Kids Market Day to help build business skills in Fiji
The first Kids Market Day is being held at The Merch this weekend, 10am-7pm on Saturday 8 and Sunday 9 February, in an effort to drive business skills at an early age in Fiji.
The initiative is spearheaded by the Fiji Social Media Entrepreneurs Community, an informal group of small business owners who connect daily on digital platforms such as Facebook and Viber, representing a wide range of business sectors.
“We are an active community of members with a passion for entrepreneurship, supporting each other through networking, information and expertise sharing practically every day,” Community founder, Sukhia Go explained.
“In addition to supporting each other, we also engage in initiatives that will help strengthen the entrepreneurial mindset and opportunities across our communities through collaboration, mentoring, and in this case, by providing a platform to help kids learn about retail business basics.”
The Kids Market Day
The Kids Market Day has been supported by many volunteers from within the community, including Cyber@ge, Weta Coffee, Sharyne Fong, Inner City Tabernacle Youth, Pacific Groove and all of the parents from within the community that have supported their kids with their little start-ups.
The Merch owner, Watisoni Nata (Jr), said he was more than happy to use their ‘New Stock Opening’ weekend and premises as a venue for the Kids Market Day.
The Merch is a new homeware retail shop that stocks general second-hand, good-as-new household products such as furniture, bedding, power tools, kitchen appliances and more imported from Australia and New Zealand.
The Merch is located at Shop 10B Lees Bakery Building, Centrepoint, Laucala Beach Estate.
“We see very high foot traffic at our warehouse when we launch our new stock every two to three months,” Mr Nata explained.
“We’ve had hundreds of customers stop by on our New Stock Opening weekends, so last year we saw an opportunity to collaborate with other small businesses to provide them with tables to sell their wares or food.
This time around, we’ve dedicated a large portion of our vendor tables to kids.”
Mr Nata explained that kids will pay a fee of $4 for their tables, bringing their attention to fact that there is a cost to doing business.
“Kids will also be required to follow the same rules as other vendors, such as the need to clearly price their goods for sale and provide non-plastic carry bag and packaging options for their customers,” Mr Nata said. “Parents or guardians will need to supervise and support their children at all times.”
Ms Go added: “We want this to be a safe space for our kids, and also create a conducive environment for learning.”