Sunday 16 April 2017

Heard Under The Sheds - 16/4/2017



Angst over rent payment queues – apparently a combination of a shorter trading week and a busy easter has created excess demand for our dwindling cashier service and long queues at the office.  On the other side of the coin, a number of traders have praised the new online invoicing system and said they found it easy to adjust to a new method of payment.

Big Crowd But.... – our photo was taken in K Shed at around 11:00am on Easter Saturday and as you can see the numbers were quite impressive. Traders reported that business wasn’t great in the morning but a brief rush after midday had many traders happy with the result.



US Holidays. A couple of traders have recently returned from holidays in the US and admit to feeling refreshed by the experience. America may have its share of troubles but their can-do attitude, at least in retail, was seen as very positive.
One trader visited a flea market where a stall sold Ferraris – not toys, the real thing. He asked the market organisers what he had to do to get a stall and they said just turn up in the morning. He asked if they wanted to know what he was selling and they said “No, just turn up”. And when asked “what about two stalls?” he was told “Well, that will cost you twice as much” – sounds easy.

Night Market – apparently management held meetings with both food and specialty merchandise traders during the week to discuss the 2016/17 Night market season and what needed to be done for next season to ensure ongoing success. Visitor data and consumer research data was shared with traders as part of the discussion. Nice to see some information sharing.

Trader Representative Committee – some brief feedback at last in this weekend’s Trader Bulletin on the activities of the Trader Representative Committee including the very interesting prospect of a compensation fund for traders during renewal. We look forward to more detail on that one.