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Social responsibility

A credit card surcharge turns me off a retail business

Twice yesterday I experienced a surcharge being added to a purchase, in different retail businesses. In each case, the amount of the surcharge was not revealed until after I had presented the card and in each case the receipt I asked for did not include the surcharge.

Both businesses were selling items over which they had price control, good margin items.

Ian the first purchase I didn’t;lt notice the amount on the credit card terminals, and the staff member could not tell me the amount of the surcharge, only that there was one.

In the second situation, I saw that the surcharge was 8 cents as it showed on the screen, but it was not on the receipt from their POS software.

Applying a surcharge where the items have good margin and where the business can set prices does not make sense to me. It turns me off these businesses.

A bigger problem thous is the poor service of not adequately disclosing the amount of the surcharge and not documenting it on the copy of the receive they provide when requested.

If I was competing with these businesses their current approach to surcharges exposes a weakness that I’d, for sure, exploit.

I get that retailers don’t like credit card fees. At less than 1% of purchase value, they are a low cost compared to other business costs. For example, I suspect the 1% cost is considerably lower than the cost of theft in the business.

To me, a credit card surcharge applies a cost to a business service that actually has time saving and other benefits for the business.

So, yeah, I don’t like it, and I especially don’t like that it’s more often used in independent local retail than our big business competitors. The last thing we need is giving shoppers a reason to preference big retailers over our local indie retail businesses.

Too often, local indie retailers are grouped together on things like this, and that worries me – that enough local indie retailers apply a surcharge for card use to have some shoppers think we all do it.

I get that some want a way to recover the cost of card use.

  • Look at your prices. If you don’t round to .99, do it.
  • Look at your prices. Add a couple of % to markup on items that you can.
  • Reduce the value of the loyalty discount you offer.
  • Ask your card processed for a rate review.
  • Look at your dead stock. In plenty of retail businesses the cost of dead stock is a much bigger burden on a business than card processing fees.

My point is, applying a surcharge is easy and, I am sorry to say, lazy. There are other moves a retailer can make to claw that cost back.

17 likes
Newsagency management

HEY AUSSIES, THE LOCAL NEWSAGENCY MAY NOT BE WHAT YOU THINK IT IS (PART 10)

Even in a major shopping centre, there is an expectation about the local Aussie newsagency, that it’s a shop for papers, magazines lottery tickets, instant scratch tickets and, often cigarettes. It never did bill payment, parcel pickup, money transfer or any of the other agency services that are pushed to newsagents.

Too many journalists and news outlets when they write about newsagencies, they write with this in mind, with the view of our businesses as they were 20 or so years ago.

My business at Westfield Knox, which I had for eight and a half years, played against tradition, it played against ignorant assumptions. It never had any lottery products, never sold cigarettes, never sold everyday confectionary. This was a collectible, gift and expressions shop that constantly evolved over its life. It was a good example of a local newsagency that was fresh and modern.

From the way it pitched framed beautiful wrap to one of the first major full-face card walls to the range of gifts, this business was loved locally.

We traded through the full 7 year lease and an extension the landlord asked us to consider. We planned to leave at the end of year 7 and concentrate on high street and online businesses. It turned out that staying gave us more opportunity for change, which was wonderfully successful.

When Aussies think of the local newsagency, I’d like them to think of it as unique, because every newsagency is unique, and to think of it as a place to find gifts and ways to express ourselves. This is what innovating newsagents have embraced, it is where they are finding growth in terms of basket depth, business GP% performance and personal satisfaction as a retailer.

What we did in this shop in-store is what many newsagents are doing, playing way outside what has been traditional for local retail newsagencies. What we did online many years ago and until the store closed was ground-breaking, and we’re proud of that.

The local Aussie newsagency is not what journalists, editors and many Aussies think it is. The more we as a channel share this publicly the better the opportunity to shift perception and that is key.

I don’t want to read the sky is falling for newsagents type articles, because it is not. Print newspapers will end, for sure. But that will not end us. Too many newsagents are growing their businesses. There is so much good news in our channel, so much innovation, so many good retailers. It’s wonderful!

This series over the last 8 days is a small push back against the ignorant narrative in newspapers and elsewhere about newsagents struggling. Sure, some are. but the challenges were first identified 20 years ago. There has been plenty of opportunity to evolve.

Now, if only some of the old-school suppliers to the channel let newsagents evolve by dropping arcane rules and out of date processes. Now that would be a win!

In the meantime, checkout more local newsagencies and be ready to see fresh an innovative retail.

20 likes
Social responsibility

News Corp loses the Victorian election and brings into focus the role of its newspapers

The story bouncing around Twitter today via some commentators is the failure of News Corp, and in particular The Herald Sun to win the Victorian state election.

Jonathan Green shared this image of front pages:

Barry Cassidy made this point:

Then there is this from Emily Webb:

And this from a former respected Herald Sun journalist Rohan Connolly:

For those outside Victoria, these observations from journalist Neil McMahon may assist:

And in terms of what happened and why, this piece by Patricia Karvelas is well worth reading:

Given the election results, there would have to be people at News Corp.thinking about their business and what needs to change since their considerable investment in this election has failed. If the company does not change its output focus, I suspect product purchases will continue to decline.

No matter what your politics, any post election assessment needs to consider the extent of the failure of News Corp to cut through. A newspaper not cutting through is a newspaper with a problem.

One answer for News Corp is that they go back to journalism, and leave their political lobbying and their donation of free advertising to others – they should go into the vaults and check out pre-Murdoch copies of The Sun and The Herald and see what made those newspapers great, and trusted. They should go back to fact-based journalism.  And, they could cancel the contracts of all opinion writers.

But maybe there is money in what they do. If there is, they will stick to what they have done for years. It will be interesting to see how it plays out. I doubt there is money in their yelling at people, being a propaganda pamphlet rather than a news outlet.

The Victorian election result reflects damage on the News Corp brands in this state. I suspect it will cost some sales. It will be interesting to see if the damage is sufficient to negative impact ad revenue. negatively impacting ad revenue is something that would catch the attention of those making the decisions on the on what and how they cover politics here. And it is at this end, the commercial end, where the decisions of News Corp. play out for newsagents.

I do not expect to read any analysis in their pages about the considerable failure News Corp. as a company suffered yesterday in Victoria.

Footnote: What I have written here about News Corp and The Herald Sun I could also write about Neil Mitchell at 3AW. The few times I listened in it was biased commentary, not fact-based. The election result bust be seen as a Neil Mitchell failure, too.

14 likes
Ethics

News Corp. makes it so difficult to cancel a subscription to The Australian that some are bound to give up

A couple of weeks ago I signed up for a digital subscription to The Australian because there was a story I wanted to read and I figured $4.00 was okay since I could cancel.

Two days ago I decided to cancel, before the end of the initial $4 period offer. I figured I’d go to the New Corp. website for The Australian, login to my account, click cancel, and be done. No, not so easy. In fact, it was hard, messy and slow, close to impossible.

News Corp puts up a ton of barriers on The Australian website, demonstrating a clear disinterest in even basic customer service.

I went to my account on their website, clicked manage my subscription, clicked cancel and the website provided a phone number. I thought that’s odd, I must be able to cancel without speaking to anyone. Anyway, I clicked chat, and here’s how that went.

So, I called, navigated their phone system, and eventually got to speak with someone. They were courteous, but not keen for me to go. I had to repeat I want to cancel several times before they agreed to take that step for me – but not before they wanted to know why I wanted to cancel and not before they pitched an offer for me to stay, two weeks free I think.

That phone call took between 5 and 7 minutes, all for a subscription that is cents a day. I wondered how many people would stay with the company going through that. It must be enough for them to have this commercial business model of barriers in place making it so hard and time consuming and threatening almost to cancel.

My customer experience with News Corp was frustrating, time consuming, off-putting. While the person I spoke to was courteous, it should not take me asking multiple times to cancel. The experience was bad enough that I won’t sign up again, even if I am desperate to read an article. Cancelling took too long, their obsession with wanting to know why even though I said it was none of their business was rude, confronting.

I get that I am not a natural News Corp customer – I think they negatively impact our democracy given the political lobbying campaigns they run dressed up as news under their mastheads – but I was a customer for a brief while and the process of ending that was appalling, so much so that I want to tell others considering subscribing with News Corp – don’t as they make it way to hard to leave them … appalling customer service.

The thing about online is that people was a frictionless experience, smooth, enjoyable. The News Corp experience was anything but. For a company that shouts everyday at some politicians and everyday people – telling us what to think, how to behave, they could do well to focus inwards and yell at themselves. Their online house needs to be improved.

On a scale of 0 to 5 rating the News Corp online subscription cancellation experience where 0 is appalling and 5 is excellent, I’d give it a .5 – primarily because the website did not crash at least and their phone system did not auto hang up on me.

27 likes
Ethics

Fringe conspiracy theory packaged as news on today’s Herald Sun front page

Today’s Herald Sun front page story is a disgrace in my view. Here they are going oxygen to a fringe conspiracy theory about Dan Andrews and ignoring the extraordinary and explosive evidence at the Robodebt Royal Commission last week. The former is political interference and the latter is actual news.

It shames me to play a role is making this trash available.

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Ethics

What did the $160M Powerball jackpot mean for lottery app downloads?

Lottery app downloads are an indicator of interest in the purchase of lottery tickets online rather than over the counter, in-store.

I am grateful to have received this graph via Taylor Collison. It plots app downloads for The Lott, OZ Lotteries, LotteryWest, Lottoland and The Lottery Office.

Almost all achieved significant growth on downloads with The Lott and OzLotteries being the big winners. The Lott accounts for 66% of the 290,000 downloads in the month of October.

It will be interesting to see the percentage of online versus in-store revenue once The Lott publishes those figures. As we have seen, the growth in online far outstrips anything achieved in-store. I would also like to see the volume of returning business from online customers. In fact, that information would be fascinating and useful.

It makes sense that people choose convenience. When you turn on the news and see lines on people snaking out of retail businesses under the pump to deal with jackpot sales it makes sense that people look for an easier way to purchase. And while video and images of lines of people make for stories, the reality is people were served quickly and efficiently, and helpfully with so many first-time and infrequent Powerball shoppers asking questions.

I know many newsagents thrilled with the revenue boost from the recent Powerball $160M jackpot. The boost in commission this far out from Christmas was welcome, and appreciated. Plus, I;’m tole, there was a boost in other sales because of the increase in foot traffic. Of course, the smart retailers with a good in-store configuration and tactical placement of impulse purchase opportunities did best from this.

I remain frustrated that The Lott continues to require so much of retailers in the knowledge of on-going migration from in-store purchase. A fairer approach would provide retailers with more freedom and less requirement to be a billboard for what is a growing online business. This freedom could strengthen these lottery agent businesses and thereby make them more valuable to The Lott into the future.

This is such an easy thing for The Lott to fix. A discrete trial would, I suspect, reveal to them that offering retailers more freedom to use currently The Lott designated space would have no negative impact on lottery ticket sales.

7 likes
Ethics

Kudos (for the most part) to Mitsubishi Pencil Australia for their plastic-free initiative

This announcement is good. It offers newsagents stocking these products a good story to share.

That said, it is frustrating that they launched this first with Officeworks – way to show small business retailers how little they mean to you Mitsubishi.

The uni-ball brand is regarded around the world for its high-quality writing instruments.

At Mitsubishi Pencil Australia are now focusing our efforts on the company’s sustainability efforts with the uni-ball range at the forefront of our campaign to reduce the use of single-use plastics.

From November 1st 2022, we will be rolling out single use plastic packaging across our hang-sell range.

Our new packaging marks a change in Australia, moving from plastic blister cards to 100% plastic-free packaging. The new packaging is currently available at Officeworks stores and will begin to be rolled out across all channels from November 2022.

4 likes
Ethics

Scots College students accused of using counterfeit $50 notes

news.com.au reports:

Scots College students allegedly use counterfeit cash at Double Bay shops
Students from an expensive Sydney private school have landed in hot water after a shop owner accused them of a low act.
Christopher Harris
October 20, 2022 – 7:08AM

Students from one of Sydney’s most expensive private schools have been caught on camera using counterfeit $50 notes in a bid to swindle an eastern suburbs newsagent out of $100.
Despite initially getting away with the alleged crime at Double Bay Newsagency, one student from the $40,000 a year Scots College returned just two days later in a bid to try the same scam again, Daily Telegraph reported.

Video of the original alleged fraud shows three students at the counter of the newsagency as one buys a pen. A second student in a blue shirt asks to swap four $50 notes for two $100 notes and appears nervous as he fumbles in his wallet for the cash.

Nine news also covered the story:

Some mentions of the story label it a prank while others label it a serious crime.

If I had evidence of anyone passing counterfeit currency in my shop, I’d report it to the police with the expectation of a thorough investigation and charges brought based on evidence, regardless of their social connections or the school they attend if they are a student.

6 likes
Ethics

A closed New York newsstand offers a beginnings of Covid snapshot of magazine covers

Fascinating …

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Social responsibility

I think COSBOA is wrong on possible data law changes

Paul Smith writing at The Australian Financial Review reported yesterday that COSBOA opposes the small business application of changes to data privacy law changes.

The peak body representing thousands of Australian small businesses has warned against imposing the same new data privacy laws on companies of all sizes following the Optus data breach, saying it is unrealistic and unaffordable for smaller operators without extra government support.

The government and privacy commissioner have flagged changes to privacy laws to force companies to take their responsibility to protect sensitive data more seriously. This would include significantly raising fines and extending breach reporting responsibilities to small businesses with turnover under $3.1 million, which are currently exempted.

Alexi Boyd, chief executive of the Council of Small Business Organisations Australia, told The Australian Financial Review it would be senseless to impose new rules that would be impossible for operators like hairdressers and mechanics to meet.

“It’s really crucial that the government, when they’re making decisions like this, consider the impact on small business people of any regulatory changes because ultimately, it will be them who spends the money and the time implementing them,” Ms Boyd said.

“They don’t have IT departments, very few of them have IT management consultants on call, so they will be the ones that have to learn what to do and implement this, and it will potentially be an increased cost of business.”

…

Ms Boyd said the government should follow an approach of “education first, enforcement second” with small businesses, which were now making much greater use of data through software subscriptions and smart point-of-sale devices to operate more efficiently.

She said the digitisation of small businesses had happened rapidly, and that COSBOA would support any measure from the government to help mitigate the risk for both the business owner and the customers, whose data that they hold, which she said could involve education programs and potentially financial assistance.

I own a small business focussed POS software company serving 3,000+ local retailers, and I own four local retail shops in Melbourne. I think the COSBOA position as put is ignorant, and selfish.

Too often I see private personal data disrespected, collected and stored without consideration as to security and necessity. While most businesses I have seen do not fail to respect the privacy of their customers in this way, enough do for it to be a problem.

From what I can see, poor privacy practices are employed out of laziness, not because of the cost of tech or ignorance as to requirements. From what I see, people are lazy, entering credit card details into software that can be hacked rather than taking an easier step of using a secure and separate platform.

The need to respect the privacy of sensitive personal information is not new. No notice is needed as to this requirement.

I hope the government issues new and stringent standards and that they apply equally to all businesses. This is not a time for us to be soft, not for us, especially not for our customers.

The CEO os COSBOA appears to use examples that, to me, are nonsense.

“How do you do that? How do you get a hairdresser, or a cafe owner, or someone who is a fitness instructor to start doing this? What are you expecting them to do?” she said.

“Also, where does the onus and responsibility lie? Does it lie with the software companies that are holding that data, or with the small business owner? How does that even begin to work? It’s not something that you can just flick a switch on, because every small business digitises differently.”

Why would a hairdresser or cafe owner have any private data? For a loyalty program maybe. But not private data like a licence, passport number or credit card number surely?!

And then there is the comment about software. It’s not complex. they party collecting data from the public is responsible as that is where any privacy representation is made.

Also, some software does not store data in a place under the control of the software company. In the cases where it does, the software company has to share the responsibility.

Now is not the time for lobbying to dilute responsibility. We owe our customers more than this.

Let’s see what the government proposes before we get lathered up for a fight about what we think may happen, and then, let’s put the interests of our customers first.

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Small Business

Is the Optus data breach a big business problem?

Optus collected personal data from people, and, it appears, kept it long after the need for the data passed. Worse, if reports are accurate, Optus kinda left the data on the kitchen table with the back door open and the light on.

This is data requested initially from customers to check identity.  I’d like to know the government regulations / legislation requiring this identity check data to be stored.

The whole mess feels to me like a big business problem: overreach on data collection, no housekeeping to identify and securely delete data no longer required, poor data structure on data storage making theft of a useable batch easy, and inadequate protection of data required to be kept on-hand.

In my experience of decades working in software development, in government (CSIRO), big business (banks and mining) and in small business (Tower Systems), it’s the big business systems where problems like we have been reading about from Optus thrive.

In big business there are big IT teams, lots of stakeholders, lots of committees, lots of fingers. These are all very removed from the people personally responsible. In fact, who is personally responsible in a business the size of Optus: the CEO?, senior management?, the Board?, the Shareholders? … who knows.

In small business, if I ask a customer for an ID check for some reason, they show me their licence or passport and then return it to their bag or wallet. I don’t copy it. I don’t enter their details in my computer system. I don’t keep it longer than I need.

If I screw up and leave personal details of a customer out for anyone else to see or take, I am responsible. I know it. My customers know it.

Okay, it’s maybe not the best example. But, actually, it is. In small business we tend to be lean, and efficient, taking action necessary to get the job done. We, well I know in my own small business situations, I and those work work with me tend to not hoard things, we tend to not hoard data, and we respect value, and security. We use our safe for that, and we do not leave the door open or pass out the combination.

Small business owners are closer to their customers in a practical sense and in everyday life. We understand them and  respect them because our customers are us, or at least like us.

In big business, customers are numbers, pieces of data, and, too often in big business, data, especially old data or data not part of today’s push to drive the share price up is not as mission critical and may therefore be left on the kitchen table with the back door open – because no one was watching, wondering, or worrying about and for those who provided the data.

So, yeah, I read the Optus situation as a big business problem. Until there are share price impacting consequences for what has happened we should expect more events like we have seen in the last week.

16 likes
Ethics

This is how a supplier supports their small business retail customers

We started buying from a US based supplier (not the one I wrote about recently). They have unique products, nothing like them in Australia.

Their first order has just arrived. Yesterday, they asked if we ship as they have someone in NSW interest in a product of theirs we have just received. It was an easy sale.

Now, overnight, we have received 2 more similar leads.

While they could shop to Australia, and Aussies would pay shipping for their unique products, their choice is to support retailers who purchase through them and pass on leads.

It’s terrific seeing a supplier support its retail partners in this way.

7 likes
Social responsibility

Hey, Are Direct, it’s about time you offered newsagents scan-based trading

Supermarkets have had scan-based trading for years with magazines, from back in the days on the now defunct Gordon and Gotch, then to Ovato, and now to Are Direct.

Scan-based trading is where retailers pay the magazine distributor for what is sold. That’s it.

The distributor / publisher carries the cost of shrinkage (theft, damage) etc.

The retailer makes margin from what they sell. They do not have margin ‘stolen’ by theft, or damage or failed supply … and I include damage and failed supply because the Are Direct process for handling claims by newsagents is a mess, time consuming, starting with the assumption the newsagent is wrong. Indeed, it is so bad that plenty of newsagents don’t even lodge a credit claim.

Scan-based trading is unfair in that newsagents don’t have access to it while their competitors do. This provides them an unfair advantage, facilitated by the magazine Are Direct and magazine publishers.

It’s unfortunate that Are Media spends on the old-school display competitions and similar yet fails to deal with the unfairness at the core of the magazine distribution model to newsagents.

The magazine distribution ‘experts’ at Are Direct will say it’s a data issue, that newsagents cannot provide the same accurate sales data flowing from supermarkets. This was nonsense when put 10 years ago, it is nonsense today. I say that as the owner of the newsagency software company serving more newsagents than. any other with newsagents icy software.

I tell you what … turn on scan-based trading for newsagents with accurate data and even more newsagents would achieve the desired accuracy.

This is an easy step for Are Direct to take, a fair step, a socially responsible step and pro small business retail step.

Look at a local newsagency competing with a major supermarket a couple of doors away. When it comes to magazines, the supermarket has a better deal, they make more money and save more time from how they are dealt with by Are Direct than the local small business newsagent.

Every single person at Are Media who is in contact with newsagents needs to understand this, they need to understand the unfairness of the situation as in related to newsagents.

Turn on scan-based trading for newsagents and create a fairer model for our channel, show your support for us in a practical way, show us some respect. 

28 likes
Ethics

Columbia Journalism Review on Murdoch: Does Murdoch make the political weather or follow it? Yes.

This piece by John Allsop in the Columbia Journalism Review is a must-read for anyone interested in news, especially in Australia with the dominance of the Murdoch outlets. The headline is smart, and to me, true.

Does Murdoch make the political weather or follow it? Yes.

Any analysis of Murdoch influence interests me as we sell their products, which are a cause for plenty of conversation in the business. I think there has been a shift in Australia. Whereas 5 or so years ago the majority regarded Murdoch papers as sources of news, the majority today regard them as opinionated entertainment. Hopefully, their influence is waning here.

6 likes
Ethics

Customers are loving the green stationery pitch

Our expanding green stationery section toward the front of the newsagency is working a treat. The bright green backing paper draws attention. We will place any product there that is made from sustainably sourced materials.

This simple and easy to make move is a good differentiator for us in the stationery space.

Already we have paper, pens, glue, business books, rubber bands and plenty more. We are grateful to our suppliers for working with us on this.

There is nothing proprietary about what we are doing here. Any newsagent can do it. I recommend it. You only have to visit an Officeworks to realise how important they view the environmentally aware shopper. But, they do it in a corporate way. We in local retail can do it in a more engaged and relevant way I think.

Look, we started small and did it without fanfare, without external marketing. It has evolved and customers have responded. We are very happy with where this is at, the return on space an inventory being achieved.

11 likes
Social responsibility

Covid rapid test sales increasing

There has been a surge in the sale of Covid rapid tests last week. We have kept our price at 5 for $20.00, which is half the price of nearby pharmacies for exactly the same product.

We don’t see the Covid tests as a product off of which to profit. Rather, we offer them as a service. Most sales are to people making other purchases.

In one of our suburban high street stores we have sold 150 tests in the last 2 months.

In addition to the low-cost Covid rapid tests, we continue to offer free face masks at the counter and hand sanitiser.

What’s interesting is the shift in the last few weeks. While early in June we’d have people mocking the wearing of masks, not now.

We don’t require customers to wear masks, but we are putting messaging out in support of them.

While we wish Covid was in the past, it’s not, and it looks like it will be with us for quite a while. For our viability and for the health of all engaged with our local newsagency businesses, I think it is important we lead by example and reduce the opportunity for spread of infection.

6 likes
Social responsibility

A chilling reminder

We have HEPA filters in our shops and last week we reminded customers why we wear masks.

I get that there are plenty of Aussies who don’t want to read or see anything to do with Covid. It’s fascinating seeing those views change when a loved-one gets it for the second or third time and struggles.

4 likes
Social responsibility

The supplier offer of cash in return for a long term agreement may not be good for your business

I was talking to a newsagent yesterday about their card situation. Their card sales are down 11.5% in 2022 so far compared to 2019 (pre Covid). They have seen me talk of double digit growth in newsagencies over the same period and wanted some advice.

They are half way through a contract with their card company. Because of the up-front money they received from the card company, it was called an advance on the projected rebate, they are locked in.

The problem for them is that the cards are not doing as well as projected in their newsagency. This means they are falling behind, which means the contract will likely need to be extended, unless they pay back the advance plus some costs associated with it.

They took the cash up front offer from the card company because they wanted extra working capital. It was pitched to them as an interest free loan and while it does not have a traditional interest component, the card performance has a cost that is, l in my opinion, higher than interest.

The cards this newsagency needs are card that perform well. That is not what they have, and they are locked in, which is distressing for them. Looking at their data at a pocket level, more than half the pockets are seriously under performing.

Newsagents beware.

The offer of cash up front for a long term contract may not be in your best interests, no matter how much you want / need that cash.

Of course there are some on the card supplier side who will talk the opportunity up and pitch it as a partnership designed to help you. What they want, the only thing they want, is a rooftop locked in. It’s what they sell you that matters and while they do want you to sell cards, having you locked in is even more important. Shock, horror: their interests are likely not aligned with yours.

There are many factors that determine card performance in a newsagency. Range is one. Newsagent engagement is another. Out of store marketing is another. Data based decisions is another. These decisions and engagements are best done on the basis of business and not because of a financial handcuff.

Back in 1996 when I bought my first newsagency I did accept card company money I return for a card supply agreement. Today, no matter the circumstances, I’d not agree to such an arrangement as I cannot see any benefit for the business.

The newsagent I spoke with on the weekend does have some avenues they can explore if they can prove that the agreement provided by the card company is holding their business back. Making their case in a small business claims forum would rely on their card sales data and them being able to show that it is worse than newsagents in similar socio-economic situation with cards from another supplier. If they were able to make that case, the agreement could be re-cast by the member hearing such a case, to make them more equitable for the newsagent. However, I suspect that the card company may agree to a resolution through mediation as they would not want the matter publicly aired.

11 likes
Ethics

VIC newsagents: you have 1 more day to improve ventilation in-store to access a $500 grant

Victorian businesses have until tomorrow to to spend on ventilation improvements to be eligible for the state government $500 ventilation rebate.

I urge all Victorian small business retailers to consider this. A HEPA filter, for example, in-store makes it a safe space, and more appealing to shoppers concerned about safety.

Here is the link to the state government details on the program: https://business.vic.gov.au/grants-and-programs/small-business-ventilation-program/ventilation-rebate

Why is ventilation important?
Good ventilation is important because COVID-19 is airborne and primarily spread between people breathing in very small droplets or aerosols containing the virus. The risk of aerosol transmission is higher in a poorly ventilated space because fine aerosol spray from an infected person can remain circulating, linger and spread more easily.

The Victorian Government has released a Small Business Ventilation Guide to help businesses improve ventilation and reduce the spread of COVID-19 by encouraging air flow from outside. Business owners are encouraged to read this guide before applying.

Types of air ventilation and how they can be improved:

  • Natural ventilation – brings air from outside through and around an indoor occupied space, or to make airflow improvements to a covered outdoor space used by customers
  • Mechanical ventilation – uses mechanical equipment to increase airflow by replacing or diluting indoor air with outside air
  • Augmented ventilation – uses portable filtration units to catch particles in a filter to increase the clean air delivery rate and reduce the concentration of viral particles in the air.

Business owners must use their judgement and make decisions that are appropriate for their business to improve ventilation and air quality. This may involve seeking professional advice before committing to a purchase.

We have had HEPA filters in our office since early 2021.

With Covid infections and deaths at concerning levels and new variants concerning doctors and scientists, anything we can do in people facing businesses makes sense. A HEPA filter or better ventilation are good moves in that they are passive – shoppers themselves are not required to do anything.

5 likes
Social responsibility
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