Newspaper delivery costs

doublesilver

I just wondered if I'm being ripped off by my newsagent on newspaper delivery fees. I get charged about £10 a month by my local newsagent on top of the cover price to get them delivered and I wonder if that's good, or if I should start shopping around?

What do other people pay?

Olliebeak

I've no idea what people pay for delivery charges these days - don't even buy a daily paper.

I suppose you would have to bear in mind the number of papers delivered per day AND if you get any magazines.

Would be interesting to know how much of that £10 goes to the delivery person - though the newsagent would be entitled to some expenses for maintaining a list of deliveries and managing them.

ubamother

Can you shop around? Are newsagents not like chemists where they have an 'area' they cover and they don't poach?

maman

Depending on what you read, some papers (Times to my certain knowledge) do have schemes where you pay less for the newspaper so bringing your overall bill down.

Obviously I understand that some people have had to cut out papers to save money. However, if having a paper is expenditure you can afford then I don't think £2.50 a week is expensive. I certainly wouldn't deliver papers for that price.

Could you not walk to the shop and fetch your paper?

derrick

maman wrote: »

Depending on what you read, some papers (Times to my certain knowledge) do have schemes where you pay less for the newspaper so bringing your overall bill down.

Obviously I understand that some people have had to cut out papers to save money. However, if having a paper is expenditure you can afford then I don't think £2.50 a week is expensive. I certainly wouldn't deliver papers for that price.

Could you not walk to the shop and fetch your paper?

Times, say 20 houses, (may be more), equals £50 a week re one delivery person, unlikely to be paid that amount.

A good money making exercise considering there will be profit on the newspaper as well.

sarah1972

my local shop is £3.50 per 7 day week which I think is a bargain.

Getting out of bed and my paper being there is worth 50p a day :beer:

tcall

Well i'm a newsagent so i can give my perspective on this.
There is a LOT of work involved in delivering newspapers. People seem to think it's just a case of delivering the paper to their door and that's it. But the newsagent has to manage the accounts (which takes me half a day a week on top of all the day to day management), and risk non paying customers and the work that goes with dealing with that. The newsagent also has to pay carriage costs to the wholesaler who delivers the papers to the shop. This can run into thousands of pounds a year, depending on the shop size and area.

For information, the profit on the papers themselves is approximately 20%.

For what it's worth, i charge 25p a day delivery, and rarely get anyone complaining about it. If customers think it's not worth it, they are welcome to get up at the crack of dawn 364 days a year, come rain, shine, snow, ice, wind or whatever and come to the shop for the paper lol.
I've known newsagents in Surrey villages charging £2.50 a week, so it will certainly depend on your area.

I guess it really depends on whether you think the delivery service is of value to you. You could try shopping around, but i would imagine other shops in the area probably charge a similar amount.

hockeyguy

I've just started to receive The Times in York from my local newsagent for £1.30 per week (7 day delivery).
I know that within the M25 The Times is currently offering free delivery if that helps!

There is another post in one of the forums from when I asked for prices that if you search you'll probably be able to find
Good luck!

Enterprise_1701C

£10 a month is a bargain, it is easy to have to pay £3 a week at the newsagents I work at.

As tcall says, there are quite a few non-paying customers these days, and that has to be covered as well as all the normal costs.

That said, there is nothing to stop you shopping around for a better price - this is MSE after all!!

rich155rich

derrick wrote: »

Times, say 20 houses, (may be more), equals £50 a week re one delivery person, unlikely to be paid that amount.

A good money making exercise considering there will be profit on the newspaper as well.

Hi i also a news agent, i would love to think that the rest after paying paper delivers was profit. I pay another person to write out rounds every morning plus to run the accounts and price changes. Then theres the insurance, news delivery bags, also if any delivery persons off ill the a van and driver is used to cover which has to be at standby every day. Oh and sat and sunday the youngsters can not carry 20 papers due to the weight and health and safety.

What does a first class stamp cost ? 46p times that by seven days and that takes a day to get there, if you are lucky. Think if you get your car out every morning drive down to the shop to collect your paper how much is this going to cost you. Wear and tare on your car, fuel, time? We provide a service that is better than the royal mail but you expect to pay less? Madness and frustrating for us.

This service is a bargin and really should cost alot more! Would you work for free? or a very low wage? Think not. rant over.