You're all stooges for the opposition - Revolve

For the benefit of Revolve supporters who are interested in supporting the campaign you can find more details on our activities on the Revolve web site at:
http://www.revolveact.org.au

bonfire – you have inside knowledge? Why was our tender not ‘proper’?
Has anyone ever said anything about our tender not conforming?
We certainly have not been given a satisfactory explanation.
The debriefing I attended with Government staff certainly did not indicate why we lost.
The question we are asking and indeed what the entire ACT community needs to be asking is: “Why did a community-based not for profit organisation, which has generated many millions of dollars for the community over the past 19 years have to tender in the first place?”
Perhaps ‘bonfire’ with inside information may be able to answer this question for us?

and for all that competence – apparently they couldnt submit a proper tender.

thats why it failed.

the issues you are arguing are nothing to do with the reasons your tender wasnt successful.

but that is not what you want to hear.

Yes I am a member of the Board of Revolve but I have also been a regular customer since the operation began. So I am very familar with the various customers and what they buy and why they buy.
First let us deal with the issue of price. Revolve started 19 years ago and since that time inflation and the CPI have increased the price of everything in the market by a considerable amount. Equally wages, for those who are working have also increased. It is fair that Revolve’s prices should also have increased.
We also are interested to look at our pricing structures at Revolve and the impact that the business has on the Canberra community. We had the Australian Institute of Governance based at Canberra University do an independent report on Revolve last year.
On a mixed bag of goods Revolve was a small fraction higher in cost than our opposition at Mitchell. Prices, despite the nonsense described above are very similar.
A very important aspect of the report was the importance of Revolve to the community. Apart from jobs, landfill saved and goods reused, Revolve contributed around $150,000 dollars worth of materials and services to the community, both here and overseas, last year.
I would like to see your profit taking mates from similar businesses to do that BUSHPIG!
To answer ‘cranky’s’ quite reasonable question about profits, the original constitution of Revolve stated that all profits were to go back to generate and secure more employment.
Through good management, Revolve has held the 16 current positions, despite constant battles with red tape, lack of government promotion and the Government giving the Revolve business on the north side of town to a commercial operator.
Comments by others that only poor quality goods are offered for sale are simply nonsense. You only need to go into our “Better Bits” section to see that high qaulity goods are offered for sale at prices which could still see a healthy mark-up put on them for sale elsewhere, if that is your interest.
It is very interesting that the complaints which are appearing now are very similar to those put forward by a few Government people who visited the site last year. Mind you, not many of them would been seen dead shopping there.
Complaints about turnover, quality of goods, pricing of goods and performance are all vacant rethoric unless you have operated this sort of business before and under very difficult conditions.
We currently turn over an estimated 11,000 tonnes of material a year – you can’t simply stockpile that.
At the Government’s own estimate of the cost of landfill per tonne of $105, Revolve saves the Canberra community over $1 million in landfill costs alone. Add to that the wages we put into the community and the wealth that this brings, you have over $2 million a year in total benefits to the region. Multiply that by the number of years we have operated on ACT landfills and the benefits are many millions.
You have to ask yourself why Government is so interested in giving it all away to a commercial operator?
I agree that there are always ways that things can be done better.
Some of our goods may be of poorer quality than our opposition but we keep a lot more out of that hole in the ground and we don’t just scrape off the cream for personal profit.
With a new Board and some of the best recycling industry expertise available in the world we are hoping to do even more exciting things in the future.

I always found Revolve’s prices to be pretty good, and the sort of junk they had was exactly what we were after (the odd door handle to match an old cupboard, an old, old trike pedal). Revolve’s stockpiling practices suited us well – it’s probably the reason we were able to get what we wanted, and pretty cheaply too.

They can bleat all they like about how they dot i’s and cross t’s, but the purpose of their business was turn over stuff that was thrown away. By trying to extract exorbitant prices from the public, and stockpiling huge amounts of garbage, they have failed to achieve this aim.

Regardless of their paper performance, their business performance sucks.

Revolve’s importance placed on how much money they make on items was missing the point entirely.

The point of the whole operation was to stop as much junk as possible ending up in landfill which in my opinion was better achieved by Aussie Junk selling items cheaply.

Revolve just stockpiled.

(no involvement with AJ here. I just appreciate being able to buy items for $5 and $1 at AJ instead of $15 and $20 for the same thing at Revolve)

Revolve you got greedy. You used to sell things at a reasonable price. I recently tried to buy the plastic cistern bit off an old toilet. It was grubby, and you had heaps of them. How much did you charge? Not 50c or even a dollar. You wanted $15! I told you you were dreamin’!

Perhaps the casual observer would appreciate some indication of where the Revolve profits go.

It has been apparent that for years only the bottom of the barrel items have been offered for sale on site.

Ergo, better prices have been achieved elsewhere for the better quality items, although I, being an olde farte, am suprised that Ebay has entered the equation.

If better than average prices are being garnered from this throw away society, what happens when the income exceeds the outgoings (rent, salaries, statutory charges et al)? Am I being cheeky asking where this excess goes/who gets it? For a non-profit organisation, what investments have been made with the excess that assist further underpriveledged members of society other than employees?

Man, if contracts were awarded on the basis of spelling, grammar and ability to string coherent sentences together (which, I can assure you, will be the case when I get to power), Mr BUSHPIG would be sleeping on the street in no time. I’m always amazed that people trying to spruik their own business by attacking competitors or dissatisfied customers manage so often to come across as uneducated pillocks. Based on what’s been posted here, I know with whom I’d rather be doing business.