The
term “Great Expectations” was recently used to describe the renewal of String
Bean Alley, and while this is an exciting development at QVM perhaps our
expectations deserve a bit more scrutiny.
Completing
SBA certainly has great potential. Completing the full story of unique
Melbourne offerings ticks many boxes -
- Creating
an identity for an aisle on the fringe.
- Potential
for special events.
- Adding
craft/homemade element to our market.
- A unique
component of “the market of markets”.
- Convenience
for traders.
- Enabling
more complex equipment (e.g. laser engravers)
- A contributor
to the Night Market concept.
But
what will it do for business? When the decision to complete SBA was announced
some months ago, the current residents took a fairly pragmatic view on how
their business would be affected. They felt that a 15% increase in day trade
was probably achievable. Adding more trading days (Tuesday and Thursday) would
increase that percentage.
If
SBA does succeed in creating a desirable new destination in our market them we
can expect all traders to benefit. Another good reason for customers to visit
QVM is another good reason to check out the whole of the market.
Just
how 12 additional containers will work is crystal ball stuff. Logic (whatever
that is here) suggests that a unified aisle will be a success. It will
certainly attract new interest, and have potential for some focused marketing.
It would seem that some new trading concepts will be trialed in the containers
and nobody can really be sure how they will go.
If
we waited for surety in retail, nothing would get done. SBA does have great
potential, but like everything in retail right now, it will probably require
some very serious evaluation and tweaking as we go along.
In
basketball parlance SBA is not a “slam dunk” but maybe the ball is already
bouncing around the rim at least for some traders and hopefully it rolls in for
a score.