Worth noting that Tim Tams are 75%+ more expensive (with a clubcard its closer to 200%) than Penguins (which people in the UK draw comparisons between the two) - in fact, its one of the most expensive “chocolate covered biscuits” that Tesco sell
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Tim Tams are £2.50 in Waitrose and are an upper end biscuit while Penguins are really cheap biscuits in comparison. Different offering I’d argue.
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The discount pharmacy brand pays a whopping $15 million in fees to provide digital payments every year and it’s looking to cut down that massive cost.
It will be installing QR codes for customers to scan at the checkout, which will allow them to pay for their items like a bank transfer rather than a regular payment. The move won’t save shoppers any money and they will still be able to pay with their phone, watch, card and with cash.
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We seriously need the government to step and have a look at the way banks impose charges for digital payments in Australia. We have simplified so banks don’t have to handle as much cash these days but we get penalised for this with surcharges. It makes no sense.
Visited a lot of countries in Europe this year and used my credit card everywhere. No other country charged me a surcharge for using a credit card over cash. In fact, a lot of businesses such as cafes and takeaways only accept credit cards now.
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I wholeheartedly agree with a need to step in. It’s at risk of heading toward America, when you start adding in all the public holiday surcharges and what not.
There are so many places near my that do like a 5% discount for cash, and charge an extra 2% for bank fees.
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I try to use cash as much as possible to shops that allow to pay cash. To avoid the high surcharge prices. And on the odd occasion, they offer a discount.
Sadly, the surcharge prices all add up and can cost a small fortune.
The Good Guys jingle popped up on my FB feed last week, and sadly, these days are way gone for many big companies (that i know of):
“Come in and see the good good good guys. Pay cash and we would slash the prices…”
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We also need regulators who will act on reports of businesses taking the piss with payment surcharges as well
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Once they get these bullshit credit card surcharges sorted they then need to have a look at the public holiday surcharges too.
A local cafe I visit has the same staff walking 7 days a week. However, when it’s a public holiday the cafe charges a 10% surcharge. Last weekend, I asked one of the staff members whether he was paid more on a public holiday and he said no. The customers think their surcharge is paying for staff to be paid extra on this day but the owner is obviously rorting the system.
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I think that is very common. More and more places that previously didn’t charge a surcharge do just because they can when they could easily still make a decent profit without the surcharge especially in the more upmarket areas. Especially if it is 1%. I also have issues with cafes that charge surcharges on public holidays when they don’t pay their staff extra or the business does most of the trade for the week on the public holiday so could easily not charge it and still make a decent profit.
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Either that employee is unaware that he is being paid penalty rates, or the employer is not meeting their obligations under the Restaurant Industry Award, assuming there isn’t another agreement. For part or full time workers, it is 225% of base rate (or 125% of base rate and the same amount of hours worked added to annual leave), and for casual workers its 250%.
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I’d say that’s more likely the case. An owner of a small business can get away with that.
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Are we actually running the country?
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First time I’ve seen a photo using the side mirrors!
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Hahaha. I wasn’t paying attention when i drove past it!
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Guessing Viva must be close to flipping their OTR network over to Shell…
Fuel Card Application - OTR now is for a Shell Card which wouldn’t work at OTR currently in SA.
and Reliable Petroleum which is the fuel distribution for OTR now lists Shell servos on their Retail Locations page despite still talking about BP everywhere…
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Thank you for the effort in taking the photo regardless, it’s appreciated! 
I did find a photo today of a recently renovated location at Armadale in Western Australia:
A lot of emphasis on black, paired with the existing pink and green. 
🩷 
Edit: Hrm, this store stylisation doesn’t appear to be new, the Kwinana location also in WA has the same styling with the old logo:
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I’m not against a fee on surcharges for credit card use. But there shouldn’t be any for debit card use.
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My preference would be a flat ban on surcharges at the terminal and for any difference in transaction costs to be reflected on the account side (ie higher annual fees, a baseline monthly interest on transactions of 1% or whatever).
The biggest problem is a lack of consistency, transparency and predictability. You usually don’t even know what the surcharge will be until after you’ve tapped/swiped your card with the current dynamic charging system. And a flat-out ban also removes any potential grey area for dodgy businesses to operate in.
And making the cost of credit more transparent might even help deter some people away from taking out cards they don’t need.
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