Several newsagents in Melbourne have experienced the theft of magazine bundles on different days in recent weeks. In at least one case, accompanying in-store promotional collateral was stolen. The nature of the thefts suggests someone is in need of bulk magazine stock for distribution.
Since TOLL has taken over the deliveries of our magazines, we have bundles missing at least twice a month.
It isn’t only the missing bulks which are a worry it is the CONDITION in which we receive some of the mags (both GG and
Network as IPS have impeccable standards
of packing in SA)
This morning I have early returned at least
$300 worth of stock which was TOO DAMAGED TO PUT ON MY SHELVES.
If I was a publisher I would be tearing my hair out.
Surely, packing is not that hard – you have
a strapping machine and you put old posters around your bundles and you strap and VOILA!!! product arrives in impeccable condition.
This morning most of my GG bundles fell
to pieces (thin cheap strapping) and it does encourage stealing because it is so easy. Network at least use a reasonable strength of strapping but to put the product on the strapping machine with no
posters or old product to protect it is just
asking for trouble.
Some of these mags are $20 mags and they go straight into returns because of this bumbling inefficiency.
I have complained many times here about
it but to no avail. Am I the only newsagent who received their product in such poor condition???
we are finding our Cairns Post are badly bundle since delivery come out of Townsville. Wet season will be intersting.
Carol do you find especialy on a sat that there will be either the top or the top and bottom paper out of each bundle that is simply not sellable because of its srewed up condition .
Nearly every day here Shaun.
Mark, what about the Newsagent that doesnt tell another Newsagent that they have some of thier stock? As good as stealing it really.
Aren’t these complete shipments being stolen, not just miss-delivered bundles? This to my understanding is organised theft on a large scale and needs to be given the up most attention to stamp it out. Look out for outlets be it newsagents, subbies or such that are on stop but still trading or have unusually high stocks. These and markets are likely to be where these magazines end up and as an industry we need to act against such criminal activity.
I occasionally get some magazines or papers for another newsagent. I find it a good excuse to go and have a chat or to introduce myself to another newsagent if they are not too far away
Many years ago we were having boxes of a part works missing every other Wednesday.
Magazine truck dropped them off, another truck drove in after and picked them up. This was seen on camera but not clear enough to pursue.
We think that they were then being sold at a local market.
When we moved premises we had an outside lock up area, sent keys to 3 magazine companies but driver would not put in well lit lock up area because it was behind shop and thought to be a safety risk!
Our current magazine delivery driver (who is also one of our newspaper delivery drivers) has keys to some of the other newsagencies so the magazines are left safely inside their shops.
On Tuesday arvo when he brings them to our centre dock we get a phone call to say they’ve arrived.
Perfect, no more problems.
The problem with missing bulks I’ve found is they have no labels. This means when a odd one turns up you have to ring all the surrounding newsagent to find whose actually missing it (and yes I do try and find the owner). The flip side is if your missing one and haven’t heard anything by about 10 that morning you know you are never going to see it again because even if the courier gets to the end of their run and notices they haven’t delivered it how do they know whose it is?
June #2
We had a similiar problem with mags damaged and not saleable. We put in many complaints and many returns and finally they, G&G and Network got the message. It turns out the courier re straps say 50 small bundles into 9 large bundles which the distributors claim they where not aware of.
As of 2 weeks ago we now we get a whole pile of small bundles and none damaged as they have not been re strapped.