Warragul Newsagency - Relevant and thriving in a digital world

Relevant and thriving

Warragul’s one and only newsagency, originally owned by Mr and Mrs AJ Dungey in the early 1900’s, has served the community since then and is still relevant and successful in today’s digital world.

It’s a great business owned and operated by Patrick Chan who purchased it in 2008. He and his three, sometimes four staff members are a happy, pleasant team that exude warmth, competence and connect with customers. “The staff are lovely,” Patrick said, “there is no boss and staff here, we are a family and there is no stress. We work and if we are stuck we all help each other out.”

The shop is open at 5 am, seven days a week. A staff member comes in at 2 am each day to prepare and load the papers for delivery. Patrick starts when the shop opens, commuting each day from his home in Glen Waverley, but if the paper boy is sick or can’t come in then he starts at 2 am.

This shop is responsible for the complete distribution of papers in the Warragul area and supplies more than 20 sub agents. “It’s a pretty big area,” he said. “The majority of the delivery is newspapers and we deliver around 1000 a day. It includes the main papers, local papers and others that people want like the ‘Stock and Land’ and the ‘Gippsland Times’ and some people request magazines.

“Many are delivered to private homes and we throw the paper out to the front door like they did in the old days from push bikes, but now we stick our head out the van window and throw it. We start on the road at 3.00 am then schedule to finish before five. We do that for safety, otherwise there’s too much traffic on the road and it’s too dangerous.”

When asked if he felt the competition with online news, Patrick said that Warragul is a stable town to sell in, so they are able to sell a lot of papers.

“People in this area still love their papers and many still enjoy sitting down to have a coffee with their paper or magazine in their hand. They come in every day, and sometimes we’ll have customers waiting for us to open the door at 5 am so they can come in and buy the first paper. Magazines are also popular so we still sell a lot of those including ‘The Gippsland Lifestyle’ of course, which we’ve sold here for more than ten years.”

The shop also stocks a large range of stationary and again Patrick said competition with large online outlets and stores isn’t really felt in Warragul.

“People still love to come in to buy their stationary because our prices are still the most competitive,” he said. “Often people will come in for a newspaper or something else and then decide to buy their stationary at the same time.”

Sarina, a staff member said if they don’t have something in stock that a customer is looking for, they do their best to get it in for them within the week.

The newsagency is a large shop that stocks many other items as well. This includes greeting cards, books, VicRoads learner books and P plates, confectionary, drinks, maps of both Australia and the world, Melways, kid's toys and a few gift items.

Patrick arrived in Australia from Hong Kong in 1993 to attend high school. After leaving school, he studied computers. He then worked for Australia Post for three years in the St Kilda Delivery Centre, before purchasing the business in Warragul.

He said building the business was a challenge to begin with. “There were so many things I needed to control and manage – the papers, the stationary, the staff, the cash flow and the payroll. It was something I had never done before but once I got used to it all, I was then able to make the business more successful.”

Business owner Patrick Chan in front of Warragul Newsagency

in a digital world Words + Photos by Wendy Morriss

He has always lived in Glen Waverley and is well established in the community. “One of my neighbours used to live in Warragul and he always comes past my house and asks if I still run the newsagency in Warragul,” he said smiling.

Patrick has two sisters living in Melbourne and gets together with them regularly, often over dinner. His extended family live in Hong Kong. He said running the business makes it very hard to go back there or to do much else.

Although driving to Warragul each day is quite a distance, he finds it easy in the early hours of the morning when there is very little traffic on the road. “I used to work in the shop until closing but now I leave around the middle of the day and do some work at home. It’s a long day for me after starting at 5am, so I let the girls close the shop.”

Sarina Johnson

WARRAGUL

Patrick with Sarina Johnson, Debby Sullivan and Tracey Gallagher