I have been able to get into several US Postal Service outlets in New York today and none has the range of retail products there government owned Australia Post has in their corporate stores.
The US Postal service focuses on being, well, a postal service. They are not trading off their government protection and public service reputation to take revenue from independent retailers. Nice.
I took the photo in one USPS location on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. What you is is it. I think this is reasonable for a postal service to offer.
Corporate Australia Post outlets should get out of competing with independent retailers like newsagents. Successive governments have allowed them to harm newsagencies and other businesses … making a mockery of any claim of support for small business.
We wanted to become an APO but they will not let us , they do not want the competition i suppose , but hey they can sell all of our products . I am not sure how much if any money is to be made out of being an Aus post outlet because we didn’t even get past the first phone call with them but if i was to get it they would definantly loose a lot of customers because there service is lousy and we often get people coming in asking for stamps because they refuse to go and line up for 20 min at the post office .
Australia Post greeting card is 50% off in our local government owned post office for 2 weeks time.
Jono write to your local member and vent. Other than there is not much you can do when the government protected monopoly strikes at you. Labour and liberal politicians protect Aussie Post.
If I am not mistaken I read somewhere that the US Postal service is in dire straights as much if not worst that our Postal Service yet apart from downsizing and rationalisiing some of the cost base they don’t look to scavenge off small business to stem losses or even turn a profit.
Kudos to the US for handling the way they do. Shame on our Federal Governements for what they have done to us.
I wonder if the Australian Retail Association is as passionate as some of the posters on this blog rergarding Government Owned Post Offices. I hope I find some info.
You are right in my opinion it is shameful, the Government should not be running and competing with genuine small businesses. Not a level playing field. As stated they are protected. Still no reply from Federal Minister Bill Shorten regarding questions raised regarding Australian Owned Post Offices, although he is obligated to reply as a Minister. Just shows he could not even debate a few questions with me because he would of been caught out particularly on the demarcation questions raised.
Personally i do not care what they sell , but i do care when they will not let me make not one cent off stamps when i am by the public expected to be selling them .
i wonder if Aus post are interested in selling my magazines for me , they will buy a WD for $4 and sell it For $4 ……yeah sure
Shaun, don’t sell their stamps. Let their queues get longer over a postage stamp, their customers up set and make it harder for them to sell our products because customers won’t queue for them. That’s my attitude to it anyway. I won’t do FREE work for them and customers respect this if it is explained to them properly.
If we devote our efforts to attracting customers with profitless services and products we will not have the resources to trade profitably.
I hate selling stamps for nil profit, but we smile the whole time when a customer wants a stamp.
Why? Because we are giving OUR CUSTOMERS some customer service. In return our customers will buy other more profitable gear from us over time.
Bruce, in our case if we sold stamps we’d have hundreds of dollars sitting under the counter COSTING us money and no return.
I’d rather use this capital to develop a new profitable department in our store or expand the range in a growing department. If we devote our efforts to offering product for nil profit we will go broke. Offering a service that encourages customers to return need not and should not mean that we do not make some profit for that service or product.
Point taken,
We SHOULD be able to make dollars on everything we sell. For stamps however not possible. In our case if we don’t sell stamps, our customers need to go to another shopping centre to get them.No shop in our shopping centre sells em.
I will NOT send people to another shopping centre. I like to keep em close where possible.
We sold $5500 worth stamps last fin year.
Some of them went straight oto a greeting card that we sold. I will not anger our customers for a trivial reason like this. Yes we are hanging onto an average of $180 worth of stamps in the drawer all year round. We don’t stock books of stamps, and limit sales to 10 stamps at a time. Just to get people out of trouble, not to keep them stocked up all year round. By the way we have a postbox close to the shop.
I think every shop has different circumstances to consider. Yours is probably different to mine.
Bruce we are in the same situation as you , we keep maybe 150 to $200 in the draw at a time . every cusomer that i say no to stamps has to go over the other side of town and i do not want that to happen , and as you say stamps will normally go on card so you do not want to loose that sale
We don’t stock stamps anymore as we found that we were getting no add on sales when we did stock them, so each to there own.
When people ask now we politely tell them that Aust post wants us to sell stamps for no profit and most understand why we don’t stock them, the others that then ask ” well where can I get them” are told to try the post office (funny that, post office for stamps instead of stationery, cards, mobiles etc).
But like I mentioned each to there own, if you are getting good add ons then it would be justified.
Anyway you’re not allowed to sell stamps unless you’re an LPO or an APO. So not are you not making any money you’re actually breaking the law. So to is the PO who sold them to you.
Shaun – I think you would care if they were situated near you or ajacent to you. Thats my point anyway.
This ought to be a small business test for the politicians – an opportunity for them to put their money where their mouth is.
Ricky, I am neither an LPO or an APO. What I do have filed carefully away is a “licence” to sell stamps, issued to me by the main town Post Office one block away, allowing me to “sell” stamps. It does not have a termination date, and I got it 16 years ago.
When I am taken to court for “breaking the law” is selling stamps, I will produce this APO created document.
Note, I buy the stamos for the same cost as selling them, I make no profit.
BUT I AM ALLOWED TO SELL STAMPS !
Good point H. We have done the same. We have our sheet of paper filed away.
I keep the stamps as it sends people to my shop not onlywhen the PO line is out their door but they come here first to avoid the place in the first place. We have a big red PO box out the front of our newsagency. The stamps are an add on to the postcards and greeting cards we sell.
In my view and in my case stamps are one of those things that we simply provide as a logiccal add on for zero profit. If I took the view that I should send these customers to the PO based purely on the fact that I don’t make money on this final part of the purchase in the customers eyes then I am only casting myself in a negative light. I simply couldn’t say to a customer “sorry I don’t stock them because they make me no money!” What I do say is that I provide them as a service and the box is out the front. If I’m losing something from taking this view then please point it out for me.
Just out of interest, do you only sell 60c australian stamps? Only, we’re a combined LPO and newsagency and a large number of our stamp sales are international postcard stamps. In fact I would say we’d sell 1 international stamp for every three 60c ones.
Only “allowed” to sell local stamps, atm 60c.
That’s enough. Like Angelo, we consider stocking stamps a “public service” and foot traffic driver, I have no wish to drive my customers up the other end of the street where they may decide to stay !
Derek that is why i said personally . I tottaly understand when in situations like yours .
We made a conscious decision to stock stamps in 10’s, 100’s and 200’s but also express post pre-paid bags and envelopes. Over the past year we have sold over $50,000. We buy the bulk packs for the discount and sell them at the single price. Sure, we don’t make much, but better in my pocket than someone elses
Ricky,
One only needs to make an application to their local Post Office to sell stamps. The criteria that must be fulfulled is very minimal and would allow most newsagencies to sell stamps.
So there’s a fair bit of hypocrisy here. You want to complain about post offices selling newsagent lines, but you thinks it ok to use stamps/postal articles as traffic puller for your newsagents.
I hope the fence you’re sitting is a barned wire one.
ugh !
Ricky I would just like to be able to make at least 1 cent off a product I am selling for the government .why can,t I ?
Back to the topic, USPS is $13 billion in debt. See http://www.federalnewsradio.com/537/2469339/Postal-Service-to-begin-closing-plants-this-summer. Not Nirvana but a drain on American taxpayer and almost bankrupt. AP pays a dividend to the Australian Govt. Not taxpayer funded at all.
Rob, Australia Post is government owned and protected. While I am no financial expert, I suspect that the debt to taxpayers is reflected in the goodwill value of this protected organisation.
The government should not own a retail network which directly targets independently owned small businesses.
Ricky, I get the impession you either work for Aus Post or have an LPO. Perhaps neither. Regardless and far from the “fair bit of hypocrisy here” the main point of this post is to point out how the US is handling their postal service without competing against family owned businesses.
If the hypocrisy you refer to rests with the fact Newsagents are sellling stamps for either nothing or next to nothing compared the the avalanche of newsagency lines the Post Office sells then it sits comfortably with me.
I’ll repeat it again. I’m not selling stamps to steal business away from AP. I providing the service that ties in with what they want the stamps for in the first place.
When it comes to Aus Post I’ll tell you for nothing that I’ve got very thick skin on my arse!
Rob
The Federal Government has a monopoly on postal services which competes with a cross section of small business’s. It is only fair that Newsagents and other appropriate small business’s be able to source protected postal products to sell legally for a fair profit.
I am very interested in the information regarding dividends going back to the Federal Government. If you can, would you also supply the breakdown of the Government Owned Post Offices Profit/Loss and also the Profit/Loss breakdown for the Delivery Service they also provide.
Government Owned Business’s can never be known as a genuine Small Business. Nothing is transparent however everything is guaranteed.
AP can reject an application for selling stamps even if you meet all the criteria. They are a law unto themselves as to who they allow to resell stamps, but no use arguing over something that has no real benefit to our businesses. We make at best 5% on stamps but AP makes up to 70-100% on selling stationery, cards etc. Move on.
Angelo
Just to close the loop on the US Post issue. Marks post was to show that the US works on a corporate and postal services only model. Thereby initiating a discussion on how the model might or might not work here. We know the US model doesn’t work. We also know there are flaws with the Australian model, mainly due to the conflict between corporate POs and LPOs. Our comment below is intended to show that there is a third way.
We have a newsagency, an LPO and a Tatts agency. It took a lot of investment to put together these 3 as an effective business model. None of them are quite capable of being solus stand alone businesses but together they work very well. Rather than being critical of or undermining one or the other we have put our money where our mouth is.
We only offer postal services and post related products through our LPO. Frankly to speak their gift lines are of dubious quality and their merchandise margins are pathetic across the board. Their merchandising standards are expensive to install and maintain. Their newsagency lines are in no way competitive with the newsagency channel. Aus Post is only profitable because they protect the margins of their corporate stores by bleeding their LPOs.
We use postal service and postal products to enhance our newsagency and Tatts business. We have invested in the right to do so. We think it’s a great business model and we would like to see a more structured merging of the LPO and newsagency channels. They are a very logical fit. Any Joe Blow can sell a few stamps but it takes commitment and acumen to make a decent return on an integrated business.
you can get 7% for new stamps and 10% for old stamp here in sydney. not from PO
Mark & Derek, First let me state that I own and operate a standalone LPO and I am not an apologist for AP. I too have some major issues with AP corporate which I won’t go into now. Also thank you for the opportunity to contribute to your blog.
If you look at the 2010-2011 Annual Report http://auspost.com.au/media/documents/2010-11-integrated-annual-report-web.pdf page 130 you will see that AP paid $436.2 million tax and a dividend to the federal govt of $173.2 million.You will also see on the same page that of the 4419 AP outlets 786 are corporate, the rest LPO’s or community postal agencies. Have a look at pp 93 – 96 for a revenue breakdown
Two questions. 1. How is AP government protected? and 2. How does the Federal Government monopoly on postal services (letters not parcels) compete with a cross section of small business’s?
I would suggest that the majority of newsagencies are closer to an LPO than an AP corporate office and I suspect a lot of newsagents harbour a strong resentment towards the local LPO for daring to sell cards, stationery and gifts. Most newsagencies will also be closer to a Coles or Woolworths. These are the ones that can really want to hurt us.
Rob, It has a monopoly on postal services and controls who can sell postal products. Australia Post corporate stores leverage traffic for postal services – selling cards, stationery, ink and other items. I have had my newsagency price checked by AP staff – they responded in their store, coppering with me.
Mark, I can’t see the problem with AP controlling who sells its products and services. They are its products and services. There are products which I am unable to sell because I am not a newsagency. Some suppliers won’t even deal with me for that reason. That is there right. Most LPO’s do not get there cards stationery ink etc from AP. You can usually get a better deal elsewhere for the exact same items. My local newsagency is often checking my prices and responding by undercutting me. For example she is selling UBDs for $22, $1 cards for 80c. We get these items from the same supplier. Again that is her right. This practice is a fact of life.
Rob, Australia Post should stop to being a post office in its corporate stores. Shame on this government owned business taking even one dollar of sales from any privately owned business nearby.
Holy cow ROB, you are competing with a newsagency that sells $1 cards for 80c and a UBD for $22!
I feel sorry for both of you. My nearest comp for a UBD is a BP servo $35.95. I sell them for 33.95. Are you in a city or regional??
Bruce, City. I still sell mine for $29.99. Strange as it may seem my customers prefer to shop here than the newsagent. They are served by friendly and efficient adults not bored disinterested teenagers.
Mark, not being a government owned business I don’t know what to say other than my local newsagent sells stamped envelopes, i.e. she puts stamps on envelopes and sells them for 75c. thus taking 75c. from a privately owned business nearby, namely me, because she certainly doesn’t by her stamps from me.
Rob, I used to operate LPO’s and totally understand your view point. It has been stated many times on this blog that Corporate AP outlets are the problem for most. They hurt you as much as us by setting prices that they can only achieve through their size and presence attained as a postal service. While the majority of outlets are LPO’s you need to look at what AP is doing online to undermine not only private retail businesses such as newsagent but also to the detriment of YOUR business. They are bullies at heart and I have first hand experience of this not only as a former LPO owner but as a former employee of AP. They should stick to their core business and leave LPO’s to operate as in conjunction businesses as they used to. Where I would like to see AP expand is into banking. Having sold off the Commonwealth Bank and lost any leverage in that industry there must be an opportinty for Federal Government to develope AP as a bank and win back some say in that industry and keep the big end of town honest rather than undermine mum and dad businesses, you included.
Mark @ 34 and 36. Are you posting using a wonderful hand-help electronic device? One or two more errors would make your posts undecipherable to me.
Sorry. Fixed.
Brendan, I agree with most of what you say. I previously said I have a list of issues with AP. It’s quite a long list. As the owner of an LPO I am less than happy with AP but as a taxpayer I am happy that there is a government agency that is running at a profit. My whole reason for commenting in the first place was that I didn’t think that the USPS was a model we could learn anything from.
Rob
Thanks for the info. Revenue from all 4419 AP outlets is 700m+ I believe it is too convoluted to determine expenses.
My answer or opinion is still the same regarding protected Government Owned Post Offices. A few more that have been written before are as follows :- I would also like to know why Government Owned Australia Post Offices:- Do not open until 8:30am? Do not work on Public Holidays? Do not work on Weekends?
Customer Service in Government Owned Australia Post Offices is only availiable Monday to Friday. While most other small business are obligated to open on wekends.
Derek,
why worry when or if they have to open (I have an inconjunction LPO) as if they’re closed there’s more opportunity for the rest of us to make money ? There are plenty of LPOs that also don’t open on weekends or the earlier hours (and a few newsagencies too !) . It’s simply the nature of the business.
Make the most of it as it’s only a matter of time before AP goes to more extended hours.
Point taken Paul but what about the requirement for others in a large retail shopping centre that must open when AP is closed on weekends and Public Holidays. Most large leases excuse AP for this but not others.
You’re right about grabbing the opportunity to acquire sales that they may make if they were open. My point is more about the inequality of required opening hours.
Angelo you cannot be forced to open your
retail store (you can be expected to open
but legally it is unenforceable).
However, why would you not open when
the centre is open?? We are retailers.
I have the other opinion.
We have a lovely centre and on Sundays
half the retailers don’t open and it is like
a ghost town.
I resent the retailers who DON’T open because they are costing the rest of us
who do.
The other thing is public holidays. We are not permitted to open in our centre
UNLESS COLES OPEN.
In other words we are all at the mercy of
the duopoly.
The centre won’t pay for security and cleaners etc unless Coles are open.
We are “allowed” to open but we would have to pay the “costs of opening the centre” – IMPOSSIBLE.
I am talking SA here and I don’t know about the laws in the other states but I do
know that no landlord can force us to open on a Sunday
June – Regarding “forced” to open in shopping centres, smoke & mirrors, as I expect some shopping centre small business already know, centre management know there is more than one way to skin a cat if you dont open. I do agree with your post however.
Paul – Of course you are right it does give other small business’s opportunities to gain goodwill & of course foot traffic which = sales.
I am posting consistantly about Government owned Australia post outlets being a protected business along with protected products. Its only my view and I do not like it when they compete with genuine small business’s more often than not run by very hard working people who do not have the luxury of a guarantee. Ie Super, Annual leave, Roster day, flexi time, lunch break, long service leave, consistant pay packet.
In my view something is wrong when a Government is competing with other genuine small business’s.
Hi June, I agree with you about the trading opportunity to be gained. I look forward to Good Friday and Boxing Day evey year when I get some sweet relief from the elephant in the shopping centre i.e. Woolies.
My point is about landlord concessions, priorities, call it what you will given to Aus Post, Woolies etc. compared to requirements from us. I will stay open as long as possble to show why we are better than them but it gets to me from time to time.
Angelo,we are all doing it tough at present but I agree with you wholeheartedly about landlords’ concessions to the “big boys” while we cop
it sweet with rents, outgoings etc. Often
coles/woolies are paying peppercorn rents
compared with the rest of us and they have all the say.
It is time that the government stopped them having so much power (farmgates etc).Mum and Dad businesses work so hard and at present for so little – it can
be soul destroying.
I prefer to think that this inclement time
is cyclical not a paradigm shift in retailing
and our days will return.
That’s what gets me up in the mornings.
Received an Aust Post Flyer in the mail today advertising their new online store in partnership with Office Max. One of the specials was buy a 1kg tin of Nescafe and receive a bonus copy of Augusts “Men’s Health” or “Women’s Health”. I’ve since been wondering if newsagents all started selling instant coffee what are the chances Pacific Mags would give us free magazines to give away.