Sunday 13 March 2011

Welcome!

If you are reading this blog you are probably a General Merchandise Trader at the Queen Victoria Market........ and that is good, because you are our target audience.
                This blog is intended to inform traders on a range of important issues that affect your business, provide an avenue for discussion, a way of expressing your views, and, hopefully, entertain you along the way.
                Communicating with hundreds of individual businesses is not easy and it is hoped that this blog and its associated Facebook page will help us become more informed, more professional, and more financially viable as together we tackle the issues of retail trading at Melbourne’s iconic market destination.
                There are two parts to our online presence. Our Facebook page will provide an avenue for speedy social networking (or in our case, business networking) and is the perfect place to read what is happening around the market. Facebook allows information to be spread quickly and allows immediate response by readers. You can inform fellow traders of issues that affect your business, of social news around the market, or just things you want to get off your chest. You might want to ask the best place to buy cloths for your market tables, what computer program is recommended for printing the signs around your stall, or where is the best place to buy packaging tape. Pretty much anything can be discussed over this network.
                The second part is this General Merchandise Traders Blog . The Blog will mirror many of the issues discussed on Facebook but will allow more in depth information on key issues – for example discussions with QVM management on issues affecting traders, visual merchandising techniques, advertising programs, equipment reviews. There will be links to retail articles from professional sites like Inside Retailing and Retail Biz. The aim is that many of the issues that affect your daily business will be available in one place.
                That’s enough! ............. We don’t want to bore you with too much information. We do recommend you join both our Facebook page (see below) and our Blog, and come along for the ride. We think it will be useful, interesting, and fun.

Trader Contacts – John Magno, Ivano, Greg Smith.