A number of Specialty Traders have claimed that Thursday 16th
October was their single best trading day in the last 12 months – better than
Christmas and better than Easter. The reason for the dramatic sales boost can
be put down to thousands of delegates to the International Convention of
Jehovah’s Witnesses who visited our market. Thursday was a pre-registration day
at Etihad Stadium with the convention starting in earnest on the Friday.
With over 75,000 delegates attending the conference, the
impact on our market was substantial and some newer traders said they now
understood what references to the “good old days” really means. The unmistakeable
“buzz!!” of a busy market occurred on Thursday and it has left traders
wondering how we can repeat the experience.
The experience also begs the question of whether we should
be more flexible in our trading arrangements. Whilst Thursday was ideal for
conference delegates to visit our market with a day off, the three actual conference
days (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday) saw the delegates locked in Etihad Stadium
until the close at 4:55 pm. By the time the 75,000 potential shoppers were free to move around we had packed our stalls and headed for home. Is it practicable
for us to consider extended trading (to say 8:00pm) on these occasions? Should
we have considered a special Monday market day? As one trader said – “It breaks
my heart to say so much trading opportunity go down the drain”.
Have Your Say – click here.
COMMENTS:
19/10/2014 22:23:02 Jehovah Week "Great to hear a few stallholders had a great Thursday,and if that was their best day of the year it really doesnt say much for the other 51 Thursdays of the year.
Was the question asked if Thursday was so wonderful, how was business on Friday,Saturday and Sunday? " REALIST
A great news story and you go and ruin it by being a realist! Only joking - you are quite correct - we are looking for sustainable improvements to business and it is going to be a long hard road to achieve that. But targeting this sort of event and being a bit more flexible with our trading arrangements may be a good start - Ed.