Sunday 29 January 2017

Heard Under The Sheds – 29/1/2017


Website Payments – one of our traders urges others traders to consider PayPal as an option for their online payment facilities. This trader offers traditional Visa/Mastercard/Amex facilities but says almost half his customers choose to use PayPal. He believes this is because of their strong online reputation through the likes of Ebay.

Sparks Fly Over Facebook Post – one of our traders who commented on Victraders about an article was dismayed to find that Friends of the Market had copied and pasted their comments on the Friends Facebook page and also issued a press release about its content. The trader angrily pointed out that the content was strictly for Victraders readers and not for public consumption. The Facebook post was quickly withdrawn.

Trader Elections – one of our candidates has questioned the wisdom of combining F and E sheds under the one representative. He believes the totally different nature of food and general retailing warrants separate representatives. Perhaps that could be one of the changes he makes when, and if, he gets elected.

Lunar New Year Stimulus – QVM has embarked on a number of promotional activities for the Lunar New Year. There is growing global evidence that the event is becoming bigger and bigger from a retail point of view each year. One trader who volunteered to be part of the Wishing Wall promotion received visits from 9 different groups at his stall on Saturday. The promotion involves customers scanning a QR code on the Wishing Wall outside the Queen St. food court which takes them to the Wechat website (China’s most popular messaging service) and a special offer from one of approximately 20 traders. The level of customer interest that trader experienced certainly showed potential for this type of promotion.

Heat In J Shed - Back on the 8th of January we published a trader comment about the debilitating impact of extreme heat on the South side of J Shed. One of the traders affected received a visit from Market Officers but has since received no more feedback and they are keen to see this issue doesn't get lost in the "too hard basket".

Tennis Celebrity Visits Market - and not just any tennis celebrity - one of the greatest - Rod Laver himself. The man whose name adorns Melbourne's great tennis stadium is a market fan and today (29/1/2017) he was sighted in Rear L purchasing a kid's toy.