The charities involved in the City Saint’s program are: The Australian Children’s Music Foundation, the National Breast Cancer Foundation, Vision Australia, World Vision, The AIDS Trust of Australia, The Heart Foundation, Australian Red Cross, The Mirabel Foundation and Good Beginnings Australia.

The store claims to offer “all the leading brands” across 20,000 products from companies such as Sony, NEC, Samsung, Givenchy, Bik and Mattel, comprising of perfumes, computers, electronics, beauty, toys, sunglasses and office supplies. 

Tony Geagea is the founder and CEO of City Saint, hopes that through this new initiative, you’ll change your online shopping habits. He says that: “Imagine if 2.5% of the 12 billion dollars Australians spent shopping online last year, went to charity!  That’s over 15 million dollars that could have been shared amongst charities at no cost to them, and no cost to the consumer”.

The sales pitch to get you to consider switching to City Saint is certainly different to what you normally hear from department stores. Whether it works in convincing the public is yet to be seen, although it does sound noble.

Geagea says that: “Finally Australians can give back to the community without an extra burden on the bank account.  City Saint’s great products, great prices and great heart means the average person can now make a significant difference by simply shopping!” 

If 2.5% of the total purchase price is to be given away, as opposed to simply 2.5% of the profit, the products on sale need to contain enough margin to donate to charity while staying in business – and while ensuring the products are priced competitively enough for consumers to happily purchase.

Given the slim margins companies seem to operate on these days, I’ve no idea how sustainable the business will be, but you would imagine that before embarking on such a program this issue would have been addressed in the business plan. It would seem obvious that some savings would arise simply because online means physical stores are not needed.

As the items on sale at City Saint are the kinds of things many people regularly buy for a range of different reasons, it would seem primed to capture the attention of Australian consumers. Geagea added that: “Every single Australian business, large and small, buys office supplies by the dozens!  If the business community alone bought these regular items through City Saint, this would mean a huge contribution to charities.  The business saves money and helps a charity at the same time.”

Finally, on the subject of why City Saint has chosen to help charities in this manner, Geagea said that: “City Saint is pleased to be working with nine of the country’s leading charities with very different but equally important causes, such as the National Breast Cancer Foundation and the Australian Children’s Music Foundation.  We’re absolutely committed to seeing their success – and that’s why we’ve tied it to ours.”
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