We had our last day of trading at Forest Hill yesterday and it was a real treat. The shop was crazy busy, busier than Christmas, thanks to the deals we ran, the lottery superdraw and it being our last day.
Customers came in to say goodbye, some bearing gifts. It was bittersweet in many respects … keen for the next experiences we will encounter yet thoughtful of the wonderful memories and good times from the last fifteen years in what I am told is Victoria’s oldest shopping centre.
Forest Hill is surrounded by retirement villages, nursing homes, assisted living and plenty of residential areas. Like any newsagency, we, all of us who worked in the shop, established connections and even friendships as much as you can serving the same customers once or twice a week for years.
We had some putaway customers tell us that they travelled 30 minutes by car to get to us because of our putaway service. Some of special interest magazine customers – model railroad, aviation, crafts, music, old cars – told us that they looked forward to shopping with us because of our coverage of their particular interest.
The well wishers were wonderful as were the jokes.
Yes, there was the odd customer angry that we did not have the stationery item they wanted and demanded to know what sort of newsagency is this? Our explanation that we were running down stock at the request of the purchaser was not enough. It was as if they wanted something to be rude about. It was sweet hearing another customer put them in their place.
The day was a reminder of the difference we newsagents can make in our communities and in the lives of those we serve. It felt as if we did make a difference for many people … compared to major retailers … as if some really did depend on us. Indeed some made the point of saying that they would never buy their magazines in Coles or Woolworths and that they loved out kind of shop.
Yep, made us feel pretty good. Newsagencies do matter! What a delight for the last day.
I’ll blog with some observations about how shoppers reacted to some of our deals later in the week.