Ever heard of employer branding? Employer branding is a fairly new concept that arose out of employers having difficulty attracting candidates for new jobs. They decided to "sell" their work environment by coming up with all the good reasons why somebody would want to work with them and then carrying that positive thinking through the whole employment process.
There were plenty of benefits to be had. Recruitment became far more effective, recruitment costs were lower, positive attitudes from the recruitment phase were carried through into the workplace, and the organization as a whole got a lift. Additionally there was a spill over into customer attitudes. There are organisations that make a living out of providing “Employer Branding” services to a variety of businesses.
We wonder if something similar might be appropriate for recruiting new traders to the QVM. To be honest, we don't know a lot about how QVM attracts new traders but we have been critical in the past of an apparent lack of "quality control" as inexperienced traders are thrown in at the deep end and left to flounder along without too much assistance. We suspect that the mad drive by QVM to sign up traders to leases, no matter what their credentials, may have been a factor. There are signs that things have improved and some recent recruitees show a commendable professionalism.
You might ask "How can we be positive about attracting new traders when they are being asked to endure the toughest trading conditions in years?" The answer probably lies in the fact that we are all still here despite these conditions. This place has a lot going for it although profitability may not be part of the mix at present.
We can only wonder if the value of our stalls would have been allowed to decline, as they have over recent years, if a bit of employer branding had been instigated and the true positives of retailing at QVM had been promoted.