The last thing newsagencies with lotteries would have wanted this week is a Powerball and / or OzLotto jackpot.
Besides concern that major lottery jackpots redirect cash from product purchases to lottery ticket purchases, there is the impact on the shop floor. Stretched newsagents direct labour to serving lottery customers and away from working the shop fllor. Suppliers, too, are impacted by being turned away as there is no time for appointment.
So, in this week vital to Mother’s Day sales, I reckon many newsagents with lotteries would be relieved that the jackpots went off last week.
I wish it would have just kept rolling , while jackpots are on everything seems to go up as well .
Thank goodness we still have the Saturday Super draw. It keeps the customers rolling in and we can remind them to get the card or gift for Mum.
It’s interesting. When I had lotteries these jackpots detracted from major seasons.
I find sales increase with large jackpots always order extra papers as the tradies come and buy their lotto and grab a paper, drink, phone recharge and so on.
Also everyone seems happier.
If you pitch it the right way a jackpot during a season is the best thing for sales, it can be hard for us working it and we go home exhausted and will normally arrive 15 or 20 mins earlier in the morning to set the shop up and spend half an hour at the end of the day after we have closed cleaning up but always worth it from the extra profit.
The thing is it brings in a lot of new customers and it is then our job to keep these new customer coming back
I live for major Jackpots.With mothers day it would have had us selling heaps more gift packs for mum.We are selling a fair amount anyway but a huge jackpot would have been great.
I would never say a jackpot is bad for business.
the first thing newsagents would want in any week is a lotto jackpot brings in huge amounts of customers get lotto and see for yourself
Same here, love the jackpots.
More customers coming in means more sales.
We don’t put any extra staff on as we only have one terminal, so it is exhausting, but at the end of the day we make more money and that’s what matters.
Last yr the mothers day oz lotto was $70M and we had one of the best mothers days in the entire shop ever. More people means more potential shoppers. All you need do is plan a little ahead and pick out the customers that do not want lotto as well and serve them fast.
We allocate a staff to do just this, it does not offend lotto people because they know that we can only serve on lotto at a time.
I’m filthy that both jackpots went off together.
ive just read this blog again and are amazed that you would say this Mark basically a rant about being too busy- no time for suppliers (who cares)lets see which newsagents with lotto don’t want jackpots- its a good chance to take customers from other shops without lotto
Unless I’ve sold the winning ticket let the jackpots roll on.
We take particular care AFTER Jackpots to spend time with people checking their tickets, commisserate and get to know them so that they will come back to US in the future. Something on the front counter changes three times a day iof I remember – we LOVE the foot traffic from a jackpot.
I wouldn’t like to NOT have Lotto but I would have to agree with Mark. We are so frantic at the lotto counter that we don’t do a good enough job in the rest of the shop.
We also only have one entrance now and the lotto customers take up all the entrance at jackpot time and it certainly reflects on the rest of the shop.
Lotto’s % does NOT make up for the loss (maybe perception of loss) in the main shop.
I’m open minded about it actually, and would like more comments.
I really feel that AGENCIES which used to be our bread and butter are an anathema in this new retailing paradigm where we need new product and excellent service to
continue as retailers (not newsAGENTS)
because that has its woes as well.
June, I think your perception is right. I have noticed a slight drop in sales across all areas on the day of a big lotto draw and is usually a few %.
As soon as lotto hits 30 million we move all new stock to the front area of the shop , tables go out front with books or gift and the counter gets loaded up as well . We find lotto customers are there for one thing and it is a matter of selling something else while they are there . Our mag sales are up on every jackpot ,paper sales up , gift sales up to me jackpots are a positive …..until it goes off and everyone looses interest for a week or so .One more thing on jackpots I have noticed that the 21 million superdraws just do not seem enough anymore to the average lotto player ,they need to lift it to 30 million to make it a special event again .
Mark, your comments are correct IF you are working towards a new retail model. One of my stores is a large retail seller of gifts and greeting cards as well as being in the top 50 Tatt’s outlets. We are extremely happy with the run up to last week of the jackpots and were over the moon that the draw was won as it would have effected merchandise sales this week in the run up to Mum’s Day. If you are traditional in your offer and hoping against hope that business will remain the same then you may have a different opinion.