Business in the ’burbs
With Christmas looming, Deena Coster visits some of New Plymouth’s smaller shopping centres to see how they are faring.
Use locals or lose locals.
It is a likely mantra of any small business and it is one which is top of mind for Moturoa pharmacist Neal Dorey. He and wife Kaaryn Limmer have run the St Aubyn Stbased pharmacy for six years and it has been constant in the seaside New Plymouth suburb for more than six decades.
The Moturoa strip of shops is one of several similar centres around the city, offering essential services like banking as well as a spot to enjoy a coffee or buy milk on the way home from work.
While they are an established part of the neighbourhood fabric, Dorey says businesses are not immune to some of the regional pressures.
The 2018 announcement by the coalition Government to ban oil and gas exploration in Taranaki triggered an immediate downturn in business confidence, he says, with the ripples felt on the shop floor straight away.
‘‘It just sort of trickles on to people,’’ Dorey says.
It means not as many people walking through the doors and when they do, they tend to spend less.
Dorey, who is Australian, says across the Tasman they are much more ‘‘jingoistic’’ about backing their own products and services.
‘‘We don’t do that in New Zealand,’’ he says.
‘‘We want people to get back to local shopping.’’
Six kilometres across the city is the bustling village of Fitzroy, a place where a vacant shop does not stay that way for long.
‘‘When we have empty shops, they seem to get filled,’’ says Kris Armstrong, who owns homeware store Mee o Mi.
‘‘I think Fitzroy, apart from the fact it could do with a lot of love and a bit of help from council, is doing well.
‘‘We have got the bank, we have got the post office and we have got the basics,’’ she says.
‘‘It is a little hub.’’
Chris Angelo and wife Christine, who run the Good News Centre, have been part of the Fitzroy family of stores for seven years, after moving there from the city’s main street.
While there had been a general downturn in sales, the store was holding its own, Chris Angelo says.
The niche products on sale at the centre, which include Christian-themed books and gift items, mean the store is often a destination for customers.
In terms of Fitzroy, he feels it is appealing because of the variety of shops on offer and the new retail space being built on the corner of Sackville St and Clemow Rd will only add to that.
‘‘That is a really good thing for the community.’’
Running a business in a smaller
shopping centre has been ‘‘something new and different’’ for Sharee Carrie, who bought Westown Book & Gift Centre in Tukapa St two years ago with her business partner.
Carrie is a nurse and juggles shifts at the hospital with managing the shop, which is sandwiched between a bakery and a pizza shop.
‘‘Business is ticking along nicely.’’ With two rest homes in the area and the base hospital, which no longer has a gift shop, trade is steady in the area and the store has a loyal customer base too, she says. ‘‘They don’t necessarily want to go into town and here [in Westown] they don’t need to.’’
Jeremy Burton, who owns The Federal Store in Strandon along with the Federal Bakehouse across the street, says he is happy basing his business interests outside of the city centre.
‘‘I am all about the suburbs, I am all about the destination.’’
He voices some concern about the proliferation of cafes and eateries in the city centre, which he believes could lead to more people looking to snap up spots outside of the inner-city in time.
‘‘In town there is too much competition and I don’t know how businesses can survive.’’ Burton says he has had opportunities in the past to move into the city centre but it did not make business sense for him to do so.
At his Strandon establishments he feels he has created a ‘‘hub for all ages’’.
Knowing what your customers want is a key ingredient to running a successful venture but Burton says business owners have to be prepared to put in the hard yards to make it work.
That is exactly the mindset of Moturoa’s Sentiments Flowers co-owners, Katrina Warren and Jasmin Martin.
Martin says online shopping and promotions like Black Friday are having a real impact on their sales, coupled by what Warren says is a lack of customer confidence.
‘‘We are a farming community and an oil and gas community and we are getting hammered.’’
However, Warren says she is optimistic about the future and believes they will find new ways to promote themselves.
Contemplating anything else is not on the cards.
‘‘If places like this started shutting down, it would be such a sad situation.’’
In a written statement, Liam Hodgetts, New Plymouth District Council (NPDC) strategy group manager, says it wants all shopping centres in the district to be vibrant places which appeal to residents and visitors alike.
‘‘These centres provide convenient shops and entertainment, serving the dayto-day needs of our local neighbourhoods,’’ Hodgetts wrote.
‘‘Centres like Fitzroy, Moturoa and Westown play a key role in supporting what goes on in the centre city by providing local shopping options for the community.’’
Taranaki Chamber of Commerce chief executive Arun Chaudhari also believes there is a future for satellite shopping centres in the city.
‘‘The simple reason is convenience and people do not want to travel a long distance when they only have to buy a few items.
‘‘Who wants to travel to the city when you can get a service on your doorstep,’’ he says.
He thinks there is an ability to keep smaller shopping centres thriving, while also making the central city hum – a goal of NPDC as part of its CBD 2050 Forum, an initiative to partner with businesses, retailers, developers and building owners to keep the city centre bustling.
But Chaudhari says more action is needed from council to aid local businesses and a simple starting point could be to look at the infrastructure around shops, including making sure there is enough parking.
‘‘Who wants to travel to the city when you can get a service on your doorstep?’’ Arun Chaudhari
Taranaki Chamber of Commerce