OPINION: For the first time: newspaper queues

For the first time in many years we have a waiting list for newspaper delivery rounds. Operating in a village with a majority of older, more affluent households, we have always been up against it when it comes to recruiting teenage newspaper delivery staff. Not any more, the economic difficulties that we all face has brought about a change.

While the economy was having its good times over the past decade more and more parents seemed to want to ‘protect’ their children from the needs of earning their own money. Today with household budgets under pressure many more parents are supporting their teenage children into gaining an income.

For me one of the benefits that school age children gain from doing a newspaper delivery round is to understand in a very practical way the connection between effort and reward. A very important economic lesson.

For the newsagent it is very important to manage young employees correctly, my article on Delivering in Safety is a good place to start.