One thing is for certain during election campaigns, people are more likely to share their opinions across the counter. This is especially true of newspaper shoppers making their purchase and commenting on election related stores they notice on the front page.

While most comments are harmless, there are some delivered with venom, hate even, that require effort to listen to without commenting back.

One way to diffuse the situation could be to have a politics free zone established and extract a ‘fine’ for people who do comment. Have two or three charity tins for people to donate a coin as a ‘fine’ for them commenting. the charities you collect for could be those of prominent local candidates – the donations are a way of voting.

The issue of button batteries and the risks the present is important for any retailer selling products that use these. Product Safety Australia, part of the ACCC, is active on the issue of button batteries right now.

Every week, around 20 Australian children present to an emergency department following exposure to button batteries, including ingestions and insertions. Keep products with button batteries out of sight and out of reach of small children.

You only have to look at the recalls this year to understand how current and serious this issue is:

1. Royal Automobile Association of South Australia (RAA) — Promotional Silicone LED bicycle light distributed as part of the RAA Street Smart Program
2. Officeworks – Teknikio1, Teknikio2, Teknikio3, Teknikio4 – Electronic Circuit Sewing and Activity Kits
3. Daiso Industries (Australia) Pty Ltd — Various Candles, Lights, Calculator and Stopwatch Products containing Button Batteries
4. Cricket Australia — Promotional LED Wristband
5. St John Ambulance Australia — Tiny Tots First Aid Kit

There are plenty of news stories about the issue, like this one from the weekend about a child who ended up in hospital.

What can retailers do? This advice from the ACCC to consumers could guid our inventory ranging decisions:

If buying a household device or novelty, look for products that do not run on button batteries. If you do buy button battery operated products look for ones where the battery compartment requires a tool or dual simultaneous movement to open. This will make it difficult for a young child to access the battery.

I am tired of people from local charities and community groups only stepping into or calling or emailing the business to ask for product or cash donations.

Local charities and community groups need to learn that support from local businesses is only possible if local shoppers, including members of their group, support local businesses.

While we have a structured and consistent process for handling the many charity requests we receive, it is interesting to note how many competitors from people who never shop with you – it is plenty. It’s another reason for the structured process we have being good.

There was one situation I heard about recently where someone visited a newsagent to ask for a product donation from a specific niche category. When the staff member was getting the owner, another staff member chatted to the person who mentioned in passing that they buy their stock of the particular product online because it is so much cheaper. Checking online later, it was 5% cheaper if bought several times the quantity one would usually purchase at a time.

People from local charities needs to support local retailers if they want support from them.