Tattersalls’ handing of their dedicated area and the introduction of Intralot. I am one of the newsagents who received the letter from the ACCC referred to in the report. I received my letter in August following a meeting at my shop with representatives of the ACCC.
My personal view is that the ACCC has got this wrong. Tattersalls has lost what was a key part of their business – instant scratch tickets – yet they have not relinquished the real-estate they had set aside for them. Our scratch ticket bay remains useless. This is holding my business back. It is also an impediment to the active promotion of Intralot in the high traffic part of the business.
You’ve got to laugh at the irony, or more apt the hypocrisy from you Mark. I recall not so long ago that you accused myself and another poster of “bitching, moaning and complaining” when we dared voice our grievances in regards to Intralot.
Those words coming from someone who bitch’s, moans and complains on a daily basis whether it be like this whinge about Tattersall’s (again) and the ACCC, the magazine publishers/distributors in regards to over supply or making the magazines too think with added extras so they can’t fit on your shelf, not to mention my personal favorite of something as trivial as the positioning of a post it note on the front of the paper!
I mean at least when i whinge about Intralot i have a good and legitimate reason to. Looking at my figures which i’ll embarrassingly share with everyone here, since their inception i’m around only $100 ahead on commission i’ve made opposed to the fees i’ve paid them for use of the terminal and courier that i don’t use every week yet still have to pay for.
Take that off the $10,000 i paid for the license and i’m still $9,900 out of pocket overall, not to mention other money i’ve lost from other games. Even more telling is i made more in sales for the week of the last Tatts Superdraw than what i have from Intralot in their first 4 months! Not to mention more commission in that one week as well than what i have from Intralot in 4 months. I can assure you these figures are all correct, i wouldn’t embarrass myself quoting them for nothing if they weren’t.
You’ll put that down in your own simplistic way as me not trying hard enough to sell the product. But as i’ve stated elsewhere i’m not sure what more i could do than the free sausage sizzles, information sessions, even free raffles giving away their products. Hopefully with these new changes they’ll be implementing soon things might look up but i fear the damage has been done. They’ve already admitted they grossly misread what the Victorian public want and the majority of people are now paying for that.
But i digress, this isn’t about the ineptness of Intralot, my main point is you have the audacity to tell myself and another poster not to bitch, moan and complain about losing 10 grand yet you do the same with something as petty and pathetic as a post it note placement! Or something else that’s every bit as insignificant as you have many times before. Can you see the stupidity in that? That was a rhetorical question because i highly doubt you do.
It’s a pity you don’t sell perspective in your shop Mark because you’re in dire need of a healthy dose of it.
Dean, Maybe you would have had more success with Intralot if there was genuine competition in the lottery space. Mark
That has nothing to do with it Mark. I was one of the “lucky” ones that wasn’t overly inconvenienced when it came to finding space for Intralot.
I had/have ample room for the terminal, scratchies and tv screen and it’s actually in a better position than my Tattersall’s area given it’s right next to my main cash register for the shop where most people stand in front of when they purchase something.
You even have to walk straight past Intralot which is in full view to get to Tattersall’s or anything else in the shop so i can’t use that as an excuse/reason. You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make them drink. I also have an Intralot dedicated wall where i hang just their posters and nothing else that measures approx 4m by 3m.
The issue isn’t competition for lottery space because as mentionedi have ample and dare say i have more than many other retailers out there have to work with. A little scratchie bay that i can’t use for Intralot products wouldn’t even begin to solve my problems.
In fact it’d probably make them worse given that the scratchies are the main Intralot products my customers play and sales of them are even up (albeit slightly) to what they were when Tattersall’s had them in the bays what people want to use now. Go figure.
Dean, My comment is not about inconvenience, it is about an uncompetitive environment making the entry for a new player very difficult. If all outlets had the space you say you have then the brand awareness would be greater and this may be reflected in sales. Mark
If you want to get brand awareness out there, don’t you think it’d be better to do that by advertising on EVERY tv station, EVERY radio station and EVERY newspaper there is to get the awareness out there?
It’s all well and good to have brand awareness in the outlets for the regular newsagency shoppers to see but what about the countless thousands that don’t use them or at best enter them infrequently?
I know i’ve touched on this before and i was told that Intralot advertise on 3AW and you’ve seen the Intrlot tram which is good. But what about the people that don’t listen to 3AW? Or the people who aren’t on that particular tram route on any given day to see it?
I know i haven’t heard the ads on 3AW because i don’t listen to that station and i certainly haven’t seen the tram because i haven’t come across the unlikely chance of crossing paths with it.
You have to cover every demographic to get proper brand awareness out there and that means advertising on the likes of Fox fm, MMM, GOLD, Vega, Nova etc which will, at the risk of generalizing cover the “younger” market, as well as the AM stations which by my own admittance i’m not overly familiar with besides the main couple that would target the older people.
Same goes with tv as well, advertise on all programs that cover all adult demographics over a variety of viewing times and programs. I personally have seen very little to no Intralot advertising the last few months besides the odd snowball jackpot ad in the HS and in my opinion it’s just not good enough.
I’ve busted my gut to trying to sell their product and advertising it in my shop and shop windows when i could’ve replaced it with much more lucrative Tatt’s posters etc that provide proven sales. All i’m asking is for them to spend their billions of dollars being the 2nd biggest lotto mob in the world that they brag about being and help us retailers out a bit more by getting that brand awareness out there like they did the first couple weeks.
As i mentioned earlier Mark, it’s all well and good for us to give that awareness in the store to the people that frequent newsagencies, but it’s utterly useless if they don’t step foot in the door. That’s where all tv, radio stations and newspapers cover them. You have to spend money to make money.
Forgetting about the merits of sales performance for a moment,i did a year to date analysis of costs v’s commission for the current year to date since intralot started,and i even ignored the 10 k sign on fee,why do intralots costs run at 37% of commission and tatts costs run at only 7% of commission,somethings not quite right there,anyone can do the math straight off their terminal reports for the year to date figures…we are getting robbed blind
Helen and Dean you have to be kidding. That or you must be on a payment from tatts.
This is not competition the Vic Govt has only split the industry in 2. The news article also said that Intralot plans to roll out terminals to supermarkets and service stations. I’ll bet they won’t be paying the upfront $10,000 fee and they will benefit from all our hard work in getting things going. Talk about uncompetitive environment!
No wonder you use the moniker Laurelandhardy,your attempt athumour is archaic at best!!My math is spot on,in the 5 months of intralots existence i have generated total commissions of $4870 with fees totalling $1795 ($550 delivery/$1245 terminal rental) costs to commission of 36.8%
If would take 18 months just to recoup the 10k sign on fee plus another 18 months to recoup the shopfit changes which cost $8500.00.This was not what was promised by intralot,as ive said before no wonder thety didnt use a franchise model as they would have to issue a diclosure document and be bound by their business estimates,very clever,very deceiving ,in fact both!!
Laurelandhardy,
Kidding about what? i wish i was. Take a bit of time to go over what i’ve written here in the past and you’ll see that i have my grievances with Tatts as well and i can assure you my only affiliation with them is that i’m an accredited representative.
I don’t like the way we had to pay exorbitant prices for out shop fits for our Tatts shop fits only to be told where we can and can’t place certain things. I don’t like the way that they set minimum sales targets and when they aren’t met they shut down retailers who can’t meet them like they have to two people that i know. There lively hood all but gone because of it.
I don’t like how we had to fight long and hard to get commissions increased on various games over the last few years. I don’t like how they took one of my terminals aways because they said my sales never justified it (though i got it back after 18 months of fighting with them i got it back) Still think i work for them? I could go on with issues i’ve had with Tatts over the years but i think you get my drift.
But even though that’s the case, for all their faults Tattersall’s have been a constant stream of income for me since day one and has been lucrative for me. The fact is that my business wouldn’t have survived just as the vast majority of business’ wouldn’t without their product. Of course some would in the right enviroment like a big shopping center or busy shopping strip but most wouldn’t as there’s just far too much competition out there.
As long as they continue to provide me with that income and continue to work for their retailers by providing ample advertising on tv, radio, papers etc then i can live with them being less than perfect. If i was earning from Intralot even half what i do on Tatts i’d be willing to look past their imperfections as well but the fact is that i’m not and that’s why i’m complaining about them and not Tatts. Capiche? Or is that too hard for you to understand?
Dean, I understand everything you said apart from “Capiche”.
I’m on the outside of this whole situation, what is the government view on this a few months on?
Michael, after making all the right noises early in the piece, from what i’ve read/heard the government has gone very quiet in the whole Intralot affair.
They’d be licking their wounds i’d suspect counting the cost of the millions they’ve lost as opposed to the counting the millions they anticipated making. Well at least some good has come out of all this i suppose, though i’m sure the government will make it up elsewehere so it won’t hit them as hard as many others.
Tatts is stopping us from running our businesses and john Brumby is letting them get away with it.
And now for the final straw for lottery operators in Victoria,Tatts about to roll out in all victorian 7/11 stores next week,the end is nigh