It appears there are now two main bidders for borders Dymocks and Angus & Robertson. Both of them have about 17% of the Australian book industry. I guess that Dymocks are mostly looking to get a bigger share of the Australian book industry with Borders 24 giant bookshop shops.

On the other hand Angus & Robertson which was owned once by Gordon and Gotch now is owned by a PEP who also owns a Newsagency chain, Supa News which runs about 28 newsagencies in Australia. Obviously they are keen to expand their share of the Australian books and magazines industry. Getting money is not an issue to PEP as they are just huge. Think about it now. This one division of PEP, I worked out has about 348 good shops Australia wide and in New Zealand another 76 good shops. With power like that I am sure they are thinking among things is the bigger that they are the better discounts they can get from the supplier.

I hope now the magazine distributors should think about their smaller retailer as soon they may have little to negotiate. Say I was a magazine producer. I decided to go direct. So off I went to Coles, Woolworths, Angus & Roberts and maybe Dymocks. Now what and soon what!

Also I hope that newsagents’ clients are thinking of all of this too! Not that there is much we can do about it.

Sometimes business owners feel overwhelmed with their technology. I want them to know that they are not alone. Many times I personally have felt the same way. Perhaps reading through this testimonial will help show that if you are willing to come and learn at one of our free training session, we can help you.

From: Stows Newsagency
To: 'michael varger'
Sent: Wednesday, 18 July 2007 10:03 AM
Subject: Training

Michael

Just a short note to say how well the training day went yesterday. We had about 8 starters and 1 apology. It was a credit to Phil and Adam the way that they ran the training day. We all learned a lot and all the comments from the newsagents were positive.

Please thank the 2 boys and we look forward to another day next year.

Cheers

Trevor

There is no reason to feel stressed by computers

 

Pos Solutions is now scheduling more user meetings and training sessions throughout Australia. These are especially for newsagents.

If you’re a POS Solution’s client or just interested in our software and are interested in coming to such a session please contact us.

You can contact our CEO, Michael Varger, to book a place!
Telephone: 0419 553 901

Today Ajmer and Raj from Seddon Newsagency came in for a training session with Leon and I. They had many queries regarding subagent payments and transactions, general stock and customer maintenance, and updating the input devices currently in their shop.

One issue they had with subagents is a common one. When subagent payments are made in parts and not in full, this can create a problem with their balance (where incorrect values are shown). One way to fix this is to make a statement every time a subagent makes a payment. Alternatively, Leon suggests, as newsagency owners, you should send out a notice to your subagents informing them they must pay in full on a constant basis. You should not demand this immediately though; give your subs some time to prepare.

After the meeting, Ajmer and Raj seemed much more confident with the system. They were happy to have their problems sorted out and the extra information (instruction manuals, etc) we gave them will hopefully allow them to keep their business running smoothly.

Marc.

You need to be on posBrowser, if so email Gordon and Gotch on
[email protected]

Fill in the xxxxx's below!

We would like to start doing online returns. Could you please contact us.

Subject: Gordon and Gotch online returns

Newsagency details
Name: xxxxxxxxx
Contact: xxxxxxxxxxxx
Tel: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Address: xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Address: xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Regards

And send it off to [email protected]

Once you get approved which does not take long then let us know. If you have any issues then let us know too.

Advice sheets are also available.

Any questions give me a call on (03) 95977222

We continue our training program.

We are doing a training session for our DOS users Tuesday 10 July 2007 for Victorian newsagents. This is for those that use the POS Solutions Newsagency management software for DOS. It will at 10:00am at VANA the newsagent association at 806-810 Nicholson Street North Fitzroy Vic 3068

The morning session will cover

Computer Maintenance
-Basic care
-Backups
-Virus
-Spam

Customers
-Accounts
-Newspaper deliveries
-Charging
-Statements

Subagents
-Accounts
-Process
-Returns
-Charging
-Statements
-Automated ordering

Questions and answers section

The afternoon session

Cash register
-Operation
-Balancing
-Usage
-Reports
-Security

Stock
-Stocktaking
-Maintaining Stock Control
-Ordering
-XchangeIT

Questions and answers section

To join please book please contact VANA on Ph: (03) 9482 2911 Fax: (03) 9482 1799

The on going saga of the News Ltd subscriptions is still on. We just had another meeting today with News Ltd today on this issue. I know we are almost there but we have been almost there for two months. It is still not so simple in the real world to get a date for when a customer stopped a subscription.

Based on their figures, I estimate that we going from our clients’ data base to add about 381,000 records. So it is no wonder that with us they are being so careful. It is a lot of data.

Still it is frustrating.

A nifty trick when doing a stocktake in your shop is to update all of your magazine return’s forms beforehand. Then make sure that you get the total value of the magazines due for return. That way you don’t have to count the number of titles in the form waiting to be returned while doing the stocktake.

Now your total figure for the magazines can be added on to the stocktake total for magazines stock to give you your stock-on-hand value.

This tip should work on any newsagency system.

I got a couple of clients enquiring yesterday about doing Gordon and Gotch online returns. The reason is obvious as it is definitely a good cash flow saver.

If you are interested please let us know. We will explain to you how it works. We also have some detailed advice sheets on how to set it up.

At the same time to save time, please register your interest for EDI returns for GG at the following email address:
[email protected]

Those who have been reading this blog will know the troubles of one of our clients, Michael Pavellis from World Square Newsagency. I have never met him, but our support staff in NSW who know him well say he is a nice guy.

Background for those not following the case: Two winners of the NSW lottery came into World Square Newsagency. There they were served by a trusted employee of the newsagency who filled out for them a claim form. Later he substituted their claim form for one of his own and sent this form with their winning ticket, to NSW Lotteries. 14 days later he was paid the $574,000. Then he disappeared, possibly to Indonesia.

A week later the rightful winners contact NSW Lotteries inquiring about their prize. After a legal battle, the NSW Lotteries paid the prize money again, this time to them.

Then the NSW Lotteries started proceedings against the newsagency owners saying they were negligent

Even though the judge stated there were faults in Lotto, the judge ruled the Newsagency was negligent. Since it was an employee fraud, which is a third-party, the insurance does not cover it. World Square Newsagency owner Mr. Pavellis has to pay the NSW lottery $574,000 for the winnings, plus the NSW lottery legal fees, plus the costs of the NSW lottery investigation, plus his own legal fees of about $200,000 and some other costs.

So this $574,000 fraud is going to cost Mr. Pavellis over a $1,000,000!

This is the biggest legal case in the Newsagency industry that I have ever seen.

As Mr. Pavellis states he does not have the money to pay, he is going to appeal. So it is not yet over. Still I don't like his chances as I remember a lawyer saying to me that most appeals are lost.

Since this decision, I recommend anyone that has lotteries to review how they handle customer claiming their winnings.

This could have happened to anyone that sells lotto as Mr. Pavellis is a good operator.

You can read about it here.
 

The MPA magazine handbook for the US market is available now

Obviously there are different issues in Australia to the US still it is interesting. The main difference is the US retailer has little interest in magazines, generally they stock fewer and sell less then we do. To try to get retailer there more interested, the magazine supplier offers them a higher commission then here.

The other issue is that since they are from the magazine association they probably do exaggerate the results for magazines.

Having said that it is a fascinating detailed and well presented study.

What I thought was interesting is that it shows clearly that a magazine customer is a good customer to get. Both in that they buy more and they buy better items. It is a product worth having just to get people into the shop.

What is fascinating too is how much influence on people’s behaviour magazines do have!

Have a read .

The MPA’s magazine does have a detailed re-lay programme a system which we have been behind since the start.

Using it one of our clients Merredin Newsagency in Western Australia won this year $5000 cash first prize in MPA’s Newsagency magazine management competition they reported that it gave a significant uplift in magazine sales.

If you contact MPA on (02) 9923 1568 they will send you out a free copy of their Newsagency Manual.

Note most of our users using this method report that it is about 90% there but it does need some fine-tuning. Something you expect.

We are expecting sometime in July or August for the work to start on improving the Connect Newsagent portal.

What the plan is for the Connect portal newsagents to be complimented by an automatic system going though the computer software without you doing anything.

The other important issue is the subscriber mess. It is crazy now because the information in the newsagent system is not matching to the newspaper marketing department. As a result people now on subscription are being contacted to resubscribe and former subscribers are forgotten because the computer at News Corp thinks they are still getting a paper. This problem is costing everyone.

What we would also like is the invoices from News Ltd to be send to you every day after 4:30pm. That way you could have your paper supplies in his system automatically. No going to the portal every night to figure out what you are getting tomorrow.

Although News Corp did not say anything it would be great if other people could be allowed to piggyback on to this system. Then we could finally have a newsagent standard communication system that we were talking about for years.

I don't mean drugs but where someone falls down hurts themselves.

Anyway while reading the paper today, I read that one of my clients Yarra Glen Newsagency has a close call about tripping.

I found the same story here online.

An eighty-two year old woman who tripped in front of the Yarra Glen Newsagency. She broke her hip in the town’s main street and unfortunately will now face many months of rehabilitation.

That it could have been avoided appears clear, the pavers in front were in a bad state. The owner of the Yarra Glen Newsagency owner Joe Perri described their condition as “despicable”. The shire stated that they did not have enough money to fix it earlier something the councils always say rather then do anything.

You wonder what happens to the fortunes of money these councils get from the community. The shire, I bet now, will have money for lawyers to debate whether they did their job and what exactly their duty of care is! Somehow I suspect now there will also be money to fix the pavers. I confess, I am dissatisfied with the job our local councils are doing in general.

After reading this, I remembered that another one of my clients Hampton Park had one in the shop. So I went over my work building looking for spots where people could trip. I don’t need such problems.

Hallmark just won the newsagent supplier of the year award. It stunned me, as I would have thought that it would be to a supplier that supplies all newsagents like ACP or News corp rather then one like Hallmark that only supplies about half. Those that do use Hallmark must have really voted for them.

So I took the opportunity while congratulating Ron Thorpe, who is the National Business Development Manager for Hallmark Cards in Australia, to ask about a setting up a category system for cards that our users could use. Similar to what magazine companies do now for their products with MPA.

He firstly thanked me for my best wishes.

Then he told me "The Australian Greeting Card Association at my instigation is currently working to develop a common category system for all member companies to adopt. It should be finalized within the next 60 days"

Now 60 days means the 13th August 2007.

So on the 13th August 2007, we can expect a public category system for cards that will be beholden on all the major card suppliers and most the minor ones. If 50% happens by then, I am sure after so many years of requesting it we all will be happier.

I went to a talk recently. After the talk I thought that the presenters reminded me so much of this video.

[youtube]HLpjrHzgSRM[/youtube]

Some speaker and organizers should be punished by having to listen to these talks after putting the public though them.

I read one of my competitor’s blog posts that one of my clients was upset over our software cost for a year of $6,000+. I decided to hear what my client-side of the story was.

It was easy to find him as I have only one client that pays that much. All other of my clients pay only a small fraction of that.

So I rang him. I told him that I heard that you have been talking to my competitor about the software bill. He sheepishly replied that he had but how did I know? I said it is on his blog site.

I then stated how could he say he was misled? We had talked earlier for ages about it. Then we had given him an invoice earlier before we even did the work. Further we only continued after he agreed to proceed.

He read the article and then admitted that he had approached my competitor to see what they could do! They could not do what was required. However, even if they could have what he liked was the posbrowser ease of use so he would have stayed with us.

He also felt that the blog post was a misrepresentation of the facts. His confidence was breached and written without even asking him. In his words "extremely unprofessional".

I am off to the ANF conference this weekend.

I am looking forward to seeing the “Australian Outback Spectacular” and getting my RM Williams hat.

I have marked out some talks that will interesting me.

Mark Webster the National Circulation Director, News Ltd is worth a listen. At least he tells us what News Corp is planning and the issues that they see.

Andrew Griffiths who is a prolific writer! I looked at his resume and he has an impressive client file. I think the ANF have done well with the subject matter too. The problem with business plans is you can see the advantages for large organizations with tens of thousands of people as it puts everyone on the same path. But with smaller companies often it tell us what we already know. It seems like we end out filling in meaningless questions again and again and again.

If anyone is there and wants to talk to me about anything at all, then I certainly will make some time to see you.

I also hope I will get time at the conference to keep writing my blog which I am finding enjoyable to write.

We have just introduced a new advertising campaign designed to shines a spotlight on newsagency software.

People don’t go to a travel agent thinking that one holiday is the same!

Yet too often people, yet unbelievable as it may sound, think that one window software is the same as another. So the focus on this campaign is to show the difference. To show the intense pride that we feel for our software by getting people to check out posbrowser features.

So we are coming out with a new tagline, “Software beautiful”, to reflecting this campaigns focus.

http://www.accc.gov.au/content/index.phtml/itemId/769714

I think it is an interesting case at the ACCC at the moment which may have a large bearing to our clients.

If I understand the case correctly what Metcash did, was tell their IGA retailer that they can only buy one of eight different computerized point-of-sale systems if they want Metcash to supply data. Supply of data is extremely important to a supermarket. The reason Metcash want this, in their words is to “coordinate the extraction of scan data from all IGA retailers”. Which from my own discussions with several newsagents suppliers, I can understand.

However this brings up three questions to the ACCC
1) Can Metcash say to their IGA retailers that unless they use one of these eight systems, they will not supply data?
2) What about those that have another system, can they be forced to spend much time and possibly money to change over to these new systems if they want data?
3) Can data retrieval of scan data be made compulsory or is it only voluntary?

The answer given by the ACCC will be of interest to us and I suspect most of our clients.

If you want to read further the case details are here
http://www.accc.gov.au/content/index.phtml/itemId/769714