I’d be curious if other newsagents in major shopping centres found yesterday very slow. Based on what I have heard, many independent retailers had a very quiet day and probably did not cover wages.
New Years Day is like Australia Day. It’s a day for relaxing and forgetting shopping.
While there are plenty of positives for being in a major centre, a day like yesterday is a definite negative.
Our customers traditionally go to the beach, we did not open on News Years Day
We do not open on NY’s day any more, it was simply not worth it.
OFF TOPIC , all should have a look at there supplys for CM and AUS for next week , mine were cut back to zero for tuesday and the AUS supplys seemed to have trippled
Haven’t opened since the 2000. In a centre but apart from late afternoon food shoppers it’s dead.
January 1 should be National Newsagents Day – no deliveries, no retail – then all newsagents could enjoy NY Eve.
We don’t open New Year’s day.. it’s a great opportunity to relax and get ready to enjoy the fireworks and entertainment..
New Years day is a conundrum for us. Being in a centre we feel we should open but last year was a total waste. So few shops opened that you could not even buy a coffee in our small centre, so this year we closed and are better off for the day off. We are fortunate to be able to this as the larger centres simply won’t let this happen.
We open for 3 or 4 hours and that is a waste of time . This year I closed Boxing Day for the first time and will do for now on .
I was thinking it was just us! We are in a strip shop but sales and foot traffic were both down about 70% on last year. Next year will probably come in and do the paper run and stay shut. Still no sleep in though!
In a strip shop and closed Boxing Day this year but opened for two hours yesterday only really because I had to come in to drop papers at Coles and it was a waste of time. Yet another one of the great things about handing my run back is that I very shortly wont have to worry about that again and won’t be opening on New Years again next year. Actually I’ve already pretty well decided that I won’t open most of the public holidays this year !
Hate to buck the trend bit we opened for 6 hours which we planed to do and we ran out of papers and mag sales up.
Greg mag sales up for average tues or from last years New Year’s Day
Shauns on both much to our suprise. We have a lot more tourists in town this year and they are spending
My frustration is that we did not have a choice.
We have made the decision this year not to open on public holidays. Our strip centre every shop was closed, even Brumby’s. We looked at other strip centres and they were all the same, even the porno shops were closed. Retailers just cannot pay the penalty rates any more. It’s a shame because there are people out there who will work on a holiday for the normal work rate. It will increase this country’s productivity. We’re looking forward to the Australia Day public holiday now.
We find it is either all or nothing, either open every public holiday and get a reputation for it or not at all. If you open boxing day but not new yrs or easter then customers get easily confused and do not risk coming in to find you not open.
We open every holiday except xmas day and get customers coming in because “their newsagent” is not open. Its a pain but we convert a few to regualr customers and every $$$ in the till helps pay for staff that need to paid regardless.
If you do the math and it is a loss then stay closed but if you decide to open it needs to be all in over evry holiday or customers do not respond.
We are in Inverloch which is a beach resort town near Phillip Island. Our population trebles at least so a very busy day for us. For different locations different trading situations happen
We opened both Boxing Day and NY Day, but only I worked. We only opened for three hours though, and it was dead quiet on NY Day. Can’t afford to pay staff, but we do turn over enough to make it worthwhile if we work ourselves.
We’re in a strip centre and we do open New Year’s Day. Its our quietest day of the year and we run with minimal staff (a manager and a few juniors). Sales are only about 65% of a normal day’s trade. Our sales this year were up over 15% on last year.
I can’t believe some major centres made people open! Even the largest centre in the Hunter Valley (Charelstown Square) was closed for the day.
we open public holidays 7am – 11am consistantly. i agree that customers just want to know if you are going to be open or not.
we have a very visable notice on the counter in the 7 days leading up to a public holiday with our proposed trading hours.
monday (31dec) was a picnic day or something for LPO’s, our LPO was closed. customers had no idea they were planning not to open, or that they were not opening that day. not even a note scribbled on the door or anything. a very poor effort.
we have more visitors and tourists this season also, and they are spending which is a great change.
We are in a “neighbourhood” shopping centre and dont open on any public holiday at all. For us it was all about having a work/life balance. We had to do these days ourselves because the wages are a killer (and we have people that would work it for normal rates too). We took this a step further and dont open on sundays anymore either. For seven and a half years we went to work on a sunday to maybe break even, if i was away and had to pay staff then we lost money. Having a young family this has been our best decision ever……anybody want to see some fishing photos??? LOL.
Cheers
Al
Al,
Just send me the fish ( keep the photos ).
Take a Sunday off Max and come fishing with me so you can catch some for yourself……
Good on you Allan, I wish all business’s shut on Sundays.
We have to open Sundays because we are in a centre, mostly pay staff to work and don’t take much more than wages.
Even though our kids are all grown up it’s still nice to have that day free for them or just for ourselves.
Allan this weekend the fishing boat is having a rest and we are off sking for the weekend , it was a big decission to fish or water ski . 🙂
Thank god for the inlaws
Al,
Just send the fillets. Fishing equals sunburn. The surgeon has had 3 goes at my pretty nose already !!!!!
Three hours open . Takings $280. Traffic fine on way to open up $330.
Carol, I commiserate with you. Sometimes it feels like the world is against you but it will get better.
2013 is going to be our year – just you
wait and see – (hope that 13 doesn’t get in the way though!!!!!!)
Happy New Year and keep looking for the
good bits.
Thankyou June. I had hoped we could have a 2012a and b and miss out on 2013. Up to my neck in back to school now so lets hope it goe OK.
Thats sounded like my Easter last year Carol ! Had just purchased a new car two weeks prior, on my way to open Easter Sunday and “found” a radar where I had never seen one before and while still getting used to the new car was found to be travelling a bit over the limit. At least the Police who pulled me over back then were good humored which kept me in the right frame of mind for the morning.
Hopefully that has gotten the bad out of the way for you early in the year and the rest of the year is plain sailing and profitable for you ! Here’s to lucky number 13 ! 😉
Carol I scored the exact same amount on Boxing Day
Our centre doesn’t open on Public Holidays so we cannot trade even if we
wished to.
If I owned the centre I would open every day except Xmas day and Good Friday
and I would “expect” my tenants to do likewise.
Unfortunately, in our centre the tenants are worn out with all the years (3 now) of
rebuilding and renovating and a lot of them choose to close on Sundays (a trading day but not a mandated one in SA)
Nothing looks worse when we arrive to open our shop on a Sunday to see closed
shops and cafes all around us.
I have tried (at meetings) so say that we are all in the same boat and we should try
to pull the local (and other) people back to us but it seems to fall on deaf ears.
Retailing is in the doldrums and our centre
is absolutely gorgeous now but the customers have not returned to us in the
same nos. as we had in 09 (before the renos started).
Retailers have to ensure that they are doing their BEST at all times under very difficult circumstances.
If I owned my centre I would be bitterly disappointed in the tenants’ efforts (not
all of them of course).
What I mean by all of the above is that I
am personally restricted in my trading hours BECAUSE I am in a centre.
I object to that.