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Social responsibility

Politicians should block acquisitions by Coles and Woolworths

Just before Christmas there was discussion in the media about work between Coles, Woolworths and the ACCC on the oversight and regulation of their purchases of independent retailers. At the time, the ACCC Chair said they needed to watch for market power of the two supermarket giants.

Huh?! By any measure overseas, Coles and Woolworths already have too much market power.  Farmers, wholesalers, independent retailers, logistics companies – many complain about the bullying of these two on price. The only winners are the shareholders of the two and while that is good for them, the economic damage of their market share is considerable.

Politicians concerned about small businesses and having a strong and balanced economy should legislate to stop Coles and Woolworths. Politicians concerned for the Australian voice to be heard through high street retail ought to legislate to stop Coles and Woolworths.

But politicians won’t act. When it comes to these matters they are all words and no action.

Without legislation, the ACCC is powerless in this area as time has shown.

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Ethics

Newsagents not put in a good light in A Current Affair story

Several people have contacted me to say that newsagents were not fairly portrayed in a story on A Current Affair on Wednesday night.

I did not see the story so cannot comment.

On YouTube you can see a video posted earlier this year which was apparently mentioned on A Current Affair and partly played in the story they aired. Read the comments posted on YouTube following the airing of the story.

I have posted this here today for anyone who wants to comment. I’d be particularly interested in comments on the ACA approach.

The work involved in crediting customers for the non delivery of a newspaper for a day like Christmas Day is easy with most newsagency software.

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Ethics

Wary of For Arts Sake loyalty program for newsagents

The terms and conditions of the loyalty program being launched by For Arts Sake indicate that newsagents need to have broadband and install a device to feed scanned sales data of items sold to FAS.

All data goes to FAS.  This could breach supplier agreements including magazine agreements. It could also give FAS data about a business that the business may not want FAS to get.  I suggest newsagents get professional advice before signing.

Basket data is valuable to newsagents. The moment they allow basket data to leave their business the opportunity for them to leverage value is diminished.

A device like this was mooted with newsagents five or so years ago. It was knocked on the head then because of the same data and contractual issues.

The email from FAS promoting the opportunity gushes. It includes…

No other supplier in the Newsagent industry has ever developed such a program to help support and grow their retailers business.

This is the BIGGEST opportunity for Newsagents since Lotto was introduced in 1974.

My experience is that both statements are not accurate. Caveat emptor.

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Ethics

Newsagents abused by Gordon and Gotch

Magazine publishers who wonder why newsagents early return their titles should read this.  Some newsagents received these toys from Gordon and Gotch on Monday.

Yeah, a magazine distributor has sent newsagents these Shoulder Buddies for sale at 25% GP. Newsagents get 50% and more GP on toys so why would they offer these for less?  There is no obvious or promoted magazine link.

So close to Christmas with shops already brimming with stock – who at Gotch approved this? Who has treated newsagents this way?  The Gotch leadership owes newsagents an explanation.

This is an appalling abuse of the newsagency channel by Gordon and Gotch. Gotch should not distribute toys. Newsagents have many toy suppliers at their disposal and the ability to achieve 50% (and more) GP.

No wonder 50% of newsagents are reducing magazine space in-store. Most feel that this is the only way they can control supply.

I would not be surprised if some newsagents struck out at Gotch and early returned magazines in punishment against Gotch. Yes, I understand such  move could be crazy … but think about how abused some newsagents will feel.

Footnote: I did  not receive this product in any of my stores.

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Ethics

Beware offers of lease negotiation help

A range of people and organisations offer to help newsagents with lease negotiation. I urge newsagents to do their research before signing on with any party making such an offer.

Ask for recent references and do your own research.

One newsagent recently found that the party they were paying to represent them was negotiating for another party to take their lease and business.

It is one thing to face a competition head on and another entirely when your own ‘family’ is stabbing you in the back.

Bottom line: when it comes to lease help, do due diligence and ensure that claims being made are truthful.

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Ethics

I’d be surprised if Coles paid to advertise Woman’s Day

The Herald Sun and the Daily Telegraph today have quarter page ads promoting the special issue of Woman’s Day as available from Coles supermarkets.

I doubt Coles paid for these ads.

My understanding is that Coles product advertising is funded by suppliers. I guess ACP paid for the ad.  If true, shame on ACP for treating their retail channels differently and for ignoring newsagents, their most valuable retail channel.

I can see why Coles would have asked for funding – because ACP wanted them to do something beyond the usual with the weekly title. Whereas newsagents will invest their own time and space in these special issues, supermarkets only engage if they are compensated for what they consider to be extra work.

I’d love ACP to comment on this.

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Ethics

Some newsagents can be challenging customers

As a newsagent and a supplier to newsagents I get to see our channel in action from a range of perspectives. While most engagement I encounter between newsagents and suppliers is positive and respectful, there is the rare occasion of a bad experience and, of course, it’s the experience you remember the most.

Some newsagents, very few in fact, are quick with threats against suppliers if they do not get what they want. They will say that they will tell every other newsagent that your product or service is bad unless you give them what they want. Or they will say they will complain to the association in an effort to have you accede to their request – even if the request is outside your documented trading terms.

It’s my experience that the scope and volume of the threat is the inverse of the facts of the situation. The few times I have seen or heard of this type of blackmail behaviour – I’ll hurt your company unless you give me what I want – the threats started before the dispute was even investigated and the newsagent is seeking something they to which they are not entitled – hence the over the top threats.

I experienced a situation recently, a newsagent emailed me about an issue. I said I was overseas but would rely on my person on the ground to look into it. Minutes later, they replied with an email saying they would never deal with my company again and had reported the matter to the association.  The matter had not yet been investigated at my level and the amount in question was fractional compared to the decades-long relationship. They exploded too early and all because I wanted to research their complaint. The matter was complicated by them making the small purchase agreeing to the terms and conditions and the supply meeting these.

There was no other issue between us, no other history other than positive.

Because of their threat I decided to give them what they wanted.  I know of other suppliers who have done the same in similar circumstances. We do it because ours is a gossip-fuelled channel where baseless gossip can harm reputations. I understand that giving in feeds the monster. It’s a judgement call that suppliers do all too often find to be necessary … unfortunately. We did this time.

Why write about this? To show that newsagent suppliers from time to time have to deal with situations that the vast majority of newsagents would never know about and to point out that a very small number of newsagents give the broader community a bad name. I also write about this to explain why some suppliers have complex account application and purchase processes.

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Ethics

What to make of the Leveson report in the UK

The release of the report of the Leveson Inquiry has UK newspapers saying they don’t need the control measures outlined in the report. A tragedy has been uncovered brought about by systematic and systemic crime and corruption and the plan for stopping this happening again is being rejected because businesses think they can control themselves. Self regulation failed the UK.

We have seen similar complaints in Australia following the Finklestein report into media regulation. News outlets don’t want regulation, they say it’s censorship.  We have censorship in Australia today in some media outlets and bias on show in their pages. Look at global warming – many media outlets do not report the facts.  Just this week with the AWU scandal we have seen media outlets take down spin in the face of evidence that their ‘news’ was wrong.

You sell more copies and attract more eyeballs with fear and spin than facts.

For a feeling of how newspaper publishers have approached Leveson, read Roy Greenslade’s column in The Guardian.

I am for any measure that dilutes the control of of mass media into few hands and I am for any measure that holds media proprietors personally responsible for false and misleading reporting and criminal activity by any who work for them in pursuing story material.

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Ethics

Supporting newsagents raising money for Movember

Allan Wickham of newsXpress Eli Waters is growing a mo to raise money for men’s health as part of Movember. I urge you to click here support Allan here as he chases a fundraising goal of more than $2,000 this year. Other newsagents and newsagency employees growing a mo for Movember and raising money should let me know so I can promote them here. Since we see so many customers every day in our stores we can be great ambassadors for this wonderful cause.

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Social responsibility

South Australian government fails to support small business

The South Australian government has signed a contract with two multi-national stationery suppliers, ignoring an opportunity to support small businesses like newsagents. The ABC has the story.

I don;t know why I am surprised that a politician fails to support small business. This is how it’s been in Australia for decades with successive state and federal governments. They have been quick to say how important small business is and slow to back their words with action.

Labour, Liberal and National Party politicians have consistently failed small businesses, like newsagents, in Australia. Yet we vote for them.  More fool us.  If we were serious about wanting governments to support small business, as our core issue, then we would lead a campaign across our counters at the next federal and state elections. We won’t, however, because we will prefer to complain than to actually do something about chaning the situation.

Shame on you South Australian government, shame. This is a socially irresponsible decision.

Okay, so what should government do? If they support Australia as they often say they will, they should be required to support Australian businesses ahead of others and small businesses ahead of others. These requirements should be mandated in a way that is fair for taxpayers.

My sense is that small businesses are more likely to invest in local communities. The knock-on economic benefit of governments proactively supporting small business would / cold be considerable.

The politicians, however, will only support small business if it is in their interests to at the ballot box.

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Ethics

Merchandising the New Idea Pantene offer

We have the New Idea Pantene giveaway this week and have decided to run fanned out as shown in the photo in a couple of locations in-store. This placement at the counter as well as the usual location for the title does take up more space but it also shows off the bonus value with this issue. I see this as an opportunity for us to promote a point of difference over others nearby selling the magazine.

I like now the giveaway is tied to supporting women with cancer.

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magazines

WH Smith imposes age restriction on gun magazines

UK newsagent WH Smith has banned the sale of gun magazines to under 14 year olds. While there is no regulatory restriction on the title, the company has taken the move because 14 is the age at which someone can obtain a shooters licence.

As the article in The Daily Mail points out, they are not imposing restrictions on car magazines even though you need to be 18 to own and buy a car.

The only age restrictions I am aware of for Australian magazines are those for porn titles.  It would be easy for us to check and control titles by age given the age facilities in newsagency software for tobacco products. That said, I would not be a fan (at least I don’t think so) of further restriction on the sale of magazines.

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magazines

Walmart moving back into smaller format stores

The trend in the UK has been for major retailers like Sainsburys and Tesco to move into small format situations in the high street. Now, in the US, we hear courtesy of Convenience Store News that Walmart is again playing with small format locations.  Coles is playing in this space in Australia but not yet on the same scale as in the UK or, apparently, in the US.

Some of these businesses overseas are rapidly redefining the town and city high street landscape. We need to consider this in our planning for our own newsagency businesses.

If we think Coles and Woolworths are competitors with our newsagencies today we’ve seen nothing yet. The will follow the UK model to claim more of the high street.

In the high street and online, Coles and Woolworths are chasing our businesses and other independently owned small retail businesses. It sucks but it’s happening. The ACCC and successive governments have failed to challenge the supermarket duopoly.

The position we do not want to be in is complaining about what they have done after the event.

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Newsagency challenges

The interesting debate around Alan Jones

The Australian Financial Review today has a fascinating article about the Alan Jones story through the context of old media versus new media. I am particularly interested to see that advertisers don’t consider advertising as an endorsement of the performer their ads are connected with. My take is: welcome to the new consumer empowered world. Social media gives people more power and the Jones story is showing how the power can be harnessed.

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Social responsibility

When to quit tobacco in your newsagency?

Days into his presidency, early in 2009 US President Barack Obama signed into a massive tax hike on tobacco. The result is a historic reduction in people smoking. George Bush twice rejected a tax hike on tobacco.  The cost to the health system and lives as a result of the lack of a tax hike years is immeasurable.

It is data like this that will spur governments to adopt the Australian plain packaging laws and other measures on tobacco product sales.

Regardless of your position on tobacco, newsagents who sell tobacco need to think about exiting the category. It’s in decline. This will increase on the back of the amazing US result announced a few days ago and the expected result of plain packaging here.  There will come a time when tobacco products are not paying their way – for the space and labour the require.

I quit the category in 1999 when our sales were around $1,500 a week.  We didn’t skip a beat.

Beyond the issue of social responsibility is the matter of business performance. With governments around the world closing in on big tobacco there is little upside for retailers, especially when there are many other uses for time, space and capital.

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Social responsibility

GLITTER WARNING: DeAgostini Cake Decorating partwork glitter NOT edible

The tub of glitter packaged with the launch issue of the Cake decorating partwork now on sale in newsagencies (and 30 Woolworths outlets!) contains glitter that is NOt edible. Given that this is a care decorating product I would have thought that the glitter was edible. That is what some customers thought as newsagents have already told me.

To warn customers, the team at one of my stores created a warning notice. It’s the black on yellow notice in the photo.  Click here to download a copy of the glitter warning notice.

Network aServices and DeAgostini should have strongly warned newsagents about this. The risk of litigation in the event of harm caused y the glitter is considerable given the very hard to read warning on the lid of the glitter.

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Newsagency challenges

Campbell Newman changes blamed for Brisbane newsagents doing it tough

Talking with a couple of newsagents in Brisbane yesterday I was surprised to hear about the emptying offices in the CBD and the impact on newsagents and other nearby small business retailers.

While Campbell Newman was elected on a platform of fiscal responsibility, there are newsagents and other retailers in the CBD wondering if his public service cuts are going too far.  With three CBD newsagencies recently closed and some other retailers closed too, I wondered if there were other forces at work.

A couple of examples were shared where the businesses were directly opposite now-shrinking government departments. These were small businesses serving local office workers Monday to Friday. While they were not the biggest retail businesses in town but they were making a living.  The state government redundancies have reportedly made the businesses unviable.

I have written here many times that we, all of us, need to pursue traffic from several sources. Even very local businesses need to attract shoppers for more than convenience or being local. The more viable reasons we give shoppers to walk through our doors the stronger we are. We need to be strong in several categories of products, preferably products people seek out and preferably geographically unique to us.

While I accept that the Campbell Newman shrinking of the public service will have been a factor, good retailers would have built businesses that could better withstand the government downsizing.

In the meantime, the Newman government needs to consider the economic impact of emptying the Brisbane CBD.

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Newsagency management

Kudos to Sound + Image magazine

Check out the latest issue of Sound+Image magazine and see how one publisher is making the case for independent retailers.  Nice!

The full page headed with 10 reasons to buy hi fi at a hi fi shop is a passionate pitch for shopping at a hi fi shop over a chain store and over online shopping.  It’s social responsibility in action.

Support from for local, small and independent retailers is welcome. The support in Sound+Image is a reason for newsagents to give the title some time in the spotlight.

Click on the image to see the ad in detail.

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Social responsibility

It’s tough when you are competing with your supplier

I was doing some research last night on the Mont Marte art supply range using their website to check out nearby stockists.  I searched using several postcodes and each time Art Shed Online in Moorabbin came up in the search results first, listed as a partner.

I decided to widen the search from some Victorian postcodes into New South Wales and Art Shed Online in Moorabbin came up again – even though I asked the Mont Marte website to search for outlets within 5km of each postcode I entered.

The reason for Art Shed Online is listed first in these searches is that it appears to be owned by Mont Marte. That’s the inference from the website setup details at least.

While I have no quarrel with Mont Marte selling direct, I would prefer their website to take a fairer approach in listing stockists. Putting their own outlet ahead of their customers is unfair.

Suppliers should put their customers first, ahead of any direct sales outlet they establish.

I like the Mont Marte offer. I don’t like how they manipulate the search results on their website and treat their customers as second class citizens.

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art supplies

Melbourne airport rips travellers off

Please excuse an off topic rant.

I am sick of being ripped off by Melbourne Airport. If you park there for less than a day you pay for the hours you’re there.  If you are there more than a day you pay by the day.  So if you park for 25 hours you pay for two days. Crazy.

The only way they can get away with this is their monopoly position. I can’t think of other businesses with a rip-off pricing model like theirs.

The airport was built by and run by the government for decades. Since privatisation, the fees have steadily increased yet the amenity has not changed.  Indeed, it is now harder than ever to drive into the airport. So we are receiving poorer service and paying much more for it.

What is happening at Melbourne Airport is not only about travellers being ripped off with excessive fees. It’s also about the impact on productivity. Thanks to poor traffic management and poor management overall we travellers have to allow more time before a flight to get to the gate.  This costs us time and time costs money.

Governments are happy to sell public assets for the cash. The suffering public all too often pay long after the transaction is completed.  I preferred Tullamarine under government ownership.

There, I feel better now.

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Social responsibility

Good that’s life! school fundraiser campaign

that’s life! is offering five $1,000 cash grants to participating schools around Australia in the run up to the Australian Government’s National Literacy and Numeracy Week (NLNW), running August 27 to September 2. This money can be used to buy whatever educational equipment the schools need.

Over the next four weeks in the run up to NLNW, and during the week itself, that’s life! will feature a series of kid-friendly puzzles and learning challenges to be utilised by schools and students during NLNW.

This is an excellent opportunity to promote that’s life! in a second display, contact local schools and promote in other ways. Newsagents could also offer some local promotion or incentive to raise funds for schools.

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Social responsibility

Is Australia Post’s hookup with an online retailer a ‘kick in the guts’?

The Fairfax media yesterday ran a report on Australia Post teaming up with international shopping service Tarazz, saying it would be a kick in the guts for local retailers.

Tarazz reportedly offers around 250,000 items from overseas retailers including Walmart. The tie up with Australia Post is a bold move as it is likely to take business from local fashion retailers according to the report.

Several newsagents contacted me yesterday to alert me to the Australia Post move – given my disappointment that the policy makers (politicians) in Australia for the last fifteen years or so have let Australia Post creep way beyond the remit covered in the act under which it operates. Some were surprised that I’m not angry about what Australia Post is doing.

Unless I am missing something, this is a move leveraging the Australia Post delivery infrastructure. It’s what they are there for – more so than taking over the counter retail sales from small family run businesses as they do when they use their government owned corporate stores to specifically target businesses like newsagencies.

Okay, so they are facilitating an international retailer taking retail sales from other retailers and, yes, maybe politicians should have concern about that and the jobs that could be lost and businesses closed. But it’s not as direct a hit against retailers as Australia Post itself doing what it does to newsagents and other family run businesses.

Given that Australia Post is government owned, it has a higher obligation to Australians, a greater importance around social responsibility. Retailers affected could say this is not a socially responsible move. I best postal workers would disagree.

When it comes to small business, politicians on both sides don’t care. Oh, sure, they will say plenty – but they rarely do anything. They don’t see votes in actually supporting small business.  I wonder if my view on the Australia Post / Tarazz tie up reflects this cynicism.

I am posting this here for others to comment.  What do you think about this move by Australia Post? If you are against it, what are you going to do about it as that’s what it comes down to. Enough voters complaining about something can lead to policy change.

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Australia Post

Kudos to Pacific Magazines for marriage equality campaign

marie claire from Pacific Magazines is showing wonderful community engagement and leadership with their I Do campaign, which also engages GetUp! and Sunrise on the Seven Network.

Check out the letter from marie claire Editor / Publisher Jackie Frank and get a feel for the passes from the top for this issue.

Besides the value and importance of the I Do campaign from a community perspective, engagement such as this on an issue with strong community support is important for the magazine commercially. It demonstrates that marie claire cares about issues. I think that is something people look for in brands. It is certainly something people can empathise with.

Magazines titles are hubs of communities. Reflecting and supporting the opinions and emotions of the community better connects a magazine to their community.  What they are doing on this issue is instructive for newsagents considering how to engage with their communities on issues.

What has changed in this era of Twitter and Facebook is how we engage in and with social issues. My sense is that we are more engaged, or at least we feel that we are more engaged.

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magazines

Eddie McGuire disrespects newsagents

On Triple M Footy on Saturday night (May 26) Eddie McGuire disrespected newsagents when talking about an industry event saying:

it used to be good until they let Newsagents and other clowns attend

Newsagents are clowns Eddie? Nice.

Contact with Triple M Footy and Triple M Breakfast via Twitter achieved nothing. It seems Eddie McGuire is happy to lob grenades but not be accountable for their impact.

It was Eddie McGuire’s personal pitch in mid 2011 which resulted in newsagency marketing group newsXpress committing to a national TV campaign with the Nine Network for more than 4,000 TV ads. I am a Director of newsXpress.  ACP Magazine is owned by Nine Entertainment. Newsagents are important to ACP. Maguire is a major star in the Nine stable. That he has ignorantly disrespected newsagents, even if it was meant as a joke as I expect the excuse will be, ought to interest the folks at Nine.

Eddie Maguire joins Bill Shorten, Jeff Kennett and Wendy Harmer in making ignorant and offensive comments against newsagents. While these people are entitled to their view, they ought to be prepared to debate them. As it stands today, they prefer to pontificate and run.

I accept that people will make jokes about newsagents and other retail channels and professions. What I will not accept is ignorant jokes and commentary and the refusal to engage in debate about what has been said.

Newsagents deserve better.

We are good people. We are faithful servants of our suppliers.  We serve our community with pleasure.

UPDATE: (Jun. 1) I have changed the spelling of Eddie’s surname to the right spelling. I appreciate the confidential correspondent who let me know of the mistake.

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Newsagency challenges
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