02/06/2015 22:57:45 F Shed Requires Focus "F Shed traders, like the general merchandise stalls, do not enjoy 6 or 7 hours of viable trading on ANY day. On a good day, at best, 4 or 5 hours more accurately describes the trading window. F Shed needs more people walking its length, not more competing food outlets popping up throughout the market..
Food outlets do not bring traffic. They cater to existing traffic. No one goes to a shopping mall for the food court - they use the food court while shopping at the venue,
And every time, EVERY time, management runs a food themed event in the Queen Street precinct, the F Shed traders suffer. These food events happen with regularity, They take trade from the F Shed food outlets - EVERY time - and this lost trade is NEVER made up. F Shed requires traffic . F Shed does not require more food themed events at the Queen Street end. "
Our article on F Shed ( http://www.victraders.com/2015/05/f-shed-requires-focus.html ) gained the above response from, presumably, a current food trader. They should be congratulated for speaking out and their comments about Queen St. food festivals would probably gain support from all food outlets in the market. But we wonder if they aren't selling themselves short?
The comment suggests that food outlets do not bring traffic. Most shopping venues would probably think differently. They are filling their shopping destinations with new and innovative food, Prepared food is going through a renaissance as shoppers look more critically at their eating habits and are more inclined to spend their spare dollars on food and drink than "shit I don't need" (excuse the language). Food is actually becoming a destination in its own right. Shopping venues are competing not just on their mix of retailers but also on their food offer. Shopping is becoming more "shop & eat" than ever.
F Shed would appear to have at least some of the ingredients needed to take advantage of that trend. But work needs to be done. It is a small point but the photo that comes with this article isn't from F Shed. We googled QVM Food and went through 3 pages of images and found only one photo of an F Shed food shop. With all the exposure that QVM gets online you would expect more photos and that is something that current traders can address.
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