Earlier
this week office staff were looking for a Richmond fan and a GWS fan amongst
Traders presumably for some sort of marketing promotion. We hear that finding a
GWS fan amongst Traders proved mission impossible.
A
Trader is concerned that news of global tour operator Thomas Cook’s collapse
will impact on the tourist dependant Upper Market.
Gas
scare at the Night Market - turned out that the smell of leaking gas was
actually Durian Fruit from a fruit stall, and yes this delicacy can smell that
bad.
A
Trader tells us that eBay’s introduction of free delivery on a large range of
products this week is another indication of where retail is heading.
A
hung over customer admitted he had come into the market early Saturday morning
to work through his inebriated state. Security staff wish he had gone home to
do that.
A
few Traders said they expected the usual Grand Final day pattern of a little
business before lunch, and then a very quiet afternoon,
as most of Melbourne turned their attention to football. But this year the
“little before lunch” turned out to be “very little.”
A
Trader sent us this photo of an aisle In his local supermarket that is
dedicated to ready to eat dinners and lunches.
Did
everyone notice the market will be open Monday and Tuesday before Christmas Day
this year?
Traders
are asking how we can enshrine hard won conditions like the heat policy and
single day absences so that they don’t get lost with each new licence renewal.
Locking in those provisions would seem to make a lot of sense. One Trader
suggested the TRC could put it as a priority.
The
handing out of large plastic garbage bags to Traders has been criticised
particularly in view of the retail plastic bag ban throughout the market. In the past such
criticism has been dismissed as”points scoring” by Traders reluctant to move
from plastic bags themselves, but one Trader says we should take this
seriously. He feels uncomfortable every time he throws a huge plastic bag into
the aisle at the end of the day. He asks why smaller paper bags can’t be
distributed at least to those Traders who seek an option.
A
rent rise never seems to fly under the radar but 2% seems to be grudgingly
acceptable given that some increased expenditure by QVM is expected over the next
12 months. 4% would have been a different story.
One of our new traders confided that the hardest part of life at QVM is when she is hassled by neighbouring Traders.
One of our new traders confided that the hardest part of life at QVM is when she is hassled by neighbouring Traders.
A
Trader with an alternative corporate life says he attended a conference this
week at which Westpac Chief Economist, Bill Evans, talked about the “retail sector
now in recession and facing structural changes.”
And
the bad (but irresistible) joke of the week – “Has everyone met our new TRC
member Barbara the Sheep...... she is so excited to represent all ewe’s.”
