The Winter
Night Market has only 50 or so Specialty Merchandise Traders but their stall
setups show some significant features that could be useful for day trading.
The stalls
are arranged back to back in groups of 4 and it may be helpful to call them
QuadPods. The clean, un-cluttered design has a major advantage. Every stall is
on a corner. So in an area of say 3m by 3m, there is a 6 metre frontage.
That is more than a standard double stall in the day market.
And for some
reason (perhaps it is just the compact design) the stallholder stands out. If
you walk through the night market it is clear who looks after the stall. You
could call it a more intimate association between trader and customer.
QuadPods are
placed randomly (I’m sure it is not random) which adds to the adventure of
moving through the market and the product is clearly the hero of each display. There
are no storage boxes or vehicles to clutter the view. In between QuadPods you
are able to position food or entertainment.
The photo
that leads this article is perhaps not a great example because it shows
minimalist product displays but there are some day traders who operate within
the smaller stalls at night and are able to show off considerably more stock
than you see here. We will try to get some more photos.
As we
prepare to move C,D, and E Shed traders over to J-M Sheds during renewal
construction, it may pay to consider smaller, more efficient stall set-ups for at least parts of the day market.
Have Your Say – click here.
COMMENTS:
01/10/2017 18:47:51 3x3 how can you run a "business" in a 3x3mtr stall?
Good point. Not every trader could run a business in a 3*3 stall but some can, including a number of current day traders. No reason why you couldn't have a 4*4m or 5*5m. The frontage is the key with this format. Thanks for your input - Ed
03/10/2017
15:30:55 New market look "How about we have a meeting with management
about what our needs are and go from there... oops my mistake, we are too
stupid to know anything, the fact that those discussions were supposed to take
place and never have, I guess some one smarter than a stall holder that works
at it every week will make a decision on how my business should look. Even better
how about sharing the same lens so we can all see the same picture instead of
having chinese whispers going around the market of what might be."
Thank you for taking the time to write about this issue. If you have any comments about
how to create the new market look, we would love to publish them. – Ed.
03/10/2017
19:41:27 Stall Setup "I believe that a the August trader
information session our Chairman Mr Paul Guerra agreed that while some stalls he visited overseas
were a 3m x 3m stall setup some traders here may require larger stalls and that
it may be better decided on a stall by stall basis. If you are so keen to
explore a smaller setup perhaps you should put your money were your mouth is,
shrink your business and trial it yourself. Let us know how you go. I know my
business would suffer."
The point here is not the size of the stall. Many traders businesses are not suited to
3*3m. There are possibly two considerations
(1) Some stalls may get by on 3*3m and as we try to squeeze all specialty traders into
J-M those that could help. The rest would be in stalls that suit their business.
That might be larger QuadPods or the current stall configuration because I
think the intention would be to have a combination of both.
(2) The bigger issue is getting out of our inflexible aisle structure and creating a
more dynamic stall arrangement. QuadPods give more corners, more flexibility
and some think a less boring offer for the customer.
Thanks for your contribution. – Ed.
04/10/2017
07:19:41 stall size "As you seem to have more information
than the rest of us, how about you show us what you believe the market setup
will look like after renewal. How many stallholders do management forsee in the
future? What is their concept for a bigger stall ? You talk a lot about the
smaller setups but really they are just a one person operation, serious money
can not be generated from a small setup.
Let us see the same picture, though the same lens and then we can work
from there. Btw this concept is nothing new its was spoken about for years ago
and stall holders told you then that it wasn't feasible, so I'm guessing that
management have again used your blog to get their agenda out there. Please don't say that managment are
consulting traders, it only a select few that are privy to information. So if
you want real consultation how about you hand over the documents that show what
your vision for the GM area is. AND PLEASE don't insult us by saying you don't
know. You have the camera with the wide len, so share it around."
Thanks for
the compliment about the camera with the wide lense but unfortunately there are
no documents, at least not in my possession. Two factors started this
discussion on Victraders this time around. One was the revelation that the Toys’R’Us
bankruptcy application a couple of weeks back was related to their “aisle”
philosophy. Toys’R’Us have stuck to their practice of requiring customers to
walk up and down aisles to do their shopping while their competitors use
variety, experiences, and technology to engage customers. The second factor was
a trip to the Winter Night Market where part of the experience includes a less
structured, more adventurous, stall layout than we have during the Day Market.
The two
markets are different for many reasons but if we are a truly adaptive trader
group we would look for any pointers that might assist business.
The next
step was to talk to a few of my close trader colleagues and in the absence of
any major negatives (there were reservations but not major negatives) I decided
to launch an article on Victraders. Note that there was no consultation with
management at this stage although I have since talked to Peter Shepheard about
the possibilities. It should be noted that Paul Guerra has shown no inclination
to curating the top end. For many different reasons this had to be trader
driven. I have seen too many good schemes fail because traders were cynical of
the intent. We can be a very cynical bunch.
In the
discussions I have held with traders since there has been a general willingness
to look at options. Some traders have a stall setup that wont accommodate down-sizing.
But this is not about down-sizing. It is about a better way of
displaying stock and making the top-end of QVM a more enjoyable place to shop. More corners, more variety, and more adventure.
Some traders go no further than saying we are an obviously declining market and
adjusting our offer to today’s consumer makes sense. Translate that to “It is
worth a try”.
And the timing is probably
good because we are about to significantly re-arrange the top end to accommodate
a construction zone.
But enough – this response is getting too long.
Is this QuadPod idea worth trying in the top end, at least on a trial basis?
Please keep your comments and suggestions coming in. - Ed
04/10/2017
10:36:46 effective stall setup "So what your saying is, that
when Malcom had discussions with Traders
and he said that Anchor traders would have prime locations and you build around
those with your Quads that there are no drawing, documents or ideas on paper
that the Renewal team have discussed? No one is believing that, if you are spending the massive amount of
money that COM and QVM are, that you
don't have some idea of what the end result will look like.
Don't get me
wrong, their ideas might be worthy, but drip feeding Stallholders isn't the way
to move forward.
As traders
we can only work together if very one has the same Lens ..(Paul quote, not
mine). You can only make informed comments with all the information. Be careful
of making comments if you only have a minority's point of view.. Thats what
started this mess in the beginning.
"
Great
feedback – thank you. But we are still getting bogged down in the process
rather than the merits of the proposal. Right at this moment I don’t care what management
have discussed. We need to work out what
we think will be best for our market. We need to be creative rather than reactionary.
When we have worked out the best way we can sit down with management and like
all good negotiations reach a solution that suits all.
So let’s get back to the real questions. What do
you think of QuadPods? Would QuadPods, or a combination of QuadPods and current
aisle format, produce a better market? What size would you need? What about
way-finding? Will ad-hoc stall setups make navigation harder? What rent would
be appropriate for small stalls? Where would you store boxes and vehicles?
Would you have QuadPods at the lower end of the J-M Shed area and aisles at the
top or aisles around the perimeter and QuadPods in the middle? What other forms
of stall set-up might work? How would you organise food and entertainment? …….and
so on. Every (constructive) idea is welcome. - Ed.
04/10/2017 13:36:33 Super Efficient Stall Setup "Bottom line, the real question
here is whether something can be done to turn around the current decline in
visitation, sales and customer perceptions of the General Merchandise section
of the Market.
Some basic questions to start examining
the 'solution' contemplated above might be:
Will a rearrangement of stall
configuration help achieve that?
What sort of new configuration might
work?
Is the Night Market a good indicator or
template for the day market?
Is the different configuration a prime
factor in the footfall/sales success of the Night Market and considering the
different offer and other factors present at the day market is it reasonable to
expect that it will do likewise at the day market?
Which demographic are you trying to
attract and will simply changing the layout achieve that?
What negative consequences may there be
by implementing a radical change in the market layout?
Will there be dead areas or low traffic
areas?
Will navigation and wayfinding be
severely affected?
Will there be a carefully monitored
trial that collects reliable data and can inform the success/failure of the new
configuration?
Will there be willingness to either
change configuration or go back to the previous configuration if the
detrimental effects far outweigh the benefits?
Given the entirely new configuration
being suggested how will trader stall allocations be determined, how and by
whom?
What happens if some traders are
benefited and other traders have severe negative impact (due to some of the
consequences mentioned above)?
etc. etc. etc.
I personally welcome any suggestions that might
assist the performance of the Market, but ( and it is a gamechanging but ) in
my opinion: 1) implementation can only come about after serious thinking takes
place laying out the specific aims of the change/s 2) there is full backing
(financial and otherwise) from all parties and 3) accurate data gathering is
put in place to determine success/failure/consequences with assurances that
feedback will be acted on promptly." U
know Hugh
Thanks Hugh. Asking all the right questions at the right times is a good idea. - Ed
07/10/2017 20:46:47 Efficient Stall Display "Some good questions from Hugo.
Some of which have been many times
previous.
I
can only recall 3 things that have been trailed over the past 4 years.
1- The painting of storage boxes (
didn't work)
2- The yellow painted walkways ( good
idea.)
3- The one pod in C shed (jury is still
out.)
If we are to trial anything else in a
time frame that would allow a reasonable
amount of data to make any assessment then time is quickly running out.
The half empty C shed could have trailed
some different options 2 years ago.
One of the main reasons that Management see the
Market differently to traders I believe is their apparent lack of trying
anything different and their inability to sell their future vision to many
traders through out this Renewal process." Stavros D shed
Thank you Stavros. What do you think about QuadPods? - Ed
