A
Trader has written to us about the need to re-organise the Specialty
Merchandise area of QVM.
He
says “The Fresh Food Market is very well organised, logical, and makes shopping
easy and attractive to customers. There are designated aisles for fresh fruit
and vegetables, deli, meat &fish, and a large number of competing traders
offering the greatest variety of goods to customers at the most competitive
prices.”
“How
different is the Specialty shop area!!!!!! It’s a total disaster. Everything in
this area is made for customers to have the worst shopping experience. No system, no
logic. Customers are just dragging themselves from aisle to aisle until they
get totally exhausted and disenchanted and just leave without buying anything.”
“How
do we rectify this?”
“In
my opinion there has to be a forum which must have proper representation from
QVM Management and Traders as well as customers to the work required.
As
a quick band aid solution I would recommend:
-
to put a printed Trader Directory together and add it to the QVM website. Hard copies could be made available at the Visitor Centre.
-
to create a printed version of the existing QVM website to be distributed to
customers to have some vague idea about what merchandise they can shop for.
-
a proper action plan needs to be put together to completely restructure the
speciality shop area and re-engineer its perception from a Trash and Treasure Market and turn
it into Melbourne’s Best Value Shipping Outlet, which it could be.”
COMMENTS:
20/1/2020 1934 - "I totally disagree with the comment that the specialty section of the market is a total disaster. QVM is a market it is not a shopping mall and people come to look around an operating market, enjoy the atmosphere, and talk and joke with the stallholders and, contrary to what some stall holders think, don't even notice the storage boxes etc that are part of the market. Many, many times I have heard people on Peel street on the top of sb alley or L shed talking among themselves asking "where shall we explore first" or "which aisle will we go down first" obviously looking forward to an adventure to possibly see what bargains they can find. With about 70% of our customers tourists from both intrastate, interstate and overseas we find that the majority did not come to the market to buy a particular thing but, as I said before, to look around the great Vic market and enjoy the atmosphere. I shall remain anonymous as did the author of the original comment."
Thank you for your contribution. There is much to be said for QVM as an adventure - Ed