The Tattersalls kiosk right outside my newsagency in Frankston is closed today – Labor day in Victoria. Most of the rest of the Bayside Shopping Centre is open. The mall is busy with holiday shoppers.
The Tattersalls kiosk being closed gives our shoppers who want a lottery ticket a reason to try the Tattersalls outlet up at Supanews – our competitor at the other end of the centre. Why the operators of the kiosk would want to give a competitor a free kick the day before a jackpot OzLotto draw is beyond me.
If you’re in a shopping centre you cop that it’s a 7 day a week business. You can’t do an Australia Post and work public service hours. This is retail! We need to be open days like today.
The owner of the Tattersalls kiosk will say that they can’t afford the wages or that it’s not fair on them to work such hours. Either excuse would be wrong in my view. In today’s market a retail business in a centre can’t afford to not open if the rest of the centre is open. Being closed demonstrates a lack of care for customers and for the surrounding businesses. Maybe it’s time they got out of the game.
That’s pretty poor in a modern retail environment! I wonder if it is against the terms of their lease and/or lottery licence to not trade on a public holiday.
Do you know whether your competitor’s store at the other end got a traffic boost because of it? Are they good operators, smart enough to take advantage of it?