Are paper-rounds still a thing?

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Left_Blackberry_4081@reddit

I used to get £21 a week but delivered every day. Wednesdays were especially bad as most people had the local Guardian as well as their normal paper

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My son does one now. £5 a day for about 15 papers on a Tuesday and Thursday before school. £10 for around 20 papers on a Saturday before a 8:30 warm up football match. £10 for a Sunday, about 25 papers split into two rounds due to the weight.

£30 a week at 14 is a fine income, but it’s a lot of work. Christmas tips amounted to over £300 this year and he’s had £25 and 5 Easter eggs over Easter.

The paper shop charges 40p for delivery and all of his customers are over 60.

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Puzzleheaded_Ant4524@reddit

We’re in a small town, about 4k residents and he delivers for a small independent shop.

The local chain post office/newsagents let all of their paper delivery kids go last year when it became a Morrisons Local.

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JustAnotherFEDev@reddit

I can't remember the last time I bought a newspaper, but I'm guessing they're way more than 25 - 30p nowadays, given he's getting 33 - 50p for delivery of each paper?

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Banes_Addiction@reddit

The Graun is £3/day now.

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JustAnotherFEDev@reddit

I did check what the prices of common newspapers were, after the person above said the Sunday Express was almost a fiver. The FT is over a fiver on a weekend. That's roughly half a paperback. Madness. Last time I bought a newspaper, I swear it was about 40p 😂

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Puzzleheaded_Ant4524@reddit

You’d probably faint if you saw the price of a Sunday paper. A Sunday Times is almost a fiver!

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JustAnotherFEDev@reddit

I feel like fainting already 😂

Jeez, I had no idea. That's way more expensive than I'd imagined

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Scotchnittenpoopen@reddit

Sunday morning round - the worst round ever

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Routine_Ad1823@reddit

Same... especially when you get to 16/17.

Once my dad locked me out by accident after I'd been in the pub, and I literally had to sleep in the garden. Then in the morning I had to go do the bloody paper round.

Quite a few times my mum took pity on me and drove me round, bless her.

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No-Jellyfish-177@reddit

Hahaha my dad used to take me round on sat mornings when I was hungover bless him. Once had to do the round then go to the park where I’d been drinking cider the night before to recover a lost wallet.

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RobCarrol75@reddit

Me too. The Sunday Times was the worst, you had to assemble all the supplements into a paper incapable of fitting through any letterbox. At least I had the Sunday Sport to cheer me up.

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Scotchnittenpoopen@reddit

Can’t believe that we had to put all the magazines in as well as lug them round! Think I got 50p more for the Sunday round.

Sunday times hated paper round kids

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ArmouredFlump@reddit

Not really. My son's have been looking for one but most newsagents either don't deliver any more or require you to drive.

We live in a rural area though, might be different in a town or city.

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Puzzleheaded_Ant4524@reddit

If you haven’t already, try the local independent shops. Now is a good time to get him started - light, mainly dry and ice free mornings. January and February can be a real slog!

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ArmouredFlump@reddit

Yeah already tried. He's doing some volunteering at a local leisure centre and the odd bit of babysitting.

Frustrating as there's not a lot of jobs out there for teens.

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blue_rizla@reddit

I used to get £3.23 for delivering 132 papers. The free weekly mid-week ones. Had to put all the advertising leaflets inside and everything. Even for 1999 I was getting shafted I think. But th round took me exactly as long as it took to listen to Greenday International Superhits on cassette each week, so I was pretty happy overall.

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PennyBunPudding@reddit

Mine used to pay per delivery. And it drove me crazy because I had the smallest number of papers but the longest walk by far. The guy who got the most money literally just had three rows of terrace houses next to the shop. 20 minutes for almost a tenner. Mine took an hour for £3 🤣

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Low-Captain1721@reddit

I did the free paper rounds in early 90's & did quite well out of it.

The concept of the print paper gradually been dying however

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290Richy@reddit

I used to wait for my parents to leave on a Friday and I'd chuck most of them in the bin for the bin men to take a couple of hours later.

Even for 12 years old, I wasn't shafted for nobody.

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Routine_Ad1823@reddit

Oh shit, I forgot about that. I did it too.

Did you have to fold all the leaflets into them for first?

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Remote-Pool7787@reddit

Still a thing but nowhere near as common place. Far fewer people get newspapers delivered, particularly during the week. And a lot of traditional newsagents aren’t around anymore, it’s all convenience stores

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Competitive_Rub_9590@reddit

I think locally but I don’t remember seeing any being delivered in the last 5-10 years tbh

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Plus_Pangolin_8924@reddit

They were dying when I did one back in 2006!

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Low-Captain1721@reddit

I used to do well out of delivering free papers in the early 90's. About 30 quid a week which not bad in 90s money for a 15 year old.

The concept of pretty much dead now as very few read print papers & circulation has died. It's all click bait shite online now ..

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FunkyYoghurt@reddit

The paper "boy" around here is a very friendly man in his 50s with learning disabilities. Wholesome and definitely they still exist. Not seen a child doing it for years, though. I think the bloke has a monopoly on the area.

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ukbot-nicolabot@reddit

OP marked this as the best answer, given by /u/Familiar_Swan_662.

Still very much a thing. My friends did them a few years ago in secondary, my cousins are doing them now. They get £15-£20 ish per week depending on the route, and much more in tips around Christmas time

^(What is this?)

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Familiar_Swan_662@reddit

Still very much a thing. My friends did them a few years ago in secondary, my cousins are doing them now. They get £15-£20 ish per week depending on the route, and much more in tips around Christmas time

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Smittumi@reddit (OP)

!answer Thanks, mate. Some things remain. That's good.

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razzlerm@reddit

I saw an ad for a paper delivery person in a newsagents a few weeks ago. I think those jobs are lot rarer than they used to be, but still exist.

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Bounty_drillah@reddit

My parents get a paper delivered so I'd imagine it's still a thing in quiet suburbs were almost everyone is old/retired.

I made £7.50 a week as a paperboy circa 2001 but it was the most lucrative patch in terms of tips. Used to have to fight other kids to keep that paper round.

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Routine_Ad1823@reddit

Yeah, mine was £7 a week and I had another job that paid £6, but somehow that was enough for a social life back then. 6 pints and then a bag of chips after. 20p to spare!

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bsnimunf@reddit

I made £1 a day in about 1997 and it was shit then. Taught me the value of money and more importantly the value of my time and how other people were out to exploit others.

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WackyWhippet@reddit

I can't remember what mine paid but I remember I did one round and decided I was being exploited. Especially when I knew it wouldn't be too much longer until I could pass myself off as 16 and get a job that at least paid by the hour. Can't really do that now so I have some sympathy with young people not being able to earn money, but I don't think we should mourn the loss of paper rounds.

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wardyms@reddit

Flip the question. Do people still get newspapers delivered?

Yes they do.

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SlickAstley_@reddit

There are still leafletting gigs.

I've done some research and fully suspect its now part of the shadow-economy.

Migrants/cash/illegal (poss even hotel refugees)

Its a shame as they're great for teaching kids the value of hard graft.

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