Australia Post swipes again at small business
Visit one of the Government owned Australia Post retail outlets and take a look at the Government’s small business policy in action.
The latest Australia Post brochure, Crowd Pleasing Prices is another example of Australia Post is encroaching further on territory which has been well served by independently owned small business. It does this with the benefit of a product and service monopoly and backed by national TV and radio advertising funded by the monopoly.
The Government is complicit in the actions of Australia Post. They know the harm being done to family businesses across the country yet they respond to complaints by writing irrelevant responses to questions which were not put in the first place.
The Australian Postal Corporation Act 1989 .defines what Australia Post’s permitted functions. Inaction by this government allows Australia Post to skirt around the Act. Here are the relevant clauses:
16 Functions—incidental businesses and activities
(1) The functions of Australia Post include the carrying on, within or outside Australia, of any business or activity that is incidental to:
(a) the supplying of postal services under section 14; or
(b) the carrying on of any business or activity under section 15.
(2) Without limiting subsection (1), the functions of Australia Post include the carrying on, within or outside Australia, of any business or activity that is capable of being conveniently carried
on:
(a) by the use of resources that are not immediately required in carrying out Australia Post’s principal or subsidiary function;
or
(b) in the course of:
(i) supplying postal services under section 14; or
(ii) carrying on any business or activity under section 15.
Government ownership, regulation and monopoly protection guarantees traffic to Australia Post stores for a fraction of what it costs newsagent. My newsagency does not have this monopoly advantage. Australia Post is abusing this advantage to encroach more and more into space previously the domain of newsagencies, some supermarkets and stationery stores.
I cannot land consumers to my store for the same low cost of Australia Post.
I cannot leverage a national brand like Australia Post to buy competitively.
I cannot control my opening and closing hours.
I cannot get the rent discount of an “essential serviceâ€.
I do not have a government protected postal service brand with which to leverage the sale of unrelated items.
Australia Post has, through its government owned stores, been targeting newsagencies. The government’s inaction on this is evidence of merely lip service being paid to small business.
A great thing about card sales in newsagencies is the regularity of seasons. Easter is generating good interest as is, surprisingly, St Patrick’s Day. Based on a couple of customers I spoke with on the weekend newsagents seem to be top of mind with these seasons.
Here are eight of the seventeen aviation, flying titles I receive at my newsagency. The average supply quantity is 2 copies. The titles are suppliers by each of the three magazine distributors.
My blogging this weekend has theme – the impact of online and mobile technology on the newsagent model and the lack of interest newsagents have in that impact. My purpose is to try and draw attention to decisions which need to be made by newsagents today so they have relevant business models for years to come. From what I see, newsagents are in denial. This is in part fuelled by poor coverage in industry journals on such matters.
There is less adult magazine trash to clean up today compared to two or three years ago. By trash I mean plastic bags left from sealed magazines opened are read or stolen. While this could be due to browsers who open sealed adult magazines cleaning up their trash, It is more likely that there is less interest in these magazines. Sales in the category are down so it stands to reason that browsing is down. Theft too. The adult category is one where online is impacting sales, and trash. I know in my shop this category is browsed less frequently than I can recall in my last 11 years here.
Here’s what an instant lottery ticket dispensing unit looks like at the checkout counter of Tesco supermarkets in the UK. I expect that it’s this type of unit which Intralot would have placed at checkouts of Coles and Safeway if they will the instant ticket licence in Victoria.