Embrace opportunity
HTHE DOUBTERS MIGHT NOT BELIEVE IT, BUT THE MORE OPEN SHOPS IN A STREET, THE MORE PEOPLE COME
OW do you spend your Sundays?
Back in the day they were considered sacred.
Every Sunday felt like a public holiday, with shops shuttered and carparks empty, although the inexplicable exception of hardware stores meant indulging in DIY was OK, but everything else had to wait until Monday.
And while the 1980s brought Saturday morning and Thursday night trading to Queensland, many other states relaxed trading restrictions over the following years, leaving us with a Heinz variety of opening hours that allowed retailers in tourist areas to open their doors while adjoining suburbs had the government’s foot on the brake.
Fast forward a decade or two, and a seismic shift in how Aussies spent their leisure time forced a change.
The new places of worship were shopping centres, and instead of rushing around after school or work, retail or food shopping could be done at a leisurely pace, and hallelujah to that.
So while we were sort-of on the same page across the country, Sundays have proven to be a real sticking point in the regions.
The southeast allowed Sunday trading in the 1990s, but it took nearly two more decades for regional areas to overcome pressure from churches, with arguments for and against Sunday trading raging in this newspaper.
Townsville eventually embraced consumers’ changing retail requirements, with supermarkets finally allowed to open at 11am on Sundays, too late for grabbing your brekky rations, but hey, it was a start.
More recently, another submission from the retailers’ association saw Townsville supermarkets finally get approval to open at 9am on Sundays, and guess what, the sky didn’t fall in, the independent grocers didn’t close, and consumers got to choose their own shopping adventure.
So now it’s the Burdekin’s turn to play catch-up footy, with retailers given the go-ahead to offer Sunday trading from January 1.
Naturally, some aren’t happy about it at all.
But here’s the thing.
The doubters might not believe it, but the more open shops in a street, the more people will come.
Isn’t Sunday the day most people hit the road for leisure activities?
How many people have driven through Ayr on a Sunday and decided not to stop because most of the shops are shut?
Tumbleweeds and tourism don’t mix.
And while the fear of competition stifled a number of retail developments in Townsville, you only have to look at the success of Domain with shop after shop selling similar items, to see that choice brings in the punters, rather than scares them away.
Any nearby retailer should get a flow-on effect from Sunday supermarket shoppers, but if local grocers fear they can’t compete with pricing, then offering items their competition doesn’t have is key.
For example, hot food – chips and gravy, anyone?
Single serve ice creams, quality locally grown produce, seafood or fresh tropical flowers, and weekend requirements like bait and souvenirs aren’t supermarket staples.
Thinking outside the square here is key.
Change is difficult but inevitable; retailers should see extra foot traffic as an opportunity, rather than a threat; and set themselves the challenge of making the absolute most of it.