Newspaper Delivery Collective

[PaulSB]

Our local village shop has new owners from Saturday April 21st This morning households received a letter with their paper delivery announcing paper deliveries will cease this Friday. I find this astonishingly poor business acumen which potentially alienates some customers within days of arriving. Anyway.

Our Community Facebook Group is already alive with chat about forming a delivery collective. The idea being everyone in the village takes turns to collect and deliver papers.

Does anyone have experience of this? Particularl questions which occur to me:

How are papers paid for? I can’t see the new owners letting people arrive every morning and walking out with an armful of papers.

Individual accounts at the shop?

Who manages cancellations for holidays?

What happens to subscription vouchers?

How long do these collectives last till they fall over?

I’ve just calculated our annual paper bill, bit of a shock!!

 

[DCLane]

What'll happen is people stop buying papers once they've realised how much it costs. The shop will lose out long term.

 

[Electric_Andy]

I've never been a part of a collective, but how many potential people are we talking about here? If it were me, I would volunteer to deliver to 1 person who is unable to pick up a paper themselves and leave it at that. These things tend to start out well, but ultimately the most organised and proactive person ends up doing all the work and picking up the bill

 

[snorri]

When my village shop closed down and the shop in the next village closed down, people who felt a need for newspapers had them delivered daily by the Royal Mail from a shop in the nearest town. I have no data, but suspect most people just stopped buying newspapers regularly.
A wider choice of newspapers than that held by any local shop is available online free of charge via your local library from Pressreader.com

 

[gaijintendo]

I'd love to deliver papers.

You can learn a lot about your neighbours by what rags they feed on.

 

[Venod]

You need this guy (or maybe not)

 

[dodgy]

Always surprised that people not only still read newspapers, but have them delivered. It's like having your TV consumption delivered on tape.

I'll dance a jig when papers like the Mail, Sun, Express are out of business, sooner the better.

 

[Sharky]

Waitrose - free paper if spend > £10

 

[Drago]

I get the Daily Mail delivered by a nice chap with oxblood DM's, a Fred Perry shirt, and an admirably short hair cut.

 

[MiK1138]

I get the Daily Mail delivered by a nice chap with oxblood DM's, a Fred Perry shirt, and an admirably short hair cut.

Hope you keep a treat for his bulldog

 

[gaijintendo]

Dont know why anyone would read yesterdays news these days.

Nostalgia

 

[PaulSB]

What'll happen is people stop buying papers once they've realised how much it costs. The shop will lose out long term.

You’re quite right. We use subscription vouchers to pay for our papers. I’m going to pop in today to collect our vouchers as I can no longer be certain where I’ll buy my paper. The shop
Is 1.25 miles from our house. Our annual paper bill including delivery is £650!

I can understand the reasons but to do it inside a week just irritates people

 

[accountantpete]

Our town's last paper delivery stopped 8 years ago - the local shop saw an increase in takings as people who came in to get the newspaper also picked up a few other bits whilst they were there.

TBH newspaper distribution is a right pain - you have vouchers for some papers, very early morning delivery, returns, holidays and on the odd-occasion late or non-delivery of some newspapers.

 

[PaulSB]

I've never been a part of a collective, but how many potential people are we talking about here? If it were me, I would volunteer to deliver to 1 person who is unable to pick up a paper themselves and leave it at that. These things tend to start out well, but ultimately the most organised and proactive person ends up doing all the work and picking up the bill

I think we are talking 30+ households. This is based on when my kids used to do it.

Like you I’d drop a paper off for someone unable to get to the shop.

My guess is the retired people, I’m one, would volunteer. The workers, legitimately, couldn’t be relied on. I’d guess 80% of volunteers would drop out by the end of the first winter at the latest.

I have a friend who does this. They are now down to 4 volunteers from 18 originally. They refuse new households and only continue because of the relatively high number of elderly and infirm people in their village.

Personally I won’t get involved. I leave the house for rides at 7.20 three days a week.

 

[alicat]

Sorry story in today's Guardian about a newsagent closing in Brighton because of late delivery of papers to his shop by the wholesaler Smiths News who has a almost total monopoly in that area and consequent late delivery to the customers.

The new owners may just have decided to start as they mean to go on.