Newsagency News

Harry Potter Disaster

2011-08-07T21:13:00.005+10:00

The Lies:

Customers who phoned the Telelgraph to complain about the Harry Potter promotion were given a pack of lies by those answering the phone.

Customers were told that newsagents had been given promotion items equal to their newspaper supply. Supplies were savagely decreased in steps until we actually received 80 items for almost 1,000 newspapers!

Customers were told that newsagents had to supply major petrol outlets from their own supply and were therefore unable to fill requests from their customers. We received completely separate promo items packed and labelled to send to these outlets!

The Facts:

The promotion was so badly handled by the publishers that it caused major damage to our business though factors that we could not (were not allowed to) control. Unfortunately we have to wear to unjust and uncontrolled comments from some irate customers. The worst thing was that they verbally attacked our staff. Another point was that we were not given enough information about any attempts to rectify the situation to inform our customers.

There were many other problems with this promotion such as storage of the product and the abysmal return offered to undertake the project. Unfortunately the handling of the promotion was not up to scratch from the source. What was promised and promising did not eventuate.

Maxine and Peter

Harry Potter

2011-07-26T15:51:00.004+10:00

Posters, Cards and Wands

The current promotion is underway and there is one essential for customers:- you MUST have a coupon from the paper to purchase the product. Each day there is a new item to purchase for $2 with the coupon.

Some customers who received the first item and the album last Sunday will come in next Sunday to get item number 2 free, having not looked carefully at the details. The fact that they are many issues behind will cause great angst because of they didn't listen to our info last week-end.

We hope that all outlets participating follow the rules by insisting on collecting the coupons from the papers. Our staff often get abused for not providing previous items or mutiple items with only one coupon. Another problem we have struck is requests to hold papers and promo items that we will not do. These customers do not realise that the time involved does not start to match the retail returns we receive from these promotions. For over a week we had to find storage room for many of the boxes of the free albums and have happily provided them to free up the space not the promotion is on.

Enjoy collecting this promotion at a fantastic price for enthusiasts, but please bear with us as we collect the tokens and explain the details to other customers.

Maxine and Peter

Professional Thieves

2011-07-05T23:10:00.005+10:00

Another Break-in!

We are certainly getting tired of continued attacks on our business by local youths. This time there was a lot of malicious damage and only some drinks and confectionery stolen (that we have identified so far).

This seems to be done by young professional criminals. Witnesses say that there were four very young people who had the audacity the come back after being disturbed during the break, enter and steal. In addition to the damage to stands and displays, there was an organised search for money and cigarettes that left a huge amount of documents and records scattered behind the counter. We remove all valuables as a result of bitter experience in previous break-ins. Last time we decided to discontinue cigarettes from our stock.

It is extrememly difficult to cope with such events and begins to take a toll on individuals and owners. The most disappointing thought is that when arrests are made, we are requested to attend a conference with those arrested. At one conference the criminal involved decided not to attend because he didn't want to get out of bed that day! Result - end of conference!

We feel that the only real solution would involve payment for damage caused and goods stolen. This could be repaid over an extended time, and our experience is that all those who have been involved with these illegal activities receive some kind of public benefits. This could be the source of some of the repayments. Such penalities could lead to second thoughts about becoming involved in the growing public problem of such break-ins.

Maxine and Peter

$1,000 Gift Voucher Winner!

2011-06-07T23:07:00.002+10:00

Mother's Day Winner

Here is our lucky winner of the Proud's $1,000 gift voucher in our Mother's Day draw. Helen Roworth had her name selected from over 40,000 entries. For her free entry she purchased a Mothers Day card from our Newspower store.

Helen said that this was the first major prize she had ever won and she had never had $1, ooo to spend on jewellery before. Congratulations!

We have had great luck in our store with some of the Newspower competitions where customers have won barbeques and sets of golf clubs among other great prizes. Remember that we are your store with more.

Maxine and Peter

Nan Turns 90!

2011-06-01T09:15:00.003+10:00

Happy Birthday Nan

Nan will turn 90 on Thursday June 2nd.

We plan to have her at the Hillvue Road store around 10.30am on Saturday June 4th. She will be there for about an hour, so please call in and say hello to her. If you are lucky, you might even score a piece of her birthday cake.

She and Ron bought the newsagency in 1964 and extended themselves to the limit. In those days the rules to purchasing a newsagency were very different. She has noticed many changes over the years.

She may need some help in recalling your name, so be kind and give her some clues when you call in. She has not worked in the shop for many years and only recently come in one morning a week to us help with some office work.

For a long time she helped look after Ron who went into a nursing home for quite a number of years. In this time she lost contact with many of our long time customers.

Maxine and Peter

Fun For All

2010-09-01T22:36:00.003+10:00

New Card Range

Our new range of cards that make a noise have caused great interest with our customers. People are spending time checking out the range and having great fun doing so. Many have found the exact card they want for someone special.

These are difficult to describe in words, but fascinating when inspected. The cards make noises that include songs and music and sounds. Call in and check them out yourself.

Maxine and Peter

The Monster Grows

2010-08-31T17:00:00.005+10:00

Australia Post Attack Plans

It seems that there are plans for the government owned outlets (not the private licenced agencies) to add confectionery and convenience lines to business. If true, this is a direct attack on newsagencies and other small businesses.

We feel that Australia Post is well outside its regulated area and with the aid of huge resources built up under dubious methods is about to destroy hundreds of local jobs in family owned businesses. This attack has been sustained for a number of years as the monster has continued its business expansion into areas well served by private enterprise.

Larger businesses have the ability to combat these moves but family businesses are overwhelmed by such a giant. This all seems to have started using taxes and post office resources to create a government business that could only grow by destroying smaller competitors.

Its time that governments at state and national level paid attention to us who employ so many people and live on small margins and not the obscene amounts earned by the huge corporations. Maybe its time to start a new category of micro businesses to stop us being lost within the "small business" category.

Maxine and Peter

Surprise, Surprise!

2010-08-05T14:41:00.003+10:00

A Heartwarming Story

We had a regular customer phone for Saturday Lotto results (as she does regularly) who found that she had chosen 4 numbers last week. She was excited to find that she had won over $50.00.

This would help pay her electricity bill that she was trying to pay off from her pension every fortnight and was quite an exciting win for her. Because she is on oxygen and unable to leave the house, she sent a neighbour down to collect the money on her behalf.

When we ran the ticket for the neighbour to collect, we found that our regular player had made a mistake and stopped checking the ticket when she had enough numbers to win a prize. Instead of 4 numbers, she had 5 numbers plus the supplementary and the winnings had escalated beyond our upper payment limit!

Now the $50.00 prize was over $16,800.00 and would have to be paid directly by cheque! The neighbour became worried about the effects of this good fortune so she took her husband with her to break the news. She thought that he could phone for help while she start CPR if it was too much of a shock for the winner!

Fortunately we received a very excited call soon after the news was broken. The winner had already made plans to pay all her electricty bill and to purchase an oxygen bottle that was portable and would allow her to leave the house for the first time in many months.

Over the years we have had many heartwarming stories after wins that were not large enough to make headline news but have been most significant to our winners.

Think! About your gambling choices Call Gambling Help 1800 858 858

www.gamblinghelp.nsw.gov.au

Maxine and Peter

Little Triangles

2010-08-02T16:12:00.002+10:00

School Crossing Markings

As we are doing the deliveries, we see many different versions of the small triangular markings that have started to appear on the roads around schools in the area. Some are adjacent to the gutter, some are almost in the middle of the lane, some are longer lines than others, some are single lines (most are double), some seem to go around intersections (others stop), and other variations.

None of our customers who drive have been able to explain what they are for or what they mean. As drivers licenced for many years, we are at a loss to their meaning or the legal implications! The growing number of different markings and signs around school areas seems to put drivers in a state of doubt rather than make these areas safer for children.

This must be another obvious reason that all drivers should receive information about changes to driving regulations that have happened since their last licence renewal. At least we would all be driving to the same set of rules or a recent version of them!

Maxine and Peter

Flying Foxes

2010-06-13T22:13:00.004+10:00

Flying Fox Invasion

For weeks we have endured the all night screeching and fluttering of flying foxes in the tree next door. Suddenly, after the first decent frost, all seems quiet again. Have the blossoms finished or has the cold driven them off? At last a decent night's peace!

We could hear the flying foxes at many locations around our early delivery run. Something must have changed to cause them to move into town. We never found out exactly what caused them to be in so many locations in small camps. We had never experienced this before.

Maxine and Peter

Late Saturday Papers

2009-12-05T10:45:00.004+11:00

Leader Disaster Again (ho hum)

We were warned on Friday that the Saturday Leader was going to be extremely large and to make plans to handle it. Why we are transporting thousands of papers from the press site out of town to our store is another story.

Unfortunately the management did not pass the message on to their staff or did not make their own plans to handle it. We had to employ an extra person and engage another vehicle to handle the situation (advance planning!)

The Saturday papers were not available for hours after the normal time and when we eventually got them, they were poorly bundled. Our delivery papers were not available either, and our driver had to wait for hours to get some to begin deliveries. We have to pay to have these rolled for us but still go out of town to collect them!

In our business any time lost at the start just makes downstream tasks late or at worst, impossible. When it was obvious that a better plan of action was required by the publisher, it is most annoying that we bear the brunt from customers plus huge additional costs, despite the fact we only get a small portion of the cover price. Is starting earlier too difficult to work out? There has to be someone in their management who can resolve the more obvious and avoidable problems that keep recurring.

Maxine and Peter

SMH Disaster (again)

2009-12-04T21:45:00.004+11:00

Delivery Failure

Our delivery driver waited and waited for the Heralds to arrive on Friday. Eventually he gave up and went home. He had other commitments to meet. This was the second Friday in a row that the Herald truck was unreasonably late.

Unfortunately when we are waiting for the truck to arrive (at 4am) there is often no information available to help us with contingency planning. At that time in the morning there is no-one to phone and no update to messages. If the truck arrives after 4am, we have the likelyhood of late deliveries. When it is past 6.30am before the truck arrives, it is impossible to start wrapping for delivery and facing the increasing traffic so late in the morning.

Bad decisions like too many inserts, holding trucks back for a relative handful of minor papers, ongoing production problems, etc, etc, etc, are creating huge problems for us. The frustrating thing is we have absolutely no control over such factors.

Those who did not get a chance to call into the shop and collect their Herald were given a credit for the non delivery. This was about the only course left for us at the time.

Lets hope it doesn't occur again and the Herald gets its act into gear. This is quite unacceptable and provides a huge amount of stress that we definitely don't need.

Maxine and Peter

Friday 13th Winner

2009-11-14T08:47:00.002+11:00

Our Count the Cats Competition

We all had tremendous fun on the day, with wild guesses and accurate calculations being presented.

The answer was 106 and the winner was Fred Baker. He won our special prize hamper.

Everyone who entered won a prize and joined the fun. Our staff looked fantastic and took a lot of effort and time preparing for the day. Customer reactions were great and there was a lot of laughter all day. Watch for our next fun event!

Maxine and Peter

Untidy Towns

2009-11-11T23:38:00.004+11:00

Just One Night of Parties

Maxine and Peter were doing the deliveries on November 1st after Halloween. The amount of bottles, cans and empty six packs and containers was almost unbelievable. Add to this image the number of smashed bottles on the road and you will start to get the picture. You still have to add the discarded fast food wrappers from McDonalds and the chicken and pizza places to get the full view of the terrible condition of streets of Tamworth.

Its amazing that we entered the Tidy Towns competition. It seems that the youth of the city could not give a "stuff" about their rubbish. It was disgraceful. We drove into most streets in South Tamworth and covered over 200km but can't remember one street or cull-de-sac that did not have at least one item of rubbish on the road, gutter or a letterbox. At all times we had to keep watch for broken glass to avoid senseless damage to our tyres.

Maxine and Peter

Friday 13th is Coming Up

2009-11-08T23:44:00.003+11:00

Friday 13th

We are getting ready for some fun on this special day. The staff have been preparing their gear for weeks. Come in on Friday and check it out. Join in the fun of the day.

Buy yourself a lucky lottery ticket on the Friday and change your luck. Maybe we can sell another first prize on the special day. We will have a bonus for lottery ticket buyers.

We had a ton of fun on halloween with the shop decked out for the occasion.

See you soon,

Maxine and Peter

During Our Absence ...

2009-11-05T22:55:00.006+11:00

Huge Effects On Our Business

After a terrible period of events and incidents over several months, we will attempt to re-launch our blog.

Many things have been happening but they have been overridden by some more momentus events.

In June we had the unexpected and sudden death of a long time member of staff. This flattened everyone in the business. We had to find some new staff to fill the huge gap created in our team and begin the long process of training them.

Maxine and Peter have continued to provide relief on the delivery by doing one day a week and assisting in preparation and wrapping for delivery. They did a full week to provide a small break for our regular deliverer as well as trying to oversee the daily running of the business.

In October we had the sudden and unexpected death of our delivery driver's long time partner. Maxine and Peter stood in for a couple of weeks while lives were reoganised as a result of this tragedy. We are still in the process of finding a driver to work alternate weeks.

Add to this a series of break-ins and damage to our vehicles at home plus other events and it was the blog that suffered for the period. We now hope to have more regular entries with information that will interest you

Maxine and Peter

Public Service

2009-05-22T22:43:00.001+10:00

Justices of the Peace

Both Peter and Maxine are Justices of the Peace and regularly spend time during our long working day undertaking this voluntary service to the public. We willingly do it as a service for our customers. We have had at least one J.P. in the business since 1964.

Recently we were informed that the J.P.s at the court house were no longer providing the service and referring the public to other J.Ps with us near the top of the list.

More recently we have been told that the Post Office is now refusing to perform J.P duties because they are "too busy"! They are also referring people to us.

The service is free and J.P.s are appointed as necessary when they apply and show a reason for their application for appointment. Now that some are refusing to do their duty, they should resign their warrants. It is most disappointing that some see their appointment as a social matter rather than the public service it is meant to be.

We are happy to perform this free service for our customers, but please bear in mind that we do it at work and may be in the midst of a task. Don't expect us to drop everything immediately because you failed to plan. Please be patient because the increased number of people seeking our service is beginning to overwhelm us at times and we have our own work to complete as well.

Maxine and Peter

Millions More

2009-05-20T22:21:00.006+10:00

Oz Lotto Hits $15 Million

After the $20 million Saturday Lotto was shared by 11 winners, Oz Lotto has jackpotted to a huge $25 million for Tuesday 26th May.

We are running in-store syndicates for our customers. Each has 15 shares. This allows you have part of a larger entry and a chance at larger and multiple prizes.

Ask our staff about these and system syndicates when you call in.

Maxine and Peter

Early Warning

2009-05-15T21:42:00.002+10:00

Mid Year Sale

We have just been shown some of the great prices that we will have for you in our Newspower mid year stationery sale in June. These are the best we have had for many years and it will be well worth the effort to seek them out to save some serious money.

These specials will appear in store in June, so keep in touch

Maxine and Peter

Fire Sales in NSW

2009-04-30T22:07:00.004+10:00

Selling Off OUR KIDS Assets

Can anyone explain why the NSW government is hell-bent on selling all of our assets such as stock routes, crown land and the state lotteries? These are but a few of our publicly owned or controlled assets being actively sold off by government.

How can selling such assets be a solution? These have been accumulated over hundreds of years for future generations and should not be made available for sale. Short of nationalising assets, they can't be recovered once they have been sold. Where is the outcry and outrage?

Why is there such a need for funds that such "fire sales" are thought to be warranted? Are the policians in fear of losing their over generous benefits and perks? The drive to quit these assets resembles a stampede.

We have observed these actions for some time and can't believe it is continuing. Now the lotteries are going to be put up for sale. The result will affect hundreds of small businesses that use them as a pillar of their structure. When they eventually end up in the hands of giant corporations like Woolworths, it is likely that small business will get excluded. Another step towards a huge retail monopoly created by governments.

Maxine and Peter

Rare Event

2009-04-15T18:41:00.002+10:00

Double Lottery Luck

In $2 jackpot lottery 9246 both 1st and 2nd prize were sold at Narellan Newsagency. Even though the lucky ticket numbers were about 65,000 tickets apart, they were the first two numbers out of "the barrell" in this lottery.

These days the lotteries are drawn by random number selection on a computer but it must be really unusual for the top prizes to come from sales at one Newsagency! We wonder if it has ever happened before in the history of the NSW Lotteries.

Maxine and Peter

Bunny Winners

2009-04-09T00:04:00.008+10:00

Our Store Easter Winners

Our store is decked in row upon row of wonderful easter bunny colouring entries. Obviously many children had great fun completing their entries. Some took so much care and presented a very high standard of work. Our judges had great difficulty selecting the final store winners.

The infants and primary winners have each won a giant cuddly easter bunny. Their entries have been sent to Sydney for further judging at state level where they can win a parcel of Texta products valued at $200 and an even bigger parcel of Texta products for their schools.

Our infants winner is Ella-Bleu Ford from Tamworth South Public School.

Our primary winner is Beccy Davies from St Edward's Primary School.

Thankyou to all the children who spent time completing their entries. Congratulation to everyone. Call in to see the wonderful collection of hundreds of entries on display until the end of the school holidays. Children can collect their entries from us after this time. The display is well worth checking out in our Hillvue Road store.

Maxine and Peter

Close Secret

2009-04-07T23:08:00.004+10:00

Easter Publishing

It seems that the newspaper publishers want to keep their Easter arrangements close secrets until the last moment and then expect everyone to adjust their lives based on this late information. We try to organise at least a month ahead to give our staff a chance to arrange their personal lives with minimum upsets.

At first the Leader informed us that they were to publish for the first time ever on Good Friday. Then they decided that they would not and return to their normal publishing schedule.

The Telegraph published last year on Good Friday but only recently revealed that this year they would only supply the metropolitan area and as far north as Newcastle. This will also apply to the Australian. Naturally, all our customer accounts will be adjusted to accommodate these late alterations.

The Herald continues to publish a version of the papers on Good Friday. The form guide will be inserted in the Thursday edition (normally an extra on Fridays) but the Newcastle Herald will not have it inserted. The Friday Herald will be $2.40 and have the Saturday extra. On Saturday there will be a new news wraparound but the same extra. The Financial Review will not be published again until Tuesday after the Thursday edition.

If you are confused, imagine how we feel. Each year we are kept guessing until the last minute and then get pressured to provide supply figures in short time because the admin staff of the papers are having time off for Easter!

Maxine and Peter

Its All Gold

2009-03-17T23:06:00.004+11:00

Gold Club Membership

We are promoting our store Gold Club for a short time. If you are already a member and can give your number when we ask, we'll give you a prize.*

If you are not a member and sign up with our Gold Club, you will also receive a prize.

Gold Club membership has benefits for our extra special customers. We have giveaways, competitions, redraws and other activities especially for our Gold Club members. You are welcome to join our Gold Club by completing a form available from the store.

We like to look after our customers and appreciate your support of our family business. Our Gold Club is another exclusive benefit you can get by being one of our customers.

Maxine and Peter
*Whilst stocks last and for a limited time

Dangerous Activity

2009-03-17T22:41:00.003+11:00

Early Morning Gambling

While we are doing the deliveries, it is astounding to see how many vehicles are travelling without lights around dawn. These drivers must be too asleep to realise the great danger they pose to themselves and others.

We find the greatest risk is with darker vehicles. These are almost invisible under certain conditions, especially early in the morning. If the weather is overcast, this danger increases. This is an unnecessary life and death gamble on our streets.

At the other extreme are those who drive in the dark with fog lights in clear conditions. It is so difficult to see as these vehicles approach from the opposite direction. (I felt that this had been made illegal in recent times.) With some of these lights so bright and so badly adjusted, the only thing to do in defence is pull over and stop. Flashing the other driver with your high beam only creates a situation where both drivers can't see!

Maxine and Peter

Help Tim Cut It

2009-03-09T22:07:00.002+11:00

Shave for a Cure

Tim is helping raise money for leukemia research by participating in the world's greatest shave. If you would like to assist by making a donation to the cause, come into the Hillvue Road store.

If he raises up to $1,000 he will cut his hair and beard to a #2 blade.
If he raises $1,000 or more he will use a #0 blade.

This will all happen at his work canteen in Brisbane. We have the before photo at the shop. We will also display the after photo when the event is over.

Maxine and Peter

Easter Colouring

2009-03-02T22:11:00.003+11:00

Newspower Easter Bunny

For many years we have run our Easter colouring competition for Infants and Primary children. We will have entry forms at local schools so children can enter through their school. If your child's school does not participate, you can collect an entry form from our store.

Winners at store level from both Infants and Primary will have their entry sent for state judging in Sydney. At this level their school can win a huge prize of Texta products and the child will also win a Texta product prize.

Our store winners will each receive a huge, beautiful, soft Easter bunny on display at the shop. Entries will be judged before Easter, so make sure that we receive the entries in time to display them in our store.

Maxine and Peter

Another Big Prize

2009-03-02T21:51:00.006+11:00

$20 Million Saturday Lotto

On Saturday March 28th Lotto is offering a huge jackpot of $20 million.

We are already selling shares in our syndicates for that draw. There are a few different syndicates from which you can choose. Some customers like to get a share in each syndicate we run, but you'll have to keep checking at the shop so you don't miss out.

Remember that we run a syndicate when the games get to a prize of $10 milllion or more.

Maxine and Peter
Is gambling a problem to you? Call G-Line (NSW) counselling service 1800 633 635

Another On The Way

2009-02-23T22:00:00.003+11:00

Lucky Friday 13th Again

If you missed out buying a lucky lottery ticket last month, there is another chance in March.

Come in on the day to buy your lucky lottery ticket from us. You can have some fun with us on the day as we get into the spirit. You could even win a prize for your effort. It must be our turn to sell another big lottery prize soon. Join our growing list of big winners.

Last month we had a great time on the day that just happened to fall on the day before Valentine's Day. What will we do this time?

Maxine and Peter

Beautiful Big Bear

2009-02-16T10:46:00.003+11:00

Our Valentine Winner

Our lovely Valentine's bear was won by Bryan Mann. He entered our free competition by buying his Valentine card from us.

Congratulations and thanks for your support. We had great fun with our customers leading up to to the day.

Other than Lotto special jackpot days, our next big day will be for Friday 13th March. Visit us on that day to join the fun. Win some lottery tickets! Buy some extra lucky tickets on the day!

Maxine and Peter

So Much on the Go ...

2009-02-12T09:13:00.006+11:00

Promotions and Fun For Everyone!

Back to School Sale
$40 million Oz Lotto
$10 million Powerball
Lucky Friday 13th ***BUY A LUCKY LOTTERY TICKET ***
Valentine's Day
$14 million Saturday Lotto Draw

Our staff are going crazy trying to keep up with all these events. It is a great challenge to have the displays changed in time for each event.

Reward their efforts by calling in and joining in the fun. There is no doubt that we could all us a little break from the horrible events occurring in Victoria. Come in for a free smile.

Maxine and Peter

The Late Late Late Mail

2009-02-02T09:25:00.005+11:00

Here We Go Again

We got into deep trouble with a good customer about stopping his subscription without notice before Christmas. We spent a lot of time checking our system of recording subs and stops and found we had no instructions to continue on an expired prepaid subscription. Both of us were miffed by the events that had occurred and the time wasted chasing up details. In the end, the customer decided to cancel his subscription.

Today the customer arrived with the letter of offer of renewal that had been posted to him in time to avoid a break in delivery. The letter was clearly (and correctly) addressed. It also had a return address if the mail was unclaimed.

The clear date mark on the envelope, placed by Australia Post, was 10DEC08. In case the obvious has escaped your notice, this mail was delivered on 30JAN09. Over 7 weeks!!!

As we have often said, let us get the Post Office to do a better job on their principal legal obligation of delivering the mail before we sanction them to challenge small business in fields outside their charter. The litany of complaints we receive about their lack of service and ability and the deliberately cumbersome system of registering complaints gives a false impression that they are even doing an "average" job at postal services.

Maxine and Peter

Going Like Hotcakes

2009-01-30T11:32:00.003+11:00

Home and Away Souvenir

We have been rushed with enquiries for the special edition magazine celebrating 21 years of this popular TV show.

Initially there were problems with errors in the distribution, but we have since had a large number of additional magazines delivered.

A great buy for true followers of the TV series and only $9.95 for this collectors' edition. It includes 12 bonus pin-ups and a wall poster.

Maxine and Peter

Popular Give Away

2009-01-22T12:02:00.002+11:00

Australia Day Hats

The Sunday Tele will again offer free hats to its readers (on a first come - first served basis). As usual, the supply of hats is less that the quantity of papers sent to each agent.

Note that we only issue one hat per paper until all hats are gone. We usually have a phenomenum that occurs with free gifts. When asking a customer if they would like a free gift, they often reply by saying "can I have two?" and then give a reason. At this point we are considered to be miserable @#$$%(*@ because we have the hats and ask them to purchase an extra paper for the extra hat. Not a nice thing for us when giving away a free gift!

Maxine and Peter

A Foul Shot Through Ignorance

2009-01-22T11:39:00.005+11:00

Council is Anti Business

A wonderful cavalcade is held each year on the last Saturday morning of the Country Music Festival. A large number of floats travel down the main street through a huge crowd lining the route. Usually the parade assembles in side streets and parks as it is marshalled for the procession.

This year, in the wisdom of the (council) organisers, sections of the main street will be closed for the marshalling of floats. This will be from early in the morning until almost the middle of the day. Access will be severely limited until after the procession.

A major problem arises because, for the first time, the marshalling area has been extended into the commercial area (without advance notice) and will restrict customer access to businesses. It may be OK for the office supply businesses and the trade supply stores that are normally closed, but the coffee shops in that area will have to give up one of their largest trading days!

Unfortunately public service decision makers seem to lack the practical knowledge necessary for their tasks. They are not totally dependent on sales to pay their rates and bills and running costs. You would think that council staff would have asked a few questions before changing the usual arrangements.

Peter and Maxine

A Run of Millions

2009-01-19T20:57:00.003+11:00

A Series of Great Jackpots

We have entered an unusual period of different high prizes in several games:

Current $2 Jackpot Lottery $7 million
Tuesday Oz Lotto $15 million
Thursday Powerball $10 million
Saturday February 14 (Valentine's) $14 million

Watch carefully because they could easily continue to jackpot!

When a game reaches $10 million or more, we have our own store lucky syndicates on a first in first served basis. Our highest win to date is $82,000.00 and we are expecting another soon.

Check out our selections in the major games that we post up each week. Sometimes we have selected 3 out of 3 numbers. See if we can help you make a big win on your own ticket using our predictions.

Maxine and Peter

Welcome To Tamworth

2009-01-19T09:28:00.002+11:00

Visitors Rolling In

Welcome to all the visitors to Tamworth for the Country Music Festival and the finals events at the new Equine Centre.

We hope you enjoy your stay, but please let us know if you have any problems that we can assist in resolving. Often we can put you in touch with the "right people" to help fix up things that you think are wrong during the festival. We would all like to see you have a great time and enjoy you experience in our city.

If you have not seen our huge new Equine Centre, we suggest that you allocate some time to have a good look at it. It has its own roundabout for access from the Sydney Road (just past the TREC turnoff). Please bear in mind that there is a huge area restricted to competitors and their livestock (because of OH&S issues), but many of these parts can be viewed from outside the fence. The whole complex has only a few of the many planned stages complete to date. When all is finished in the next few years, it will have events running end to end. Bookings are already growing rapidly as people and organisations realise the world class facilities available already.

Maxine & Peter

Australia Day Flag

2009-01-19T08:49:00.005+11:00

Free Flag for Australia Day

Customers will get a free flag with the New Idea (on sale 19/01/09).

This is included with the magazine this week, so make sure that you get in early for your copy.

The new year is bringing many extras and features for you this year. Watch for the EXCLUSIVE gift from Newspower Newsagents next week when our New Ideas will have a free mascara (valued at $12.95) attached. This gift will be only available from your Newspower Newsagent from Monday February 2nd.

Watch us for other great deals and free gifts that are only available from our newsagency.

Maxine & Peter

EFTPOS Down

2008-11-28T22:44:00.005+11:00

Complete Turmoil

This afternoon we had a major hit by lightning that caused quite a bit of damage in Hillvue Road. Much of our equipment was "knocked out" but we got many things fixed over a period of about 4 hours.

Our EFTPOS machine cannot be used so we will need to have a new one sent to us. I thought that the ANZ bank was a bit over the odds saying we could get the new equipment faster if we paid an extra fee to them for the service. With the monthly fees they charge us and the regular high charges to use the machine, we felt this to be unfair on a small business. Who is surprised that the corporations use such opportunities to further attack small businesses? No wonder people have had enough of bank strong arm tactics!

Our phone lines have problems, but we are able to operate quite efficiently so you should not notice.

We are waiting for the ATM people to bring in their techs to get it running again.

Fortunately we were able to quickly get the Lotto machine working again. Maybe the shakeup will cause it to spit out some big winners!

Maxine and Peter

He Must Be Joking !??!

2008-10-15T22:30:00.003+11:00

Australia Post Again !!

Our mail was delivered wet and damaged again today. It was a fine day after some wonderful rain yesterday.

Without prompting, our postman today informed us that we should contact all those who send us mail and request that they use better quality envelopes. This would help minimise the damage to our mail because his bags were full of water from the rain on the previous day and this had wet the envelopes and made them susceptible to serious damage in his bag.

What the !!!???

It is way past time when Australia Post should attend to their basic business instead of trying to steal everyone else's business. Such a comment to a customer about mail is beyond belief. Where is management about such a ludicrous situation. Time to start from basic training and get the essentials right.

Maxine and Peter

Keep Them Honest

2008-10-15T18:04:00.004+11:00

Save Our Hospital

The NSW Labor Government made promises and assurances that they would complete major work on the hospital in Tamworth by the end of this parliament. With loud noises about budget and costs, they are trying to soften us up to back down on this promise too. Keep the bastards honest!

Sign our petition to the Premier to honour the labor government promise to commmence construction of the Tamworth Hospital redevelopment in the term of this parliament.

We will have it on hand at both shops for about a week so that you can sign and warn them that we expect them to do the work they promised and will not be fobbed off by any excuses.

Show that people power demands they do the work promised before March 2011 and we are not prepared to accept anything less. Your action will help avoid them dropping this project in any budgets or threatened "mini" budgets. Don't allow any room for excuses!

Maxine and Peter

Firefighting Championships

2008-10-14T22:20:00.003+11:00

2008 State Firefighting Championships

Champion firefighters are attending their championships in Tamworth from October 18 to 24. All the events are free to watch.

You can watch a fireworks spectacular and torchlight parade at No 1 Oval in Kable Avenue on Saturday 18 at 8pm.

On Sunday October 19 the opening ceremony will take place at Cross Park at 11am

Most other events and displays will take place daily at Cross Park (between the bridges) in the centre of town.

See our other note about the band and precision marching team.

Maxine and Peter

Free Family Shows

2008-10-14T22:06:00.003+11:00

Fire Brigades Band and Marching Team

On Friday October 17 and Saturday October 18 these outstanding groups will perform together at free events. They are visiting for the State Firefighting Championships being held from October 18 to 24.

On Friday they appear at 7pm at Wests League Club.

On Saturday at 1oam they will perform in front of the Council building in Peel Street.

A great chance to view some quality free entertainment locally.

Maxine and Peter

Free Concert

2008-10-12T19:17:00.003+11:00

Senior Citizens Concert

Tamworth Lions Club are running their annual free concert for our senior citizens on Sunday October 26th at 2pm. This popular event ends at 4pm following the performance and afternoon tea.

To help organisers, the Lions Club need an indication of the number who plan to attend the event. If transport is required, the Club will arrange transport to and from the event.

Please let any of your senior neighbours, relatives or friends know about this event so they can join their friends at the free show. They will be most disappointed if they miss it! We have invitations to be filled in and returned to either of our stores. The Lions would like them returned by October 18th to help the organisers.

Maxine and Peter

New Lotto Coupons

2008-10-11T09:45:00.004+11:00

Final Changes

After Saturday October 11th the changes for the Lotto will be finalised and we will return to "normal".

The restrictions on advance selections will be removed and you can continue to select 2, 5 and 10 weeks entries. This makes it much easier if you go interstate or overseas so you can place your entries before you leave.

The new coupons are for the rule and entry changes that have occurred in Lotto and Saturday Lotto. This allowed other states to become included in our games and make it possible for bigger prizes and jackpots. Other games (Oz Lotto, Powerball, Pools and Lotteries) have not changed. Double-up entries are no longer an option for players.

If you do not use forms to enter, you will not notice any changes other than a small price increase in the Lotto games. Those using favourite picks on their registration cards will also see no other changes.

Watch for the bigger size of divisional (smaller) prizes as a result of these changes.

Obviously, we could do nothing about it, but we are pleased that all is now completed. If you are confused or would like an explanation of any changes, please ask our friendly staff.

Maxine and Peter
Is gambling a problem to you? Call G-Line (NSW) counselling service 1800 633 635

Bigger Lotto Starts Soon

2008-10-02T17:13:00.007+10:00

Further Lotto Changes

We have waited for an exact starting date for the new Lotto rules to be implemented.

One small complication is that on Tuesday and Wednesday October 7th and 8th, you can only enter that week's Wednesday Lotto. After the Wednesday draw, the new rules come into play and all entry conditions return to "normal". You will only notice this problem if you call in to place Monday entries on either of these two days.

Prices of some entries will change but larger jackpots will start immediately. Monday and Wednesday smaller prizes will be bigger. e.g. division 5 prizes are expected to increase by 10%.

Double Up will cease as an option for Lotto.

New entry forms will be required and all old forms will be rejected at the terminal. If you use entry forms, you should get some new ones now, so you don't get delayed by the changes from Thursday October 9th.

Watch for advertising or call in to check out the changes with our friendly staff.

Good luck!

Maxine and Peter
Is gambling a problem to you? Call G-Line (NSW) counselling service 1800 633 635

Aust Post Bombs Again!

2008-09-18T09:23:00.002+10:00

Doesn't the P.O. Sell Stamps??

The very quiet increase in the postage of a standard letter seems to be a bit of a secret. This is probably because Australia Post realise they are doing a pretty poor job of their basic task. Not may customers know about the price hike.

Now, try to buy a $0.05 stamp so that you can use up the stamps you have on hand - "mission impossible". After queueing at the Post Office you will find that they have some of these elusive stamps on order and that they will arrive some time in the future when you can look forward to lining up again! Most annoying to all those who have again wasted precious time at the Post Office!

More proof that they are failing in a basic task because they are too busy attending to products normally sold elsewhere - printers, office machines, greeting cards, phone credits, bill payments, etc. etc.

Maxine and Peter

Lucky Dad

2008-09-08T20:41:00.003+10:00

Give Dad a Good Lesson Winner!

Our exclusive store prize for Father's Day was a lesson with Tamworth Golf Club Pro Scott Roworth.

Entry was free when you bought a Father's Day card from us.

Our winner was drawn from all those who completed the entry form.

The lucky Dad is Craig Turville and he will receive his free lesson from Scott before the end of December.

If you want to arrange a golf lesson, Scott currently charges $40 for his expert advice. Phone the Tamworth Golf Club Pro-shop on 6765 9880 or email him at satlr@bigpond.com

Thanks for the support of our promotion from Scott at the pro shop - we recommend them for all your golf needs. Check out their huge range of wonderful golf gear. You can find some great gifts there.

All our entries have been sent to Newspower for the major draw to win a set of Calloway clubs valued at over $3,000.00. Last year one of our lucky customers won this prize!

Maxine and Peter

P.O. Fails Again

2008-09-02T20:19:00.005+10:00

More Problems from the Post Office.

We have just been informed that our Regional Mail Centre will no longer accept lodgement of bulk mail. What else are these places supposed to do except handle mail?????

We have been instructed that we will now have to line up at a Post Office (carrying boxes of envelopes to mail) and wait our turn to be served. Those who have been forced to endure this torture will understand. We elect to post our bulk mail at the mail centre because of time saving and convenience.

This obnoxious decision is intolerable. The new manager seems hell bent on antagonising customers and treating them as an imposition. He has changed methods and practices that have been in place for twenty to thirty years without any consultation. The purpose is obscure.

The fact that we often have assisted the Post Office by cleaning grafitti from mail boxes, reported problems and vandalism, held mailbags secure, provided toilet facilities for posties, etc. has been forgotten.

These days we find it unusual to receive clean and undamaged mail from the postman. Even on totally fine days we are handed mail that is wet and damaged.

It seems that the Post Office is moving away from its basic responsibilties to steal further trade from small business. Government facilities are being used to expand retail sales in non traditional areas in direct opposition to existing businesses. The size of this body is being used like the huge chain stores to force deals that cannot be matched by others in the field and no-one cares.

Maxine and Peter

We Gave It Away

2008-08-10T21:18:00.009+10:00

Free Home Theatre Winner

One of our customers has won a free LG home theatre package from our store. They purchased $5 worth of scratchies to get a free ticket and a chocolate in the current Scratch, Snack 'N' Relax promotion.

The customer is a regular local player and will receive an LG 50 inch plasma HD TV, a wireless home theatre system, a digital video recorder, a TV entertainment unit and a portable DVD player valued at $6065.00

Another great win for one of our special customers. Other than major money in games, our customers have also won stacks of prizes in competitions through our suppliers, including a set of golf clubs valued at over $3,000.00. Great work!

Many of these "smaller" prizes don't make headlines, but our customers really appreciate them. Even today one lucky customer won $1,500.00 in Saturday Lotto.

Maxine and Peter

Newsletter Prize

2008-07-31T22:10:00.002+10:00

Spot the Error

In our current newsletter, we made a simple mistake. If you can call in to Hillvue Road store and tell us what that error was, we'll give you a small prize. Don't look too hard, it's quite simple.

We'll keep handing out prizes while they last or until the next newsletter, whichever comes first.

Just a little fun for our customers.

If you can't find a copy of the current newsletter (#136 August), collect one from our store.

Maxine and Peter

Mystery Customer

2008-07-26T11:29:00.003+10:00

Electronic Account Payment

Thanks to all the customers who have promptly paid their account directly into our bank. As we have said, from time to time, some make entries with incomplete or insufficient details for us to allocate the payment to the correct account.

The statements we send out have common amounts for the popular orders and sometimes there are hundreds of customers who pay exactly identical amounts. This can make it impossible to track untagged payments. As a result the payment is not allocated to the customer and they are sent a message with the next account saying their payment is overdue. As you appreciate, this would upset anybody. Please help us to avoid this embarassing situation.

In July, we received a direct payment from account "NICU 55245s10 Customer" and privacy rules don't allow the bank to help. (Another case of big business hiding behind these laws to avoid taking time to resolve simple problems.) If you made this payment, please contact us so we can correct the error for you.

Maxine and Peter

Minor Lotto Changes

2008-07-25T23:25:00.004+10:00

Price Changes to Lotto Games

There have been several changes to different games that you should be aware of when placing your next entries. The size of several megapicks has changed so that you will get additional games when you request a megapick. The price per game has remained unaltered.

Some of the system entries have changed price and this will effect their total cost. As a result, we have had to restructure the cost and number of shares in our in-store syndicates.

We are happy to discuss these changes, but bear them in mind if you are the one who organises syndicates for work, friends or family.

Maxine and Peter

Olympic Planning

2008-07-22T23:19:00.006+10:00

Here Come the Games!

With about 2 weeks to go before the start of the Olympics in China, we have a number of guides to the games in stock. Each couple of days seem to bring a new publication about this great event in Beijing. Call in and check them out.

Many promotions are being linked to the Olympic games and the publishers will use the event to help promote their products. Use the opportunity to win some of the fantastic prizes on offer. Watch for even more promotions to be announced closer to the start of the games.

Keep up to date with the events, results and viewing through the daily newspapers that will carry special features on the games. The kids will probably have projects about the games, so you could start collecting info for them as the excitement and expectations build.

Maxine and Peter

Holiday Fun at Hillvue Road

2008-07-13T21:51:00.003+10:00

School Holiday Customer Bonus

During the holidays, we are giving customers a free gift with their purchase (whilst stocks last). You can select your own surprise from our basket of goodies. Just a bit of fun for our special customers.

We have had a large number of kids in to select a gift so far, but the offer will end when school goes back or when we run out of gifts, whichever comes first.

Call into the Hillvue Road store and join in the holiday fun with us.

Maxine and Peter

Phone Credits and Bill Payments

2008-07-10T21:30:00.004+10:00

BillEXPRESS and Dialtime

These interlinked companies that supplied us with the electronic service we offered have gone into receivership and created a major problem for many newsagents. We are working on a solution for our customers and in the interim, have arranged to have physical phonecards available as a substitute.

We had spent several years waiting for them to honor promises including allowing your payments for Tamworth Council and Telstra as well as other significant companies. We had invested a huge amount of time and effort for these companies and now we find it has been wasted. Another corporation strikes at the very heart of small business. It becomes a constant fight to exist because of lack of support and unfair conditions controlled by big corporations and used against small business.

Despite all these hardships we will endeavour to return to our high level of local service in a short time. We appreciate your tolerance and ongoing support.

Maxine and Peter

THOSE Footy Cards

2008-06-27T20:54:00.004+10:00

Backorders Have Arrived

The Tele footy cards that you backordered have arrived in their hundreds. We are currently sorting them out before we hand them over. We are making sure that all orders are complete and correctly assembled so there are no problems for you.

PLEASE NOTE THAT WE WILL NOT BE PHONING THE HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE WHO PLACED BACKORDERS. Your phone number will only be used to check that you get the right order.

Thanks for your patience in such a poorly organised promotion by the Telegraph.

Unfortunately we were blamed for the whole fiasco and on several occasions our staff was unfairly abused at the counter. The whole fiasco was very costly in time, staffing, interfering with normal sales, unhappy customers and it consumed an enormous amount of time to administer.

Regular customers know that we always do an exceptional job with these promotions and rarely have problems. The main troubles seemed to occur when we originally had enough stock but this was exhausted by roving customers who had been disappointed elsewhere. In the end, the shortage of backup stock just overwhelmed us.

Maxine and Peter

Great Stationery Prices

2008-06-20T22:29:00.003+10:00

Mid Year Sale

You must get a copy of our catalogue for the fantastic products and and prices. We have many new products listed and variations to some of our traditional products. You can still find regular items too.

The range of product is very large and provides an opportunity for you to buy in stationery and office items during the sale. Maybe its time to buy a new USB memory stick, a pack of envelopes or new highlighters. Browse through our catalogue and take advantage of specials that will save you money while the sale is on.

You could win a laptop computer from your free entry when you purchase from the catalogue. If your copy was not in your letterbox or has been misplaced, collect another from our store.
Note that specials are whilst stocks last and for a limited time only. See catalogue for details. Competition details on the entry form.

Maxine and Peter

Ron is 94

2008-06-20T22:12:00.003+10:00

Ron's 94th Birthday

This week we had a small family party to celebrate Dad's birthday. Jill had come home for a few days to be there on the day since she had a small opportunity before having to mark exams.

We all had a lovely time with him but we nearly set off the fire alarms when Nan lit the sparklers we had on the cake! There was no chance that we were going to be able to light 94 candles because the cake would have had to have been much larger.

Although he is still recovering from a badly broken leg, we think he enjoyed the occasion. These days it is sometimes difficult to tell since he is so medicated to counteract the pain.

Maxine and Peter

Powerball Win

2008-06-06T22:42:00.003+10:00

Was This Our Best Result?

Only one day after the $58.7 million Powerball draw, the largest reported winning ticket that we sold is just a little over $54,000.00!

The holders of this ticket are greatly excited about their win, but it won't make headlines because it is so "small". We have had many smaller claims from new players who have become instant fans of Powerball. Don't forget to check your entry.

The next big game is Oz Lotto on Tuesday and then we have tons of fun planned for the only Friday 13th that will occur this year. On this day we have exclusive instore activities and many customers traditionally buy lottery tickets on black Fridays.

Test your luck on the day and join in the fun.

Maxine and Peter
Is gambling a problem to you? Call G-Line (NSW) counselling service 1800 633 635

Who Is Responsible?

2008-06-06T21:42:00.007+10:00

Who Should Pay?

We had a glass door panel smashed and goods stolen at our Robert St store last Saturday morning, when someone used a shopping trolley from the nearby supermarket to break the glass. The trolley had been left overnight on the footpath at the front of our store.

Who is responsible for subsequent damage caused by the uncollected trolley? Is it the supermarket whose staff failed to collect all the trolleys and left this potential tool in a public area or the council who failed to impound the unattended trolley on a public footpath?

The cost in time, money and the worry of such situations is unnecessary and could easily be avoided. The additional police time and work, the clean-up and the inconvenience would probably have not been necessary if the trolley had not been left on the footpath in the first place.

It it time for those responsible to pick up the monetary costs of their negligence?

Maxine and Peter

$40 Million or More

2008-05-23T20:50:00.005+10:00

Powerball enters record territory

The Powerball has now jackpotted to a guaranteed $40 million.

This could be larger if entries are like those we received when Oz Lotto reached this level. In the end, the first divison pool was around $48 million from all the extra entries it generated.

We have in store syndicates for Powerball that are in groups of 20 shares. These entries are in powerpicks where we select all the Powerballs in our entries so it doesn't matter which one comes out. We also get to pick an extra number. You can enter these on a first come, first served basis. We will continue to form new syndicates as long as we feel that we can sell all the shares we offer. (You may not realise that under the current rules we have to sell all the shares we make or we have to buy any unsold - not very fair to us and makes us very conservative making our syndicates.)

Maxine and Peter
Is gambling a problem to you? Call G-Line (NSW) counselling service 1800 633 635

$19 Million Is On Again

2008-05-13T22:30:00.004+10:00

Saturday Lotto $19 Prize

We have several different syndicates for sale for the draw on Saturday May 31st. These are local syndicates for our store customers. First in, best dressed. None reserved.

If you wish to join a bigger syndicate, we have access to shares in statewide ones. Here you can purchase larger shares in a big entry.

Another way to join a syndicate is to collect money from friends, family or workmates and put in your own syndicate.

Remember to register your entry. It only costs $3.30 yearly to become a registered player for all the games. Ask us for a form to become registered.

Good luck to all who enter.

Maxine and Peter
Is gambling a problem to you? Call G-Line (NSW) counselling service 1800 633 635

Tele Footy Cards

2008-05-13T22:05:00.003+10:00

Daily Telegraph Cards

The very popular footy cards being offered with the Telegraph coupons are causing huge problems because of the limited supply issued to us from the start.

Many customers have become quite upset and unfairly blamed us for these problems. Our staff is being diverted from other tasks to try and handle the huge number of enquiries at the counter and over the phone.

WE HAVE A SOLUTION!

We will continue to sell the cards whilst stock are available, but the Telegraph have promised to supply all we need by June 30th. This will allow us to fulfil all orders to complete collections.

YOUR REQUIREMENTS:

All orders placed with us will have to include an original coupon and prepayment before noon on Monday May 26th. We will take names and phone numbers to avoid errors when we distribute these backorders.

Maxine and Peter

Many Local Wins

2008-05-01T08:16:00.005+10:00

Lots Of Winners in Current Lucky Streak

We have been paying out lots of local winners over the last couple of weeks. We had a lot of lucky winners in Saturday Lotto as well as in the Oz Lotto record jackpot. These payouts are often up to $100 and many do not realise that they have had a win. Its great to see the reaction!

The number of wins too big for us to pay ($1,000 and over) has increased dramatically in the past two weeks. We have had a large number around $1,000 to $2,000 but also some over $3,000 and others up to almost $5,000.

This is great to see regular customers in the winners' circle. These prizes never make the headlines, but definitely have an effect on the winners. Often they prompt trips that were not contemplated before or just help pay mortgages. No one seems too unhappy about their wins.

Maxine and Peter

Is gambling a problem to you? Call G-Line (NSW) counselling service 1800 633 635

Record Millions

2008-04-24T21:39:00.003+10:00

Oz Lotto Record Prize

At $40million Oz Lotto is attracting entries from almost everyone. Make sure you enter early to avoid the last minute rush on Tuesday. If this gigantic jackpot isn't won this time, we may have to sell entries by appointment only!! Don't chance the unthinkable of the whole system going down because of the enormous pressure of the number of entries.

If you want to take at tilt at systems via a syndicate, there are 3 main ways to do so.

Pool your money with friends or relatives or workmates to buy a large system entry
Buy a share in one or more of our popular shop syndicates for $8.30.This is a system 10 entry that costs $124.50 and gives you a chance to have a share is a ticket larger than you would normally buy. First in, best dressed - none reserved.
Buy one of the many system shares in different syndicates we can offer. Just ask our staff for further information. These vary in price to over $400 per share. The value of these entries is up to $32,430.00

Good luck to everyone who buys their entry from us

Maxine and Peter

Is gambling a problem to you? Call G-Line (NSW) counselling service 1800 633 635

We Make It Sooo Easy To Win

2008-04-20T06:39:00.005+10:00

Saturday Lotto is Easy!

Each week we post some numbers in the shop that we think are more likely to be drawn in the different games. We posted 3 numbers for Saturday Lotto and one customer added another 4 of their numbers to enter a system 7 for $4.00.

They had 5 winning numbers on the ticket and won over $2,500 with the extra winning combinations. We had predicted 2 of the numbers that were drawn, so the rest was easy!

Call in and check out our predictions, we often get numbers right. If you add a small extra entry with our predictions included, you might be as happy and surprised as our lucky customer who outlaid an extra $4.00 to win the $2,500

Maxine and Peter

$19 m Worth of Fun

2008-04-13T20:20:00.003+10:00

The girls in the photo at our Hillvue Road store are (l-r) Jo, Casey, Catherine and Maxine.

Did you join in the fun for the $19 million Saturday Lotto draw? We had local in-store syndicates for sale, but unfortunately none of them came up with the big bickies. Each time a game goes over $10 million, we run these special syndicates. You are welcome to join us but the rules are first in, best dressed. None are reserved. See you soon.

Maxine and Peter

Delivery Position Vacant

2008-04-08T21:00:00.003+10:00

Delivery Driver Wanted

We are still searching for just the right person to join our delivery team and work alternate weeks. Several people have tried, but have not been suited to the task. One kept getting lost (in South Tamworth), another damaged the vehicle (twice), yet another just couldn't do it.

We need a person with an extensive local knowledge and an ability to handle a task reliably and efficiently. There are other attributes that would be an advantage, such as a basic mechanical knowledge. Also there are restrictions of age enforced by our insurance.

Are you good enough to do this job? Call into the shop and speak to Peter or Maxine if you are really interested and want more details about this position.

We are currently trialling people for the other positions we were trying to fill, so we do not need further enquiries at the moment for work in the shop.

Peter and Maxine

A Fire Is Easy To Find

2008-03-20T21:41:00.004+11:00

You Need Your Help

We had to do the delivery runs for a few days when we had no delivery staff available. This is a very difficult task when you are woken from bed to start doing complex paper deliveries almost immediately.

In places the task is nearly impossible because there are no clear numbers visible at night. Many older houses have numbers obscured and newer ones have no numbers at all. Some of the new numbering systems are crazy with A's and B's, flats and units as well as battleaxe blocks. On many occasions we had to reverse to find houses for deliveries. This added at least another hour to the job because we had to find every address on the list.

We found the numbers on the kerb were often the easiest to find but some are so faded that they are impossible to read. Next best were the reflective numbers that are visible from any angle because they are 3D. A lot of places had both and we grew to really appreciate these.

This experience led us to thinking about delivering to exact locations within a time frame. We thought that the fire brigade could see the smoke in the day time and the flames at night, so it wouldn't pose such a big problem. On the other hand, if you were having a heart attack or need the police urgently, these services could waste valuable time trying to find an exact address. It is in everyone's interest to have their address clearly identifiable both day and night.

Check out your own location and look how easy it is to see the numbers both during the day and in the dark. We think that you could get quite a surprise because you normally would not look at your place.

Maxine and Peter

Ugly Daylight Saving Ends

2008-03-15T09:18:00.003+11:00

At Last the End Is Nigh

There is a lot of confusion (as usual) about the start and end dates of daylight saving. Announcements of extensions by the NSW premier caused rumours to abound.

We will end this year on April 6th which is a bit later than normal.

Maybe the plan is to extend it one week each year until we have daylight saving all the time! Probably the state politicians think we won't notice.

As most country folk know, the first and last month of daylight saving are the worst because it is still dark for such a long time. The best trick would be that the urban populace start work an hour earlier if they want to have that extra light at the end of the day. Most working at jobs in the city have the ability to flex their hours and as an advantage, this would spread and ease their rush hours. Problem solved - too easy!

Maxine and Peter

In Suspense

2008-03-10T15:53:00.003+11:00

Home Deliveries

We are being kept in the dark about the late deliveries to us of Sydney papers. This is becoming increasingly common in recent times. There are major problems at the Sydney end but we are being treated like mushrooms.

Once we had Sunday paper deliveries around midnight or soon after. Now we have an enormous number of deliveries (fostered by cheap promos) but are receiving papers as late as 5 am. Infighting, power struggles and obstruction within publishing houses are a major part of our problem. Another cause is our downgrading in the pecking order so that other routes are being supplied ahead of us.

Physical production problems and stupid management decisions also aggravate the problem. Who would believe that the entire distribution of The Daily Telegraph could be held back for several hours waiting for the production of a handful of The Australian? Such "wisdom" beggars belief.

At our end customers, staff (delivery and shop) and management get very frustrated. It is most unfair for these large corporations to continue without resolving such confronting problems. We are not kept informed about these problems and are unable to make contingency plans. The day is ruined and the delivery task interferes with the general running of our business. The damage to customer relations at the local level is horrible. There is growing resentment of the publishers actions or lack of resolution by all people at this end of the chain.

Maxine and Peter

Calala Papers

2008-03-06T11:29:00.004+11:00

Papers and Magazines at Calala

We were badly burned by the previous owner when he declared himself bankrupt despite him having received cash for sales at the Calala store. We worked hard with the help of the Bottle-O to keep papers and magazines available at this site. Unfortunately the situation has changed again and we no longer have circulation items available there.

For some time we have had some limited items at the country store , but opening hours are later each morning. We do provide 24 hr service through BP Longyard, United Petrol and Coles Shell.

Maxine and Peter

Local Syndicate Rules

2008-03-04T21:28:00.005+11:00

Local Syndicates

We run instore syndicates when games reach a jackpot of $10 million or over. This allows us to set up sales on a local level only. Our syndicates assure that shares were bought from us for a local win when we get the numbers right. (Our best win to date has been just over $82,000.00) Normally the system syndicates allow statewide entries so members of a syndicate can be from any location.

Sometimes we have more than one syndicate if sales are high, but we have to be careful setting them up because any made by us must be fully sold. Unsold shares at the close have to be purchased by us. For this reason, all our sales are first come, first served. None are reserved or held or put aside automatically for anyone.

Watch the growth of jackpots in most games and be aware of the special Saturday Lotto huge jackpots on a regular basis. Each week money is put aside for the Saturday jackpots.

Soon we are going to have some game changes in Monday and Wednesday Lotto. To make it fair to players, limits are being placed on multi week entries until you will not be able to purchase forward entries and then the changes will take place.

Maxine and Peter

$25 for Free

2008-02-23T23:42:00.002+11:00

Scratchie 6's

Until Friday March 14th you can join the current scratchie promotion. Buy a strip of 6 joined $2 scratchie tickets and if you do not have a prize, you can claim $25 on the spot (after signing the claim form).

REMEMBER TO KEEP THE STRIP OF TICKETS JOINED to make your valid claim.
Under the rules this time, we cannot sell stips of more than 6 tickets in a row during this promotion.

This is worth a try. Already we have several claims made for the $25

Maxine and Peter

Peter Turns 60

2008-02-22T19:04:00.003+11:00

PARTY TIME

When family and a few friends gathered for Peter's 60th birthday, Maxine organised the show at The Corner Shack (near our store in Hillvue Road).

What a turn they put on for us. Everyone had a great time and the food they provided was outstanding. We couldn't recommend the place more highly.

If you are searching for catering that your guests will rave about, ask about the food we had for Peter's party. Every dish was a new surprise for the guests - they did an fantastic job!

Maxine and Peter

Store Winner

2008-02-18T23:52:00.004+11:00

Valentine Winner

The winner of our big beautiful bear was Lisa Smith. She had a free entry when she purchased a Valentine card from us. Everyone who bought their card from our store had the opportunity to enter our competition free.

We have many exclusive competitions for our customers. Now we have an Easter colouring competition for infants and primary children. We have been running this Easter competiton for many years now. When we hang the entries in the shop for you to view, it makes an impressive display of the kids' ability. The prize for these is a giant purple rabbit. Entry forms will be available soon. If the kids don't do one at school, you are welcome to collect an entry from our store.

Maxine and Peter

Who Won the Money?

2008-02-08T16:40:00.000+11:00

Lottery 3rd Prize

We sold another winner in the lottery! On Friday 8th February the Lotteries Office phoned to tell us that we had sold another major winner.

The winning ticket was in $2 Lottery # 8963 and 3rd prize was sold to an unregistered player.

We can't wait for someone to bring their ticket in and get a wonderful surprise.

Being unregistered, there will be some paperwork to do because the Lotteries Office does not know who the winner is and will have to wait for the money to be claimed.

Bring in your tickets to have them checked and see if you were the lucky winner who joined our growing winners' list.

Maxine and Peter

Job Vacancy

2008-02-07T11:28:00.000+11:00

After School Junior
We have a position for the right person after school and on some weekends.
There is the possibility of extra hours in school holidays.
We have a variable weekly roster outside school hours.
A trial period is involved.
APPLY if YOU can fulfill the following criteria:

Must be Year 9 or above
Must be honest
Must be keen and a self starter
Must be willing to learn and take instruction
Must be computer literate
Must be proficient in simple maths
Must be reliable
Must have an outgoing personality
Must be neat and presentable
Must be in good health
Must achieve well at school
Must be able to start work at 4pm on school days rostered
Local area knowledge is an advantage

Apply for this position at our Hillvue Road store by filling in a sheet obtained from there

Maxine & Peter

House for Rent

2008-02-07T08:58:00.000+11:00

Available Now

Skye has decided to rent her house and has listed it with HousesRUs.

This is a nice 3 bedroom home with easy access and is air conditioned. It has a good yard and large covered area across the rear of the house.

You can view pictures of the house and some of the rooms on the agent's website. http://www.houses-rus.com

The contact phone number for HousesRUs is 6761 3003.

Maxine & Peter

Another $19 million

2008-02-03T20:34:00.000+11:00

Saturday Lotto $19 Million

There is another big draw on Saturday February 16th. We have set up a couple of different in-store syndicates that you can join at either store. As they are fully subscribed, we will open new ones. We must sell all the shares we make in each syndicate, so near the date we stop making any more.

Lotteries make larger value shares for anyone to buy if you wish to purchase a more expensive share.

As usual the rules are that each syndicate is sold on a first come, first served basis. To be fair to everyone, we do not reserve any shares at any time.

If you wish to enter your own syndicate with friends or co-workers, we suggest that you start organising early. If you need any assistance, just ask our friendly staff. We would be happy to help.

You can purchase entries early if you will be away in the week of the big draw.

Maxine and Peter

Lost Opportunity?

2008-02-03T20:02:00.000+11:00

Country Music Visitors Showcase

During the festival, I feel that it was a great pity that tours of the new equestrian complex were not arranged. Small buses could have been used to keep the visitors out of the way of the construction activities. This could have helped to sell the potential of this impressive structure to our largest annual group of visitors.

For this enormous complex to be successful at all levels, it must have high useage from the start. If we had showed off the complex we may have encouraged more visitors to use it in the future. Even locals have not fully understood how this imposing complex will be so important to our city in the future.

I understand the problems that could be faced on an active construction site may have been difficult, but these could be resolved. I hope that soon locals will be able to get a decent look at this magnificent asset. The site is so large that it is difficult to find a spot to have a decent look.

Maxine and Peter

Festival Parking

2008-01-28T13:54:00.000+11:00

Country Music Festival Parking
It seems that one of the major problems was again vehicle parking during the festival where there is so much extra traffic. Many problems flowed on from this.

Time limits and locations cause headaches for visitors because extra parking officers seem to be lurking and everyone hates those parking tickets.

The problem is exaggerated by council blocking off areas that had previously been used for unlimited parking or renting out and closing legitimate parking areas. The construction in the CBD further complicated the parking issues.

Do we need to better organise a network of park and ride locations that are properly supervised and secure for visitors to go to town for the whole day and not gridlock the centre of town or the main commercial areas?

How about a country music version of "meter maids" to help educate, warn and prevent visitors being heavily fined for incorrect parking or overstaying? Our princess or queen entrants have many tasks, would we need to employ another group or have volunteers?

We need some new solutions to a persistent problem. Buses only seem to resolve parts of the problems. It is best to take positive action rather than fines and threats to give our visitors the best experience and encourage them to return.

Maxine and Peter

Official Guide 2008

2007-12-24T16:22:00.000+11:00

NEWSAGENT ONLY - SPECIAL DEAL FOR YOU

The 2008 Official Guide to the Tamworth Country Music Festival has an exclusive FREE GIFT only from your Newsagent.
This year's guide has a free CD of 20 2008 Toyota Star Maker artists, but only whilst stocks last.

The guide is best known for its listing of artists' events as well as a daily list of all the events so you can effectively plan your time at the festival. Make sure you buy one for your visitors, but you will have to decide who gets the free CD!

We expect these to be delivered to us some time on Thursday 27th December.

Price of this great guide is $7.00

Seasons Greeting

2007-12-21T17:09:00.000+11:00

ENJOY THE HOLIDAY SEASON

We all hope that you have a very fine Christmas and enjoy the spirit of the season.
Our staff would like to thank you for your continued support and wish you all the best. In this busy time we often find it difficult to speak to all our customers and pass on our best wishes.
We are a small family business who employs a large number of local people in your area. We appreciate the fact that you deal with us and hope that we are providing outstanding service for you. (Sorry we do not have any influence over the lotto results - but we sometimes give good clues!)
Please give us your holiday details as soon as possible if you will be away.
Let any visitors know where they can find us so we can be of service.
Take great care if you are travelling and have those rest breaks to keep alert.

Seasons greetings from Maxine and Peter and all our staff.

Delivery Driver

2007-12-21T16:34:00.000+11:00

NEW DRIVER NEEDED

An outstanding driver is needed to join Dunn's Newsagency early morning home delivery team alternate weeks.

Must be a reliable, experienced driver in excellent health with local knowledge and the right attitude.

Right handed person preferred.

May suit a retired person.

Collect a summary of task details from us at our Hillvue Road store.

This advert will be running in the Leader after Christmas. It may suit someone you know. We are re-advertising because we could not find someone to meet our standards. Those we tried did not have the qualities we asked for and did not work out. At the moment it leaves us short handed over the holiday period, but we must employ the best person we can for your deliveries.

Big Bickies Coming Up

2007-11-22T07:39:00.000+11:00

Pay for your Christmas

Between Christmas and New Year (Saturday DECEMBER 29th) there will be the enormous $30 million Saturday Lotto draw.

We will be selling shares in our local shop syndicates as well as system syndicates, systems, megapicks and the usual standard entries. Minimum entry cost is $2.30 Early selling will start from about December 9th

If you find it all a bit confusing to enter, we are happy to assist.

If you want a try at the bigger entries you can pool money with family or friends or mates and buy a larger system than you might be able to afford on your own.

Our local shop syndicates allow you to buy a share with some of our other customers and have a try at a system entry without outlaying large amounts.

The game is essentially very simple - all you have to do is guess the six numbers that will be draw on the night. How you arrive at finding your lucky numbers is your secret!

Good luck - start planning and dreaming!

Shoddy Work

2007-10-05T19:08:00.001+10:00

NSW LOTTERIES PAYMENT ERROR (again)

"A small number of tickets are producing a message "NO PRIZE DUE" when they are checked when they may actually be winners. If the ticket is entered into a draw between Sat 22 Sept Thurs 26 Sept please contact ..."

This was the message agents were given recently. Several questions arise from such a problem in prize payments. One is - what do Lotteries consider a small number? Another is - what about unregistered tickets surrrendered and binned? What can players do about tickets they do not have any more? How much time do NSW Lotteries think agents have to check and undertake such cumbersome tasks? We get 15 cents for each $2 lottery ticket sold less wages, penalty rates, workers compensation, additional insurance, machinery hire, administration, cleaning, light and power, phone charges, security, etc.

Since the people who made the error have a sole job to properly administer the games (and not have to deliver papers, serve customers, sell phonecards, sweep floors, distribute magazines, advise on many products, etc, etc, etc) how badly are they performing their task? What has been done to resolve and eliminate such problems?

In the past month or so there have been a number of monumental errors regarding prize payments. It really is not good enough for our customers. We expect better performance because these errors cause us the grief when we have to face our regular customers. The people causing the problems are shielded from direct contact within the corporation running lotteries.

Maxine and Peter

We're Confused!?!

2007-10-02T11:57:00.000+10:00

NURSES' WAGES AND CONDITIONS

We are confused with the recent union advertising about the lack of nurses being a result of the poor wages and conditions brought about by the workplace agreements by the Australian Government and enforced on nurses. According to our understanding the majority of nurses are employed under state agreements controlled by the NSW Government. (But we realise that some nurses in the private sector may have different arrangements with their employers.)

It seem that in the rush to cause panic among voters, someone has lost the plot. Maybe this is a timely warning not to believe what politicians promise or say, especially with an election approaching.

This brings to mind the old joke about politicians:

Q. How can you tell when a politician is not telling the truth?

A. His lips are moving!

Maxine & Peter

Same Old Chestnut

2007-10-02T10:30:00.000+10:00

DAYLIGHT SAVING AGAIN

It seems that we are going to be given extended daylight saving time whether we want it or not. The state government has put legislation on the books to introduce this next year. This will allow all the complaints to wear themselves out over time and then introduce it without a murmur.

The simple solution of using state boundaries to divide the country for daylight saving is not practical and seems only to provide benefit to the capital city populations. People west of the ranges and north of the NSW border seem to have a good case against the artificial changes in time.

Now the Australian government want to move in and take over the regulation of the whole issue. What a bore!

Maxine & Peter

Small Business Still Suffers

2007-09-15T10:36:00.000+10:00

This item was lifted from Mark Fletcher's blog at http://www.towersystems.com.au/

A Government out of touch on small business
Posted by mark at 06:42 AM
In 865 Federal Government owned Australia Post shops right now you can see how serious the government is about small business. Leveraging the conflicted positions 100% ownership of Australia Post and controlling legislation that governs Australia Post, the Government has ensured its annual profit windfall. Over the last eleven years this windfall has come at a significant cost to small business including newsagents.
Take the current twelve page Australia Post brochure: page after page of stationery items which, on my reading of the Act, fall outside activity permitted by the Act under which Australia Post operates. My newsagency, like any newsagency competing directly with a Government owned Australia Post retail outlet, fights every day for stationery business. Newsagents have been in stationery since the 1880s. Australia Post has beefed up in this category during the last eleven years.
That Australia Post government owned stores so aggressively and blatantly target independent small business newsagents is evidence of how the Government views small business.
Helen Coonan, the Minister in the government responsible for Australia Post will say that the legislation con trolls Australia Post - as if to wash her hands of the situation. Her Government controls the legislation and can prove its small business credentials by taking the Government owned stores out of this direct competition.
Australia Post has an unfair advantage in that it uses its protected monopoly of postage services to drag traffic to their retail outlets. Newsagents do not have this luxury, it costs us far more to land customers in our stores than Australia Post.

Our additional notes:

We would like to add that we are suffering as a small family business from lack of government support and in this case, unfair government support of what we think is an illegal situation. Many approaches have been brushed aside by a succession of government ministers but we warn that as a group we have many many employees, family and friends. The current politicians are so far removed from reality, we will have to change the situation to get fair treatment for small business in this matter. Each newsagency is an integral part of its local community and we are being forced to have to fight disinterested politicians to survive. Now seems to be a good time to "kick some bums".

Maxine and Peter

Waterwise

2007-08-27T17:50:00.000+10:00

The Hot Topic
The hot topic at the moment is that the regional council is easing water restrictions but still asking us to conserve water. After such a long drought, our customers are furious that a more strict control is not maintained by the regulators. They feel that the odds and evens system should be in place until we have most of the water supply dams full.

Having endured such severe restrictions for so long and the council approving the opening of more land connected to the water system, people feel it is foolhardy to have such an easing of water regulations. Probably the fact that they know that many in their neighbourhood are either cheating or squandering this precious resource causes them to make so many comments in the shop.

Sometimes you might wonder about the "expert" advice the council is following!

Maxine and Peter

Who Won the Money?

2007-05-19T12:02:00.000+10:00

POWERBALL SECOND PRIZE
A lucky player in Tamworth is holding a ticket with second prize in the big $30 million Powerball draw this week! It is worth at least $84,000.00 and should bring a smile to their face.
At the time of publishing this blog, all we knew was that it was purchased somewhere in Tamworth. We hope it was one of our customers, but will find out in due course.

PLAN "B"
Since we missed out on the $30 million, our next plan is to attack the $10 million on offer in next Tuesday’s Oz Lotto and we have local in-house syndicate shares for this draw.

If this fails, we will try hard to take out the $22 million for the Saturday Lotto on May 26th.
Again we are selling shares in our syndicates for this. This is our plan "C".
The total of first prizes over this these three games is $62 million – awesome

Maxine and Peter.

Thanks Mum!

2007-05-05T11:46:00.000+10:00

SOME THOUGHT FOR MOTHER’S DAY
1.My mother taught me TO APPRECIATE A JOB WELL DONE
"If you're going to kill each other, do it outside. I just finished cleaning."

2. My mother taught me RELIGION.
"You better pray that will come out of the carpet."
3. My mother taught me about TIME TRAVEL.
"If you don't straighten up, I'm going to knock you into the middle of next week!"
4. My mother taught me LOGIC.
"Because I said so, that's why."
5. My mother taught me MORE LOGIC
"If you fall out of that swing and break your neck, you're not going to the store with me."
6. My mother taught me FORESIGHT.
"Make sure you wear clean underwear, in case you're in an accident."
7. My mother taught me IRONY.
"Keep crying and I'll give you something to cry about."
8. My mother taught me about the science of OSMOSIS.
"Shut your mouth and eat your supper."
9. My mother taught me about CONTORTIONISM.
"Will you look at that dirt on the back of your neck?"
10. My mother taught me about STAMINA.
"You'll sit there until all that spinach is gone."
11. My mother taught me about WEATHER.
"This room of yours looks as if a tornado went through it."
12. My mother taught me about HYPOCRISY.
"If I told you once, I've told you a million times. Don't exaggerate!"
13. My mother taught me the CIRCLE OF LIFE.
"I brought you into this world, and I can take you out."
14. My mother taught me about BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION.
"Stop acting like your father!"
15. My mother taught me about ANTICIPATION.
"Just wait until we get home."
16. My mother taught me about RECEIVING.
"You are going to get it when you get home!"
17. My mother taught me MEDICAL SCIENCE.
"If you don't stop crossing your eyes, they are going to freeze that way."
18. My mother taught me ESP.
"Put your sweater on; don't you think I know when you are cold?"
19. My mother taught me HUMOR.
"When that lawn mower cuts off your toes, don't come running to me."
20. My mother taught me HOW TO BECOME AN ADULT.
"If you don't eat your vegetables, you'll never grow up."
21. My mother taught me GENETICS.
"You're just like your father."
22. My mother taught me about my ROOTS.
"Shut that door behind you. Do you think you were born in a tent?"
23. My mother taught me WISDOM.
"When you get to be my age, you'll understand."
24. My mother taught me about JUSTICE.
"One day you'll have kids, and I hope they turn out just like you. "
Stolen from an email to us. We thought you would get a smile.
Maxine and Peter

Free Newspaper

2007-05-02T14:15:00.000+10:00

WE WILL HAVE IT
On Friday we expect to have supplies of the new newspaper being distributed around the area. It will be free to those who are in the delivery area and cost $1 to those who purchase it over the counter. This facility has been made available for visitors, people who want an extra copy and those who did not receive a delivery.
According to the advertising, it looks like it will be an interesting weekly summary of Tamworth news. We look forward to the first few copies to make our own judgement.
Maxine and Peter.

Fairfax Strike

2007-04-20T12:24:00.001+10:00

INDUSTRIAL PROBLEMS
The Sydney Morning Herald and the Australian Financial Review are not available in country NSW today (Friday 20/04/07) due to an industrial dispute at Chullora.
We received normal quantities of the Newcastle Herald with the new optional The Form which has racing information. This is available by request only (we are only supplied some copies of these).

On Saturday we expect the Australian Financial Review to be published but there will be severe restrictions of the Sydney Morning Herald. Quantities will be limited throughout the state and in the country (again) we will receive a one part newspaper. Missing sections will be Domain, Drive and My Career.

At this stage, there is no information about the fate of the Sun Herald for this week. We assume (hope) that the dispute will be settled by then.

Maxine and Peter

Lucky for Some!

2007-04-14T09:43:00.000+10:00

FRIDAY 13th FUN & GAMES
If you couldn’t make it into our store on the day, you really missed a great spectacle and tons of fun.
Skye had set up a very eye catching display for the day and all the girls were decked out in their witches gear, including hats and wigs! We had the best looking witches in town on the day. It was really another situation where you had to see it.
We had a TV crew in to make some video of our staff and the display as well as the newspaper reporter and photographer. Neither made public viewing in the end, so its down to you to see it for yourself. The next Friday 13th falls in July.
Our winner of the lucky free draw on the day was John Murphy who just happens to live at number 13. Is this an omen of great things to come? Congratulations!
Maxine and Peter

Easter Winners.

2007-04-10T11:21:00.001+10:00

EASTER COLOURING WINNERS

Copies of our winners in the Newspower Easter colouring competition (Deana Kaiser and Rebecca Short) are on the noticeboard at Hillvue Road. We hope that you have checked out the wonderful entries on display in the store. These entries have been forwarded to the state finals judging.
Our judges were so impressed with the entries that we decided to award extra runners-up prizes this year. They went to Tarryn Rizzi from St Edwards and Natasha Lewis from Tamworth South Public School for primary division and Felisha Kaiser from Hillvue Public School and Claudia Dietrich from St Edwards for infants division.
Entries can be collected for two weeks after the school holidays for those pupils who wish to keep them.
Thanks to the schools for their great support and the children who made such outstanding efforts on their entries.
You must call in soon to see the full display.
Maxine and Peter

Don't Get Caught

2007-03-30T19:18:00.000+10:00

EASTER HOLIDAY
The draw for Lotto will NOT BE MOVED on Easter Monday.
Make sure you have your entries in the draw and do not wait until Tuesday and be caught out with winning numbers not entered.
Have you seen how we have predicted so many numbers drawn in recent games? We have really hit a purple patch. (Greatly better than our footy tipping!!)
Our trading hours will change for the holidays and, because of the enormous penalty rates and no real change in the price of our products, we will have to restrict the hours at the Robert St store. Hillvue Road will have all the usual services except for Good Friday when we are not permitted to sell gambling products.
Maxine and Peter

Giant Bunnies

2007-03-26T09:40:00.000+10:00

EASTER BUNNY COLOURING
We have issued hundreds of entry forms for our annual Easter colouring competition. These are available from most local schools as well as from the shop. You can collect an entry for the kids or grandkids if you wish.
Entries for judging close on Wednesday April 4th so we can present the huge bunnies to the primary and infants division winners before Easter.
Best entries will be submitted for state judging where they could win prizes for themselves and their schools. The school prize from Texta is valued at $1,500.00.
It is fantastic to see all the entries hung in the shop as more and more are submitted. They will be on display until after Easter, when the artists can collect them. After a couple of weeks they are all taken down.
Maxine and Peter