I'm going to wade into the trading hours debate just once and then leave it at that.
I know the arguments for and against. I used to work in an independent supermarket. All the small retailers say that they won't be able to compete.
But really, what it comes down to is that independent outlets will be forced to compete. They will be forced to charge reasonable prices for groceries and not the exorbitant, over-inflated prices they charge now.
The owners of the tiny little corner shop in my street (who I might add provide an invaluable service to the community) charge $4.75 for 2 litres of milk. That's nearly $5!! For 2 litres!!
Oh, and there are three Mercedes Benz cars regularly parked in the driveway of the adjoining house. Don't tell me they're doing it tough.
The owner of the Dewsons Supermarket I used to work at would rant and rave about how hard done by he would be if trading hours were deregulated. Yet he managed to scrape enough of a living each week to afford a two-storey mansion in a beachside suburb with a 40-foot boat parked out the front of his house. Cry me a river.
Independent supermarkets, Woolworths and Coles have co-existed side by side on the Eastern States for years with deregulated trading hours. What makes WA so different?
2 months ago
4 comments:
I don't know exactly what is going on with ya'll over there but I'm with 100% of small business owners not looking at the situation logically. Sympathy is not worth $5/2L to me. Fuck that noise.
Must be a day for rants. Everything you say here is true, apart from the word "independent".
I agree, but what pisses me off about all this is that we voted on this didn't we... and the majority said no, but these dead beat pollies do what they like anyway. Why do we bother having referendums?
We had late night trading in Victoria about twenty years ago and the small business owners kept complaining up until it happened - then they stopped.
Where people would stay in their homes at night because "the shops were shut," they soon started venturing out during the evening and night after late night trading set in because the shops were open. It helped small businesses.
It was a mind-shift in the customers that made a difference. Let's see if WA can grasp the concept of a mind-shift.
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